Mimi Walters

Early years and education

Marian Elaine Krogius was born in 1962 in Pasadena, California. Her father was Tristian Krogius. Krogius earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1984.

Walters was an investment banker from 1988 to 1995. She acted as an Investment Executive at the firm of Drexel, Burnham & Lambert. Walters later joined the firm of Kidder Peabody & Company. She's been described as being a financial executive before she began public service.

Walters served as chair of Laguna Niguel's investment and banking committee, then joined the Laguna Niguel city council in 1996.

Political career and PACs

Walters was Councilwoman and Mayor of Laguna Niguel during 1996–2004, and helped defeat efforts to convert Marine Corps Air Station El Toro to a commercial airport. She was elected in 2004 to represent the 73rd Assembly District, which includes coastal Orange and San Diego county communities of Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Oceanside, Dana Point, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, and Aliso Viejo.

Walters was able to raise over $2 million in the 2016 campaign, the majority of which came from PACs. Business interests, such as the Health Industry, Agribusiness and Transportation, provided the majority of PAC contributions. Prior to winning in 2014, she set up the Blessings of Liberty Leadership PAC.

Laguna Niguel city council

Walters served as chair of Laguna Niguel's investment and banking committee, then joined the Laguna Niguel city council in 1996 after a member vacated his seat. Walters was chosen as a replacement without an election. During her tenure, she received large contributions from the Building Industries Association (BIA) of Southern California and Newport Beach real-estate developers while talking tough against developers from El Toro.

2010 California State Treasurer election

In January 2010, Walters announced that she would run for California State Treasurer against Democratic incumbent Bill Lockyer.

During the election season, Lockyer accused Walters of trying to hide her role as a legislator in California's 2009 fiscal meltdown. He noted that in the June primary ballot for the election, Walters had identified herself as a "businesswoman/senator", but dropped "senator" from her ballot description before the election. Lockyer said it was "hypocrisy" that Walters "hides that she's an elected official".

She became the Republican nominee for State Treasurer but subsequently lost the election.

Investigation by the Fair Political Practices Commission

In 2010, as a result of a possible conflict of interest, a Fair Political Practices Commission inquiry was disclosed in a written notice to Walters' attorney by Gary Winuk, chief of enforcement for the state Fair Political Practices Commission. He wrote that his office "will be pursuing an investigation regarding whether or not Sen. Walters violated the Political Reform Act's conflict-of-interest prohibitions".

Walters voted several times to prevent cuts to the prison healthcare budget, which allegedly may have benefited her husband David's business interests. Her husband is the president of a firm with a medical subsidiary that was paid over $34 million by California's state prison system over four fiscal years.

Walters also voted against requiring additional disclosure of state contracts in 2007 and 2008. In 2010, Walters voted against legislation giving preference to contract bids from small businesses, or preference towards businesses that hire California workers.

Prison officials claimed they didn't give special treatment to Drug Consultants Inc. (the Walters firm), though they were contacted on an almost daily basis by the senator's office. The FPPC inquiry ultimately found there was no wrongdoing on the part of Senator Walters or her staff.

2012 California State Senate race

On September 20, 2012, Democratic candidate Steven R. Young filed a petition of extraordinary writ seeking declaratory relief to the California Secretary of State to exclude opponent Walters from the 2012 election ballot for failing to establish a clear residency status in the district she was running in. Under state law, state legislators are required to live in the districts they represent.

Walters and her family have long been associated with Laguna Niguel, where she served on the City Council and was elected to two terms in the Assembly and one in the Senate. But after the new California Citizens Redistricting Commission re-drew the state's legislative districts. To run in the newly drawn 37th Senate District, Walters stated that she moved to Irvine. Young and two registered Republicans who have joined in the suit allege that Walters and her husband, David, have lived in a 14,000-square-foot mansion in Laguna Niguel since 1999. Then, this year, the suit says that Walters changed her voter registration to reflect that she's living in a 570-square-foot apartment in Irvine with no dishwasher or washer/dryer hook ups. A Sacramento County Superior Court judge denied Young's petition to have Walters' name removed from the ballot. According to the judge, "the court doesn't have jurisdiction to hear questions about the qualifications of members of the state Legislature."

2014 election

On July 2, 2013, Walters formally announced her candidacy for Congress, replacing Congressman John Campbell, who announced he would not be seeking another term. She was endorsed by a number of Republican Congressmen from California, including Campbell, Kevin McCarthy, Darrell Issa, and Ed Royce.

Walters was placed in the National Republican Congressional Committee's (NRCC) "Contender" category of their "Young Guns" program. In September 2014, the NRCC named Walters along with 13 other candidates to their "Vanguard" program. In the nonpartisan blanket primary, she came in first place in a field of three candidates with 45% of the vote. In the general election, she defeated Democratic candidate Drew Leavens with 65% of the vote.

2018 Election

For the 2018 election, one of Walters' leading challengers is Dave Min, a UC Irvine Law professor and former policy analyst at the Center for American Progress. Another challenger for Orange County's 45th District is Katie Porter, a UC Irvine law professor.

Committee assignments

Relationship with constituents

In 2017, following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, numerous grassroots organizations formed in the California 45th Congressional District to oppose his agenda. Rallies, a petition, and even Valentine's Day cards went unanswered by Walters' office.

