Fighting an uphill battle is nothing new to the Marines, so San Pedro’s Houston Brignano knew what he was facing when he entered California politics as a Republican.
Brignano, born and raised in San Pedro and a 2003 graduate of San Pedro High, faces longtime Democratic incumbent Ted Lieu in the November 3rd general election for the 36th District congressional seat.
A newcomer to politics, Brignano finished a distant second in the June primary in the newly drawn district that runs along the coast from the Palos Verdes Peninsula through the beach cities to Santa Monica and Beverly Hills. The Democratic-controlled legislature in Sacramento gerrymandered the district to include parts of Lomita, Harbor City, and San Pedro.
Just months after the U.S. launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, Brignano graduated and enlisted in the Marine Corps. He became interested in computers and technology at an early age, spending much of his youth at the San Pedro Boys and Girls Club, in the sound studio and computer lab. He joined the Marines as a tech specialist and, during his four years of active duty, served two tours in Iraq with the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, which spearheaded the invasion that ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Back home in 2007, he “had two sea bags to my name and a set of drums,” but his Marine experience led to a job at AEG, one of the world’s largest sports and entertainment companies. In his 18 years at AEG, Brignano helped build L.A. Live in Downtown LA and “went all over the country and the world building stadiums and entertainment districts.”
Soon after starting work, Brignano married his high school sweetheart, Dominique Pascual, another San Pedro native and a 2003 classmate. They first met as sixth-graders in the youth group at Ocean View Baptist Church on Western Avenue, but “I didn’t talk to her one time until about 17 or so.” They now have three daughters, whom they homeschool through South Bay Faith Academy in Redondo Beach.
Brignano left AEG after 18 years to join City National Bank in Los Angeles, where he built a cloud platform that satisfied federal auditors’ security concerns and is now running the company’s technology team.
Now 41, Brignano said he had always been politically aware “even as an 18-year-old young Marine fighting the country’s battles wherever they sent us.” The real impetus, however, for getting into politics was getting older and “frankly seeing our community not the way I remember it growing up.”
His mother was born here and lives on 8th and Pacific in one of the town’s earliest homes. “She has a picture of her house when President William Taft was driving down Pacific Avenue in San Pedro,” Brignano said. That would have been Oct. 11, 1909, when Taft, the first president to visit San Pedro, came to view the newly built breakwater.
Despite those deep roots, the Brignanos, concerned about shifting political trends over the past couple of election cycles, began “having that honest conversation as a family” about leaving the state. “We were thinking about leaving—a lot of my friends left,” he said, but “My wife looked at me and said, ‘Why are we leaving? Let’s get involved.’”
Not one to shy away from a challenge, Brignano agreed. “If we don’t stay and fight, and lead the next generation, other people will come in, and we will basically cede the ground.”
Unlike the full-time politicians who dominate the political landscape, Brignano has to campaign while maintaining his day job. Lieu won’t debate him, but Brignano isn’t going down without a fight; he spends as much time as possible canvassing his district, even in the Westside’s Democratic strongholds. His message is simple and bipartisan. He told Ballotpedia, “As a Marine in Iraq, I learned complacency kills, and we’ve become complacent. Your representative should answer to you, the people.”
And as a lifelong believer in the power of technology, he said, “Unleash the AI and engineering minds of the South Bay to drive innovation. We’re America’s engineering engine—let’s unlock opportunities for our young people, not cage great ideas out of fear. Smart safeguards, yes; bureaucratic paralysis that hands dominance to our adversaries, no. Trust Americans to create abundance and give them the tools to build. Trust the American people with choice whether that’s housing, health care or education.” spt
San Pedro native Steve Marconi began writing about his hometown after graduating from high school in 1969. After a career as a sportswriter, he was a copy editor and columnist for the News-Pilot and Daily Breeze for 20 years before joining the L.A. Times. He has been writing monthly for San Pedro magazines since 2005, and in 2018 became a registered longshoreman. Marconi can be reached at spmarconi@yahoo.com.
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