Pat Contreras Seeking to be Missouri’s First Latino Elected Statewide
*Latinos worth noting: 34 year-old Pat Contreras could make history in Missouri next year. VL
By Suzanne Gamboa, NBC News
Democrat Pat Contreras is campaigning to run for Missouri state treasurer in 2016. Based on recollections with longtime politicians in the state, Contreras believes he is the first Latino to seek statewide office and would make history if elected.
Contreras says he is unfazed by the challenging race, largely by following his mother’s advice: Never give up.
[pullquote]If he wins the Aug. 2, 2016 primary, Contreras will face a formidable foe in the general election. St. Louis Republican Eric Schmitt, 40, is on his second term as a state senator.[/pullquote]“She’s one of the toughest ladies I know – she had grit. That’s what it takes to have grit, never giving up,” he said in an interview with NBC Latino while in Washington to attend Congressional Hispanic Caucus events.
An economist and more recently a diplomat for the State Department, Contreras, 34, has served in the Obama and Bush administrations. Raised in Kansas City, Missouri, he is the grandson of Mexican immigrants, except one grandfather, his father’s father, who was Cuban.
The Missouri State Archives does not have record of the ancestry of all of Missouri’s statewide elected officeholders since it became a state in 1821. The state does not collect race and ethnicity information from candidates.
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[Photo courtesy of Pat Contreras Twitter]
