Representative Harley Rouda

Harley Edwin Rouda Jr. (born December 10, 1961) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the U.S. representative for California’s 48th congressional district from January 3, 2019, to January 3, 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first Democrat to represent the 48th District, a historically Republican seat encompassing southwestern coastal portions of Orange County, including Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, and Newport Beach. Rouda’s single term in Congress coincided with a period of intense national political polarization and significant legislative activity, during which he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents in Southern California.

Rouda was born on December 10, 1961, in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Marlese Rouda and the late Harley Edwin Rouda. He was raised in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington, where he attended local schools and graduated from Upper Arlington High School. He has described his upbringing as being in a “traditional Republican household,” a political orientation that would shape, and later contrast with, his own evolving views on public policy and party affiliation.

Rouda pursued higher education at the University of Kentucky, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1984 and was a member of the Delta Tau Delta social fraternity. He went on to earn a Juris Doctor from Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio, in 1986, gaining admission to the Ohio bar shortly thereafter. Seeking to deepen his understanding of business and management, he later completed a Master of Business Administration at The Ohio State University in 2002. This combination of legal and business training informed his subsequent career in both the private sector and public life.

After passing the Ohio bar examination, Rouda began his professional career at the Columbus law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP, where he practiced law until 1990. He then left the firm to join his family’s real estate business, HER Realtors, a major brokerage in central Ohio. Over time, he rose in the company and eventually served as chief executive officer of Trident Holdings, the parent company of HER Realtors. Following the sale of the family firm, Rouda and his wife relocated to California, where he continued his business activities and became increasingly engaged in civic and political affairs in Orange County.

For much of his early adult life, Rouda was aligned with the Republican Party. He remained a registered Republican until 1997, when he became an independent, stating that he believed the Republican Party was moving in the “wrong direction” on social issues. He has said that the last Republican presidential candidate he voted for was Bob Dole in the 1996 election. Rouda switched his party registration to the Democratic Party after the 2016 presidential election. Shortly before registering as a Democrat, he had donated to the 2016 presidential campaign of then–Ohio Governor John Kasich, whom he described as a personal friend and a vehicle to oppose Donald Trump’s candidacy rather than a reflection of shared ideology. During his later congressional campaign, some Democrats criticized him as insufficiently loyal to the party or a “Republican in disguise” because of these donations, a characterization he publicly rejected.

On March 2, 2017, shortly after changing his registration from no party preference to Democratic, Rouda announced his candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 48th congressional district, challenging 15-term Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher in the 2018 election. In the crowded primary field, his main Democratic rival, Hans Keirstead, received the endorsement of the California Democratic Party at its convention, while Rouda secured the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in May 2018. In the state’s nonpartisan blanket primary, Rouda narrowly advanced to the general election, edging Keirstead for second place on the November ballot by 125 votes out of 174,024 cast. The general election quickly became one of the nation’s most closely watched House races. On October 25, 2018, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he would support Rouda by donating $4 million to his political action committee, Independence USA, making the contest against Rohrabacher the most expensive House race of the 2018 cycle. The November 6 election was initially too close to call, with Rouda holding a slim lead; as mail-in ballots were counted, his margin grew, and the Associated Press called the race in his favor on November 10. His victory made him the first Democrat ever to represent the 48th District.

In Congress, Rouda served from 2019 to 2021 and contributed to the legislative process during a single term in office. He was appointed to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, where he chaired the Subcommittee on Environment and also served on the Subcommittee on National Security. In addition, he was a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, sitting on the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit and the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. Through these assignments, he focused on issues including environmental protection, infrastructure, and national security oversight. Rouda joined the New Democrat Coalition, a group of centrist and pro-growth Democrats, and was also a member of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, reflecting the diverse constituency of coastal Orange County.

Rouda ran for reelection in 2020 and faced Republican challenger Michelle Steel, an Orange County supervisor, in the general election held on November 3, 2020. The race was competitive in a district that had only recently shifted away from long-standing Republican control. Steel ultimately defeated Rouda, receiving 51.1 percent of the vote to his 48.9 percent. During and after his term, Rouda came under scrutiny for missing federally mandated deadlines to report stock trades made by his wife while he was in office, in apparent violation of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which is designed to combat insider trading by members of Congress and their families. Immediately after conceding the 2020 election, Rouda announced his intention to run against Steel again in 2022, signaling his continued interest in public service.

The redrawing of congressional district lines in California ahead of the 2022 elections significantly altered Rouda’s political plans. New maps placed the residences of Rouda, Michelle Steel, and two-term Democratic Representative Katie Porter in the same district, renumbered as the 47th District. Porter announced that she would run in the new 47th District, while Steel opted to seek election in the new 45th District. Rouda initially indicated he would challenge Porter, but in January 2022 he announced that he would not run for any public office that cycle and withdrew from consideration. He subsequently formed a political action committee, Join Together PAC, aimed at supporting the election of moderate Democrats, including Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley. On January 11, 2023, after Porter declared her candidacy for the U.S. Senate and announced she would not seek reelection to the House, Rouda again entered the fray, declaring his candidacy for California’s 47th congressional district in the 2024 election. Three months later, on April 11, 2023, he ended his campaign, citing a traumatic brain injury he had sustained in a fall, and endorsed activist Joanna Weiss for the seat while publicly urging California State Senator Dave Min to withdraw from the race following Min’s arrest for driving under the influence.

Rouda’s postcongressional years have also been marked by a public dispute with his former House colleague Katie Porter. In her memoir, “I Swear: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan,” Porter recounted incidents involving Rouda, including a claim that he mistook her for a valet and made substantial real estate purchases in Washington, D.C. Rouda responded in an opinion piece in the Orange County Register, accusing Porter of mischaracterizing him and his family. He has referred to Porter as “a bully with a whiteboard” and has urged voters in the 2024 California Senate primary to support any candidate other than her, underscoring ongoing tensions within the Democratic Party’s Orange County delegation.

Rouda has been married to author Kaira Rouda (née Sturdivant) since 1990, and the couple has four children. After the sale of the family real estate firm, they moved from Ohio to California, where they became active in local community and political life. Through his work as an attorney, business executive, and elected official, Rouda has remained engaged in public affairs, particularly in the areas of environmental policy, infrastructure, and the promotion of centrist Democratic candidates.