A Saugus resident and former Naval pilot sat down with KHTS to discuss his plan on running against Representative Katie Hill for the 25th District congressional seat in 2020.

Mike Garcia, a Saugus High graduate, says he plans to focus on permanently lowering taxes for the 25th District and improving transportation, if elected.

Garcia says he supports the construction projects that have been ongoing on the freeways and surrounding roads over the last few years and feel these projects are needed to support the growth of Santa Clarita.  

“When you look long term of the arc of where we’re going, these improvements need to happen,” Garcia said. “We are growing, which is great. It’s all planned, there’s a lot of thought going into the local expansions, but with that, we have to do the parallel projects like what we are doing on the freeways. Sometimes it’s painful in the short term, but in the long term that’s the right answer.”

Other issues that Garcia plans on tackling is having Santa Clarita residents permanently pay less in taxes.   

Garcia plans to “look after the taxes and make sure that we’re holding to a lower tax position that was passed back in 2017 and making these tax cuts permanent, which would help small business growth and families as well.”

In 1994, Garcia graduated from Saugus High School and joined the Naval Academy for four years.

After being in the academy, he spent 15 years as a pilot flying f-18 Hornets off of aircraft carriers before moving back to Saugus in 2009.    

Since Garcia announced he was running for the 25th congressional seat, he has been endorsed by Howard “Buck” McKeon and Elton Gallegly, both former congressmen from Santa Clarita.

Garcia hopes what he has done for the country helps him gain more support from the communities he wishes to one day represent.

“I think what attracts people is a citizen legislator whose looking to do the job for the right reasons and not just for either political gain or power,” Garcia said. “What I’ve done for the country is a testimony of what I’m willing to do for the country moving forward, and hopefully that gains support and we continue to gain momentum.”

From a non-legislative prospective, the focus for Garcia and his family, which includes his wife and two young sons, is reinstilling a sense of pride in the country and a sense of pride in the district, he said.

“I have been all over the world and seen pretty much every scenario there is to see in life and in geography,” Garcia said. “There’s a reason why I came back to this district back in 2009. This is truly a utopia and we need to take pride in that, we need to protect that, we need to teach our children that it is okay to love this place and it’s okay to honor this place.”           

Listen to the full interview above.

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