Mimi Walters

Marian Elaine "Mimi" Walters (née Krogius; born May 14, 1962) is an American businesswoman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served from 2015 to 2019 as the U.S. representative for California's 45th congressional district.

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. 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. 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 represent California's 45th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in 2014, and was re-elected in 2016. She ran for a third term in the 2018 mid-term elections, but was defeated by Democrat Katie Porter. After serving on Congress, Walters was a fellow at the USC Center for the Political Future in the fall of 2020.

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.

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.

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.

Walters was elected to the State Senate in November 2008.

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. 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.

In November 2016, Walters won re-election by 17 points over her Democratic opponent, Ron Varasteh. For the campaign, Walters raised over $2 million.

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.

Walters opposed abortion, but had de-emphasized the issue during her political campaigns. In 2015, during her freshman term, she served on the United States House Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood.

Walters had a "D" rating from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, an advocacy group supporting the legalization of marijuana.

In July 2016, FiveThirtyEight labeled Walters an "Eager Unifier", for having endorsed Trump wholeheartedly, but not until after the Indiana primary.

In February 2017, Walters voted against a resolution that would have directed the House to request 10 years of Trump's tax returns, which would then have been reviewed by the House Ways and Means Committee in a closed session.

FiveThirtyEight had found that Walters voted with President Trump 99% of the time, and was the eighth-most partisan Trump supporter in the House, when compared to her district's voting patterns.

Walters is married and has four children. In 2010, financial disclosure forms showed that Mimi Walters' holdings include between $100,000 and $1 million in Goldman Sachs. A 2017 congressional financial disclosure form showed Walters' had holdings in Boustead Securities, Laguna Advisory Services, and an apartment building in Encinitas, California. Walters is a Roman Catholic.