During college and until 2003, Barragán served as the Executive Director of the Gillian S. Fuller Foundation (formerly the Fuller Foundation), where she was in charge of funding nonprofits focused on education, the environment, and youth programs. Funded organizations included Heal the Bay, the Nature Conservancy, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Para Los Niños, Proyecto Pastoral, and Literacy Partners.[6]
Legal career
In 2003, Barragán served as an extern to Justice Carlos Moreno at the California Supreme Court. In 2004, she served as an extern at the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, a law firm for low-income people in Los Angeles. There she assisted pro per workers who needed assistance filing claims for unpaid overtime and meal breaks.[7]
In 2005, Barragán received an externship at the United States Attorney's Office, Central District of California where she worked with attorneys in the Organized Crime and Terrorism section. There she assisted on a money laundering trial team, in investigations, and in prosecuting Central Violations Bureau cases.[citation needed]
Barragán then joined Latham & Watkins LLP, where she worked on a variety of cases from land use to securities litigation. While at Latham, she was the lead attorney in an immigration asylum case spanning three years for a child and mother from Guatemala; withholding of removal was granted. After Hurricane Katrina, Barragán and her colleague, Blake Megdal, flew to Biloxi, Mississippi, to provide pro bono assistance with insurance claims. She also served as a child advocate and was the Spanish-speaking adoption attorney for low-income families seeking adoptions.[8]
Early political career
Barragán started her political career with the ClintonWhite House in the Office of Public Liaison doing African American outreach, and served as the facilitator between the president and African American organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1999, she worked with the NAACP's Washington Bureau on health policy and racial health disparities. Thereafter she volunteered for many federal and local candidates while serving on the Board of the L.A. County Young Democrats for three years before attending law school.[citation needed]
In 2012, Barragán took a leave of absence from her law firm to move to Florida to work on President Barack Obama's reelection campaign with the voter protection team. She served as the out-of-state volunteer attorney director and recruited attorneys across the country to volunteer in Florida to make sure every eligible voter had the opportunity to vote.[9][10]
Hermosa Beach City Council
In 2013, Barragán ran for Hermosa Beach City Council, fighting an oil company's proposal to drill 34 oil and water injection wells in Hermosa Beach and into the Santa Monica Bay.[11] She beat six other candidates,[12] becoming the first Latina elected to the council and the first woman in ten years.[citation needed]
Barragán resigned from office on July 31, 2015, to run for Congress in the state's 44th district.[13]
U.S. House of Representatives
Barragán asks questions at a hearing on U.S. Customs and Border Protection
In June 2015, Barragán said, "The district is one where only 60 percent graduate from high school and 10 percent go on to college. That's how people live. I'm one of those 10-percenters who beat the odds. (…) I've achieved the American dream. Now I’m coming home to make sure others have the same shot at the dream."[15]
In the November 6, 2018, general election, Barragán faced Compton mayor Aja Brown, who had withdrawn from the campaign in April due to her pregnancy with her first child.[23] Barragán defeated Brown, 97,944 votes (68.3%) to 45,378 (31.7%).
Barragán has a reputation as difficult to work for and has struggled to retain staff.[25] Analysis by Legistorm, a site that tracks congressional employment, found that her personal office had the third highest rate of turnover in the House of Representatives between 2001 and 2021.[26]
Barragán assumed leadership of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in January 2023 despite caucus members' fears over her reputation as a toxic boss.[27] Caucus staffers including the executive director quit before she assumed leadership. Barragán hired a well-respected congressional staffer as caucus executive director but fired her a month into her tenure, the cause being an email the executive director sent about the House and Senate floor schedule that Barragán was unhappy with, a person familiar with the situation told The Washington Post.[27] The dismissal, combined with earlier resignations, left the caucus without staff.
In 2022, Barragán was one of 16 Democrats to vote against the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.[37][38]
Environment
Banning hydrofluoric acid at oil refineries
Barragán supports banning hydrofluoric acid (HF) at oil refineries, where it is often the chemical used for producing the high octane alkylate component of gasoline. She has pointed out the danger of storing the volatile chemical on site at refineries, where explosions are not uncommon, where there are limited safeguards against natural disasters and terrorist incidents, and where many plants already have long histories of limited accidental HF release incidents.[39] A larger release could cause a toxic ground hugging cloud leading to a mass casualty event in the vicinity of the release site.[40]
Barragán watches and plays baseball. In high school, she petitioned school leadership to allow girls to try out for the school's baseball team.[44] Her favorite team is the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2017, she was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Dodger Stadium.[45] Since 2017, Barragán has played in the annual Congressional Baseball Game. She has also played in the Congressional Women's Softball Game.[44]
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