Mimi Walters

Marian Elaine "Mimi" Walters (née Krogius; born May 14, 1962) is an American businesswoman and politician.

In 1962, Walters was born as Marian Elaine Krogius in Pasadena, California.

Walters' father is Tristan Krogius.

Walters graduated from Dana Hills High School (1980) before earning a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1984.

Before running for office, Walters was an investment banker from 1988 to 1995, and served as chairwoman of the Laguna Niguel Investment and Banking Committee.

Walters was an investment banker from 1988 to 1995.

She was an investment executive at the firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert, and later joined the firm of Kidder, Peabody, & Co.

She then served two terms on the Laguna Niguel City Council from 1996 to 2004, serving as Mayor in 2000, before representing the 73rd Assembly district in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2008.

After serving as chair of Laguna Niguel's Investment and Banking Committee, Walters was appointed to the Laguna Niguel City Council in 1996, after the recently re-elected incumbent Thomas W. Wilson resigned to be appointed to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Walters served as mayor in 2000, and was elected to a second term that same year.

During her time on the City Council, Walters also served on the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority, and opposed efforts to convert Marine Corps Air Station El Toro into a commercial airport.

In 2004, Walters was elected to represent the 73rd Assembly District, which includes the coastal Orange and San Diego county communities of Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills, Oceanside, Dana Point, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, and Aliso Viejo.

Her term ran from January 2005 to January 2007.

In November 2006, she was re-elected to a second term in the Assembly.

She was subsequently elected to the California State Senate, representing the 33rd Senate district from 2008 to 2012 and the 37th Senate district from 2012 to 2015.

Walters was elected to the State Senate in November 2008.

In January 2010, Walters announced that she would run for California State Treasurer against Democratic incumbent Bill Lockyer.

Walters became the Republican nominee for State Treasurer, but lost to Lockyer in the general election.

Young's lawsuit challenged Walters' residency in the 37th District; after the California Citizens Redistricting Commission re-drew the state's legislative districts in 2011, Walters announced that she had moved from Laguna Nigel to Irvine, in order to be eligible to run in the 37th Senate District.

Democratic candidate and trial lawyer Steve Young filed an unsuccessful civil lawsuit in an attempt to keep Walters' name off of the 2012 ballot.

In 2013, the California Fair Political Practices Commission cleared Walters of wrongdoing in a conflict of interest investigation "into phone calls made by her office on behalf of a company once co-owned by her husband".

On July 2, 2013, Walters formally announced her candidacy for Congress, to replace Congressman John B. T. Campbell III, who announced he would not be seeking another term.

She was endorsed by a number of Republican members of Congress from California, including Campbell, Kevin McCarthy, Darrell Issa, and Ed Royce.

Walters was elected to represent California's 45th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in 2014, and was re-elected in 2016.

Prior to the 2014 election, she set up the Blessings of Liberty Leadership PAC.

Walters was placed in the National Republican Congressional Committee's (NRCC) "Contender" category of their "Young Guns" program.

In September 2014, the NRCC named Walters along with 13 other candidates to their "Vanguard" program.

In the non-partisan blanket primary, she came in first place in a field of three candidates, with 45% of the vote.

In the general election, she defeated Democratic candidate Drew Leavens with 65% of the vote.

A Republican, she served from 2015 to 2019 as the U.S. representative for California's 45th congressional district.

In November 2016, Walters won re-election by 17 points over her Democratic opponent, Ron Varasteh.

For the campaign, Walters raised over $2 million.

She ran for a third term in the 2018 mid-term elections, but was defeated by Democrat Katie Porter.

Walters ran for re-election in 2018.

She and Democrat Katie Porter advanced out of the top-two primary in June 2018.

Walters and Porter, a consumer lawyer and UC Irvine law professor, faced off in the general election on November 6, 2018.

In May 2018, Politico reported that Democrats were confident they would oust Walters, given that in 2016, Hillary Clinton had carried the 45th district, writing that Walters had "backed some of the most polarizing planks of President Donald Trump's agenda", and that Walters was "upbeat about surviving the much-predicted Democratic wave".

Politico noted her support for a popular November ballot referendum.

"The only reason I'm a target is because Hillary Clinton won my district", said Walters.

"I got 37,000 more votes than President Trump did."