About Peter Hernandez, your candidate for Congress

A first generation American born to Mexican migrant parents, Peter Hernandez grew up working in the Salinas Valley with his mother and siblings to put food on the table. As a child, the option he was offered by his mother was either to eat lunch or take a nap under the table where they were cutting apricots.

With a father who was an alcoholic disengaged from the family, a mother who insisted that he only speak Spanish at home, Peter was living in a country where he felt alone and disconnected. Desperately searching for what was missing from his life, Peter called out to God. For the first time in his life, he felt a sense of peace.  Peter had finally found the key that brought meaning to his life.

Eager to help young Latinos who were in the same hopeless situation that he had experienced, Peter used Wednesdays, his one day off from driving a bread truck, to volunteer with the Juvenile Review Board. By this point, Peter recognized that this government organization did not have a solution for troubled youth.

In a hope of having a greater impact on helping the Mexican youth that he identified with, Peter felt called to run for school board. Elected to the Hollister School Board in 2014, Peter saw the insidious way the government began a campaign to strip parents of their rights. In 2018 Peter took the next step and ran for the San Benito County Board of Supervisors. He not only was elected but his fellow Supervisors elected him President of the Board although he was the only Republican Supervisor.

Peter and his wife Karina, own and operate a business in Hollister, Ohana Shave Ice, to support their family. Peter understands how difficult it is for business owners to make ends meet. When Covid hit in 2020, fellow San Benito County business owners implored the Board of Supervisors not to lockdown their businesses. Peter Hernandez was the only Supervisor that listened to the needs of business owners and questioned the County Health Department on mandated lockdowns. Today it is very clear that if we had more people like Peter standing up against government mandates, we would not have seen as many small businesses destroyed in our nation.

Although most people in San Benito County politics expected Peter to run and be easily re-elected to a second term on the Board of Supervisors, Peter felt an urgency to oppose the source of business destroying policies and regulations: The Federal Government.

The newly redistricted Congressional District 18 encompassing San Benito, Monterey, Santa Cruz and part of Santa Clara County, provided an opportunity to take that first step in 2022. Although the incumbent, Democrat Zoe Lofgren, lives in San Jose, the new district lines were drawn to create the “perfect” district to elect a Hispanic Democrat successor when the 77-year-old Lofgren retires. The district is 65% Hispanic.

With limited resources available to Republicans running for Congress in Democrat strongholds, Peter did quite well with only the help of volunteers. Although he did not win in 2022, his campaign was able to change the district from a D+26 to a D+19…the Democrats lost 7 points. This is totally unheard of!