Long Beach, California, mayor to seek open US House seat

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The mayor of Long Beach, California, launched a campaign for a U.S. House seat in Southern California, a day after long-serving Democratic Rep. Alan Lowenthal announced he would retire at the end of his term. Mayor Robert Garcia began his run with an video in which he dedicated his campaign to his late mother, who brought him to the U.S. from Peru when he was 5 years old but died during the pandemic. The 44-year-old mayor says his mother never doubted that “America was a place where her immigrant son could succeed.” When elected, Garcia became Long Beach’s first Latino and first openly gay mayor.