On February 28, 2017 during an interview with ABC7's Elex Michaelson, Walters declined to answer when asked twice if she would hold a town hall with her constituents. The same day, a Republican City Councilman for Mission Viejo, California, Greg Raths, stated, "I do appreciate the fact that you (residents) would like to talk to her, as I would, Mimi Walters needs to get out to her district and talk to her people."

Town hall pressure

Walters' constituents have created a group to press her to conduct an open format town hall and meet face-to-face with constituents. They call themselves the California 45th Town Hall Group and claims the group was formed after constituents made "repeated, formal" requests for Walters to host a town hall. She has refused, telling radio station AM 870 on its show The Answer that the group's "whole goal is to try to get me to say something that they could use against me".

President Trump

In July 2016, FiveThirtyEight placed Walters among the congressional members most supportive of then-candidate Trump, having endorsed him "wholeheartedly".

When a recording surfaced of Trump having "an extremely lewd conversation about women" and describing actions that could be considered sexual assault, and with numerous Republicans rescinding their endorsements, Walters did not rescind her endorsement and declined media requests for comment.

In February 2017, she voted against a resolution that would have directed the House to request 10 years of Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed session.

Abortion and Planned Parenthood

Walters opposes abortion, but has deemphasized the issue during her political campaigns. In 2015, during her freshman term, she served on the Select Panel to Investigate Planned Parenthood.

Environment

In 2015, Walters sponsored and voted for H.R. 1732, a bill that opposed the Waters of the United States rule, which expands the federal government’s jurisdiction to regulate waters and certain adjacent lands.

Walters is a climate change skeptic and has opposed federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and recently sponsored a bill to gut the Environmental Protection Agency, which would limit or do away with protections for clean water and air.

On February 15, 2017, some of her constituents in Irvine, California held a Climate Rally to call attention to her position. The League of Conservation Voters has given Walters a lifetime score of 3%.

Healthcare

Walters supports the repeal of Obamacare and voted in 2015 for H.R. 596, the House bill to repeal Obamacare. She also voted for H.R. 3762, the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, which would have repealed Obamacare.

Walters supports repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (known as Obamacare) with the American Health Care Act, the GOP's replacement plan for Obamacare, which did not come to a vote initially. She said that passing the American Health Care Act "is a critical step" towards the goal of rescuing "this failing healthcare system".

On May 4, 2017, Walters voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and pass the American Health Care Act. In early 2017, Walters tweeted that she was "committed to protecting patients w/ pre-existing conditions to ensure their access to quality, affordable healthcare". However, USA Today noted that the version of the American Health Care Act that she voted in favor of allows insurance companies to charge higher premiums to individuals with pre-existing conditions (such as cancer, epilepsy, diabetes and pregnancy).

In response to House vote for the AHCA, an organization called Save My Care spent $500,000 to release a series of attack ads against 24 House members who voted for the AHCA, including one about Walters that says she "voted to raise your costs and cut coverage for millions, to let insurance companies deny affordable coverage for cancer treatment and maternity care and charge five-times more for people over 50. Walters voted yes even though the bill makes coverage completely unaffordable to people with pre-existing conditions. Congresswoman Walters, how could you do this to us?"

LGBT rights

She opposes same-sex marriage and other protections for the LGBT community. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) named Walters as one of seven Republican representatives he claims voted in favor of provisions which would purportedly allow federal contractors to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation. The identities of the seven vote-switchers were not publicly recorded and none of those named by Hoyer confirmed his claims. PBS reported that under shouts of 'shame', Walters voted against this protection.

Immigration

In 2015, Walters opposed then-candidate Trump's proposed ban on Muslims, but when Trump signed an executive order to suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) and suspend the entry of foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, Walters expressed support for the executive order.

Pensions

Walters wrote an op-ed in October 2012 that questioned the wisdom of creating a state-run retirement pension plan for private-sector workers. The bill, SB 1234, established the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program for private-sector workers that requires employers that may not offer retirement plans to participate in the program.

Keystone pipeline

Walters voted in support of the Keystone XL Pipeline Act (H.R. 3) in 2015.

Strikes

In 2014, Walters voted for a bill in committee that banned public transit workers from going on strike.

Judgement against husband's business

In 2012, at least a dozen subcontractors hired to treat inmates by two subsidiaries of David Walters' company claimed they were owed more than $120,000 in back payments.

One person sued, a pharmacist from Orange County, and in 2013, won a $20,000 judgment against the two companies that were co-owned by Walters' husband.

Personal life

Walters is married to her husband, David, and has four children. Her husband is the owner of a boutique investment bank called Monarch Bay Associates. In 2010, financial disclosure forms showed that Mimi Walters' holdings include between $100,000 and $1 million in Goldman Sachs.

Residence

In 2000, a federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale of a mansion owned by accused swindler Luigi DiFonzo to then-Mayor Walters for $4.95 million. After the sale, Walters continued to live in her 14,000-square-foot home down the road in the Bear Brand Ranch.

Walters briefly registered to vote in Irvine in 2012 so she could run in a newly re-drawn district for a state Senate Seat, and was subsequently elected. Under California law, state legislators are required to live in the districts they represent, and Walters was sued for faking the move in order to run for office, though the lawsuit was later dropped. In 2014 after the election, Walters re-registered to vote at her Laguna Niguel home.

Walters sold her Bear Brand Ranch house in Laguna Niguel for $6.3 million in 2015.

She and her husband currently live outside of Walters' California 45th District. Their home is within the boundaries of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's (R-Costa Mesa) 48th District of California.