Harley Rouda

Harley Edwin Rouda Jr.(born December 10, 1961) is an American lawyer, realtor, technology entrepreneur, philanthropist, and politician from the state of California. A member of theDemocratic Party, he serves in the United States House of Representatives from California's 48th congressional district, encompassing south-western coastal portions of Orange County including the cities of Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. He first ran for office in the 2018 elections, where he defeated 15-term incumbent Dana Rohrabacher.

Rouda was born December 10, 1961, in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Marlese Rouda and the late Harley Edwin Rouda Sr. He is the youngest of 4 children.

As a young law student, Rouda worked as a law clerk. This experience made him interested in becoming a lawyer.

Rouda received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Kentucky, where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta social fraternity. He also earned a Master of Business Administration from Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor from Capital University Law School.

Following passage of the Ohio bar examination, Rouda worked at the law firm of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP in Columbus, Ohio until 1990. As a lawyer, Rouda specialized in business with a focus on securities work, business formation, and intellectual property. He also contributed to the firm's pro bono efforts with nonprofit organizations to tackle problems in Columbus during the 1980s. Since then, he has been active in numerous charities and civic organizations especially those involving fighting homelessness and domestic violence.

He left the firm to join his family business, HER Realtors. He would rise to become general counsel of the company in 1997.

Long before Rouda would run for a political office, he considered running for a city council seat before backing out, preferring to focus on expanding his business. Being raised by Republican parents, he would first register as a Republican in his youth until 1997, when he left the party and became an independent because he felt it had been moving into the "wrong direction" when it comes to the social issues. Since the 2004 elections he would always vote for the Democratic presidential nominees, however Rouda donated only to Republican congressional candidates during the same period before 2007. Shortly before registering as a Democrat, Rouda donated to the John Kasich 2016 presidential campaign. John Kasich would suspend his campaign shortly before he was defeated by Donald J. Trump in the California primaries. Due to these donations respectively, he was criticized by Democrats as insufficiently loyal to the party or being a "Republican in disguise" during the campaign.

On March 2, 2017, Rouda announced his candidacy for U.S. Representative from California's 48th congressional district, challenging the incumbent, Dana Rohrabacher, shortly after changing his party registration from no party preference into a Democrat. His primary opponent, Hans Keirstead, was endorsed by the Democratic Party of California at the party convention. Rouda received the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee endorsement in May 2018. In the nonpartisan blanket primary election, Rouda secured the second spot over Keirstead on the ballot by 125 votes (from a total of 174,024), thus allowing him to face Rohrabacher in the general election.

On October 25, Michael Bloomberg announced he would be supporting Rouda's campaign by donating $4 million to his PAC, Independence USA. That made Rouda's race against Rohrabacher the most expensive House race in the 2018 election cycle.

On November 6, the election was too close to call, as Rouda held a narrow lead over Rohrabacher. Rouda's lead would expand shortly after, until the Associated Press called the race for Rouda on November 10.

Committee assignments

• United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform
  • Subcommittee on Environment (Chair)
  • Subcommittee on National Security
• United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
  • Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
• New Democrat Coalition

Rouda has been married since 1990 to author Kaira Sturdivant Rouda. They have four children. They moved to California after Rouda sold the family firm.