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Meet Anna
I am a mom, USAF veteran, and wife. I also happen to be one of the youngest members of Congress. My upbringing was very different from the majority of those on Capitol Hill. I didn’t come from a political pedigree, wealth, or an Ivy League education. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
My father, as much as he loved me, struggled with substance abuse for most of my childhood. I was exposed to a lot of it because of that. I would visit him, and we would go grocery shopping with food stamps. He was in and out of jail until my late teens and, at one point, became homeless. It wasn’t until I was a young adult that he got clean. When he did, we were able to make up for lost time. Sadly, he passed away in January of the year I was elected and didn’t get to see me become a member of Congress, but I know he would have been proud of what I’ve accomplished.
My mom also faced struggles, but she persevered. She had me at 20 and was a single mother; my parents were never married. Her family had also been heavily impacted by drugs, and her dad wasn’t in the picture. We were on our own. My mom eventually got married, but it was an extremely abusive relationship. At one point, we sought help and tried going to a women’s shelter with my younger sister and brother, but the shelter conditions were so bad and unsafe that she had to bring us back home.
The only escape I had from what was happening at home was going to stay with my dad, and, as I mentioned, that was chaotic too. Going into my sophomore year of high school, my mom escaped her abusive marriage and applied to law school while raising my younger sister, brother, and me. Things were tough, but we made it work. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken about this publicly.
Seeing what my family went through, particularly my mom, gave me a deep desire to stand up for those being hurt and to do the right thing. My parents may not have been perfect, but I learned from both their strengths and their mistakes, and I am extremely proud of them.
My story is a true embodiment of the American dream. I tell people, especially those who are struggling, that you may not be able to control the circumstances you’re born into, but you can control the outcome. I had to grow up fast, but through it all, I never stopped fighting. Thanks to hard work and perseverance, I am now a member of Congress. The American dream is alive and well, and I am living proof.
At 19, while serving in the United States Air Force, I met my husband, Andy. He is a Bronze Star recipient who earned a Purple Heart after being shot by enemy combatants in Afghanistan. After recovering, Andy redeployed to fight ISIS in the Middle East.
Following his injury, both Andy and I became involved with several veteran-focused and veteran-led nonprofit organizations, including one whose mission is to end child trafficking through rescue and recovery operations.
As I became more deeply involved in that work, I started using my social media platform to speak out against human and child trafficking across the southern border. I was immediately attacked as a racist and called “white-washed” because of my skin color—despite being a second-generation American and a descendant of Mexican immigrants on both my mother’s and father’s sides.
This criticism only fueled my resolve to speak out more about the humanitarian crisis caused by porous borders, and people began to take notice.
Just as I was preparing to start a medical school program, Charlie Kirk reached out to me and asked me to join Turning Point USA as the National Director of Hispanic Engagement. Faced with a tough choice, I consulted one of my mentors, a neurosurgeon, who advised me that I could positively impact far more lives by shaping legislation than through a career in medicine. And so, I chose to begin my career as an advocate.
As my profile grew, I was somewhat surprised to find that the elitists who control most of America’s major media outlets outright refused to let me share my views on border security, the failings of the welfare system, and other pressing issues.
That was my "aha" moment.
I decided to run for Congress because I realized that the media couldn’t ignore what was happening on Capitol Hill. As someone with lived experience of the problems that plague many of America’s communities—especially low-income and minority ones—I am committed to showing people that there is another way and that big government is often the problem, not the solution.
I believe the far-left wing that now controls Congress, along with its elitist media enablers, doesn’t truly value impoverished minorities for anything beyond their votes.
As a mixed-race woman who fought my way out of hard life circumstances by joining the United States military, my political beliefs were shaped by my own experiences.
I know the leftist power structures will stop at nothing to prevent someone like me—someone who looks like me and grew up the way I did—from influencing public policy if they hold right-leaning beliefs.
And I know this is because I directly contradict their false narratives about far-left ideologies like open borders, defunding the police, government dependency, and overtaxing/overregulating being helpful to communities like the one I grew up in.
No one is hurt more by these radical policies than the tens of millions of poor and often minority Americans trapped in cycles of poverty and violence perpetuated by decades of failed big-government programs.
I learned this lesson the hard way—through lived experience.
After fulfilling every one of my campaign promises during my first term, I am running for Congress again because I want to enact reforms that create real solutions to these real-world problems.
I will fight every day against the elitist political establishment that has, for far too long, left average Americans behind.”
