California Congresswoman and New Britain Native Anna Eshoo To Retire At End of Term
1960 NBHS Graduate Grew Up In City’s Armenian and Assyrian Communities
U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo (CA-16) a member of Congress representing California’s “Silicon Valley” and a close friend of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (CA-11), is retiring at the end of this term after serving more than 30 years in the House of Representatives.
Rep. Eshoo, first elected to Congress in 1992, rose in San Mateo County politics as the County Democratic Chair and was elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors serving on the county governing board for 10 years.
The CA Congresswomen’s roots, however, are in New Britain where she was born in 1942 of Armenian and Assyrian heritage. According to a biography, Eshoo’s mother fled from Armenia to Iraq and later to the United States. Her father, Fred Georges, a Chaldean Christian, was a jeweler and watchmaker.
Eshoo graduated from New Britain High School in 1960 and subsequently moved to California where she settled to marry, raise a family and enter Democratic Party politics. She is a graduate of Canada College of Redwood City, CA and the Coro Foundation.
In 2006 Rep. Eshoo visited the city of her birth to campaign for then State Senator and now U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) who ousted 24-year incumbent Republican Nancy Johnson of New Britain in a wave election that saw Democrats gain a House majority to elect Nancy Pelosi to her first Speakership. Eshoo went door-to-door in her old New Britain neighborhood on behalf of Murphy.
Last Thanksgiving Eshoo sent a message to constituents saying this term would be her last in Congress: “As the first Democrat and first woman to ever represent this distinguished congressional district, no one could ever be prouder than me to carry our Democratic Party values. The grassroots of our party is where I came from, including being the first woman to serve as Chair of our party in San Mateo County, and then serve as a member of the Democratic National Committee.” Eshoo is the first woman and the first Democrat to represent the Silicon Valley area in northern California .
Rep. Eshoo’s participation in Congressional caucuses reflects her ethnic and religious background and New Britain roots. She is the Co-Chair and founding member of the Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East and is a member of the Armenian and Ahmadiyya Muslim caucuses. In the Congress she championed U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide. Rep. Eshoo is the only Assyrian American in Congress as well as the only Armenian American in the U.S. House. Her colleague, former U.S. Rep Jackie Speier, who represented another district in San Mateo County, is also of Armenian heritage. Speier did not seek re-election in 2022 and is currently seeking local office in San Mateo County.
Rep. Eshoo’s Congressional District includes the cities of Palo Alto, Redwood City and parts of San Jose and her Congressional committee assignments reflect industry and research and academia (Stanford University) in the area known as “the world center of information technology and biotechnology”. In the 118th Congress she serves on the Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Communication/Technology and Health Subcommittees.
Published at NBPoliticus.
