Long before his election to Congress in 2022, Greg Casar (D-Texas) had been building a reputation as a staunch progressive advocate for working people.
The son of Mexican immigrants, Casar cut his teeth as a student organizer at the University of Virginia. “Cafeterias in Virginia were the first places that I learned to organize,” he told The American Prospect shortly after he was elected to Congress.
After graduation, Casar moved back to his home state of Texas, where he became the Policy Director at the Workers Defense Project, an immigrant and workers’ justice organization. It was in that position that Casar led efforts around improved wages, education, and workplace safety.
That was just the beginning of a career of fighting for various groups, especially the disenfranchised.
Casar leveraged some of those lessons on the Austin City Council, where he became the youngest council member in history at 25 years old. According to The Texas Tribune: “[Casar] joined a coalition of progressive City Council members and organized on a variety of issues, including pushing for paid sick leave for all workers in Austin and reducing deportations under the Trump administration.”
If you really want to get to know Casar, check out the Austin Monthly feature on him during his time as a council member. When a mobile home community was bought by a company called Mobile Home University in 2015, the new owners “immediately increased utility costs and rent,” according to the outlet. In response, residents organized with Casar’s help and successfully stopped “the rash of eviction notices that accompanied the takeover.”
In 2022, Casar was elected to represent Texas’ 35th Congressional District. He ran on a boldly progressive platform.
“Casar supports a slate of progressive causes, including stronger union and workers’ rights, a single-payer health care system in ‘Medicare for All,’ a comprehensive plan to address climate change and tuition-free public college,” reported the Texas Tribune. Casar told the nonprofit outlet that he was running, in part, because of a “right-wing regime in the South or in the state taking advantage of working people.”
In Congress, Casar has quickly established himself as a rising star in the progressive movement. He serves as the whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and sits on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the Agriculture Committee. He’s also a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Labor Caucus, among other groups.
According to Punchbowl News, Casar is already being eyed as a potential future chair of the CPC. Rep. Ilhan Omar, the deputy chair of the CPC, was blunt when asked whether she was running for the position: “No, Greg is,” she said, referring to Casar.
A recent interview with Hasan Piker summed up Casar’s political philosophy. In response to criticism that Democrats are too closely aligned with big-moneyed interest, Casar suggested the party needs to make a clean break:
“I think we need to pair our actual policy wins, like you’ve said, with a strong and clear political message. And I think that does require Democrats to unpair ourselves from some of those billionaire interests. So that we can say, ‘Hey, we’re going to set up a tax policy, where if you make under $400,000 a year, we’re going to help you out. People that make over $400,000 a year, they’re going to pay more.’”
He has come a long way from the days of organizing inside a university cafeteria. Casar has built his political career on an unwavering commitment to progressive values and grassroots activism. As he continues to rise through the ranks of Congressional leadership, he shows no signs of abandoning the movement-focused approach that got him there.
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Image Description: A photo of Greg Casar at a pro Palestine rally alongside his official Congressional portrait.
Rashed Mian
