Garcia, Joe, 1963-

José Antonio Garcia Jr. (born October 12, 1963), known as Joe Garcia, is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S Representative for Florida's 26th congressional district from 2013 to 2015.

Born in Miami Beach, Florida, he graduated from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School before attending Miami-Dade Community College and earning B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Miami. Garcia, a lawyer in private practice, soon made the leap into local politics. In 1994 Florida Governor Lawton Chiles appointed him to the Florida public service commission, the agency that regulates power and water utilities. Garcia became its chairman in 1999 and 2000. His first campaign for political office was in 2008 when he unsuccessfully challenged incumbent U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart. The next year, Garcia joined President Barack Obama’s administration as director of the Office of Minority Impact in the U.S. Energy Department. Garcia left in 2010 to run for an open House seat from Miami, losing to Republican David Rivera by 13,000 votes. Two years later, with Rivera mired in criminal and ethics investigations, Garcia challenged Rivera once more, soundly defeating the incumbent.

Garcia approached his House service with realistic goals focused on defending constituency interests. Any Member from south Florida was expected to hold certain positions: the need for immigration reform and opposition to offshore drilling near the Everglades. On the issue of Cuba, however, Garcia moved away from automatic opposition to Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Taking a more cautious and nuanced stand, he favored greater family travel and contact with Cuba while opposing any major policy changes over diplomatic relations. By far, the most important bill Garcia introduced was H.R. 15, the House Democratic alternative on comprehensive immigration reform in fall 2013. In the next year, 2014, Garcia continued his fight for immigration reform by starting a discharge petition to force his bill out of the numerous committees that received it. The petition eventually reached 192 signatures, still well short of the 218 required.

Garcia lost his bid for re-election in 2014 to Carlos Curbelo. He ran for his House seat again in 2016, defeating Annette Taddeo, who had been the Democratic party’s candidate for lieutenant governor in 2014, in the Democratic primary. In a rematch against Representative Curbelo, Garcia was defeated, 53 to 41 percent.