Mimi Walters

Marian Elaine “Mimi” Walters (née Krogius; born May 14, 1962) is an American businesswoman and Republican politician who represented California’s 45th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 2015, to January 3, 2019. During her two terms in Congress, she participated in the legislative process at the federal level and represented the interests of her Orange County constituents during a period of significant political change in the United States.

Before entering elective office, Walters worked in the private sector as an investment banker from 1988 to 1995. During this period she developed experience in finance and capital markets and became active in local civic affairs in Orange County, California. She served as chairwoman of the Laguna Niguel Investment and Banking Committee, a role that connected her financial background with municipal oversight and helped establish her profile in local public service.

Walters began her formal political career in local government in Laguna Niguel, California. She was elected to the Laguna Niguel City Council in 1996 and served two consecutive terms through 2004. During her tenure on the council she was selected by her colleagues to serve as Mayor in 2000. Her work in city government coincided with a period of growth and development in the community and provided her with experience in municipal budgeting, land use, and local governance that would underpin her subsequent state-level career.

In 2004, Walters was elected to the California State Assembly, representing the 73rd Assembly District in southern Orange County. She served in the Assembly from 2004 to 2008, completing two terms. In the legislature she aligned with the Republican caucus and focused on fiscal and regulatory issues affecting her district. Building on her Assembly service, she successfully ran for the California State Senate in 2008. Walters represented the 33rd Senate District from 2008 to 2012, and, following redistricting, the 37th Senate District from 2012 to 2015. While in the State Senate she continued to emphasize economic and budgetary matters and became one of the Republican Party’s more prominent officeholders in Orange County.

During her state legislative career, Walters sought statewide office. In January 2010, she announced her candidacy for California State Treasurer, challenging Democratic incumbent Bill Lockyer. She secured the Republican nomination for State Treasurer and ran in the November 2010 general election. Despite the statewide profile of the race and support from her party, she was defeated by Lockyer in the general election, and she returned to continue her service in the State Senate.

Walters entered federal politics in the 2014 election cycle. On July 2, 2013, she formally announced her candidacy for Congress in California’s 45th congressional district, seeking to succeed Republican Representative John B. T. Campbell III, who had announced he would not seek another term. Her campaign quickly attracted support from leading California Republicans in Congress, including Campbell, Kevin McCarthy, Darrell Issa, and Ed Royce. She also established the Blessings of Liberty Leadership PAC to support her political efforts. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) placed her in its “Contender” category within the “Young Guns” program, and in September 2014 elevated her to its “Vanguard” program, signaling strong institutional backing. In the nonpartisan blanket primary she finished first in a three-candidate field with 45 percent of the vote, and in the November 2014 general election she defeated Democratic nominee Drew Leavens with approximately 65 percent of the vote.

Taking office in January 2015, Walters served in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th and 115th Congresses. As a member of the Republican majority for most of her tenure, she supported her party’s legislative agenda and participated in debates over national fiscal policy, health care, and regulatory issues that were central to the period. Her service coincided with the final years of the Obama administration and the first two years of the Trump administration, a time marked by heightened partisanship and significant policy shifts. In the 2016 election, she won re-election to a second term, defeating Democratic challenger Ron Varasteh by 17 percentage points. For that campaign, she raised over $2 million, reflecting her status as a well-funded incumbent in a district that was beginning to show signs of political competitiveness.

Walters sought a third term in the 2018 midterm elections. Under California’s top-two primary system, she and Democrat Katie Porter, a consumer lawyer and University of California, Irvine law professor, advanced from the June 2018 primary to the November general election. The race drew national attention as Democrats targeted suburban districts where Hillary Clinton had performed strongly in the 2016 presidential election; Clinton had carried the 45th district even as Walters was re-elected that year. In May 2018, Politico reported that Democrats were confident they could unseat Walters, noting that she had “backed some of the most polarizing planks of President Donald Trump’s agenda,” while Walters maintained that “the only reason I’m a target is because Hillary Clinton won my district,” emphasizing that she had received 37,000 more votes than Trump there in 2016. The contest attracted substantial outside spending. In September 2018, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), the largest Republican super PAC active in House races, announced a $400,000 advertising buy in support of Walters. The following month, the Los Angeles Times reported that CLF had not included Walters in its initial round of broadcast television reservations in Southern California; CLF responded that it had reserved more than $3 million in the district and had begun advertising there in August.

On election night in November 2018, initial returns showed Walters in the lead, but as additional mail-in and provisional ballots were counted in the days that followed, Porter steadily gained ground and ultimately surpassed her. In fundraising communications to supporters during the post-election count, Walters made unsubstantiated allegations of fraud, asserting that Democrats were attempting to “steal” the seat by tampering with votes. On November 15, 2018, the Associated Press called the race for Katie Porter, ending Walters’s service in Congress at the conclusion of her second term on January 3, 2019. After leaving office, Walters remained associated with Republican politics and public affairs as a former member of Congress, drawing on her background in business, municipal government, and state and federal legislative service.