Background

Eva Jacqueline Longoria was born in Corpus Christi, Texas on March 15, 1975. The youngest of four daughters, she was raised by Mexican American parents — Enrique Longoria Jr. and Ella Eva (Mireles) — on a south Texas ranch. In 1998, Miss Longoria earned a B.S. degree in kinesiology from Texas A&M University at Kingsville. Years later, she would return to school to obtain a master’s degree in Chicano Studies from California State University at Northridge (2013). According to Cal State Northridge, Chicano Studies is “an Area Studies field that advances a critical understanding of the Chicana/o and Latina/o experience in the United States.” Longoria’s master’s thesis was titled, “Success STEMS from Diversity: The Value of Latinas in STEM Careers.”[1]

After winning the 1998 Miss Corpus Christi beauty pageant, Longoria moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in the entertainment industry. Her acting career began in 2000 with minor appearances in Beverly Hills, 90210 and General Hospital. She gained her first major role when she joined the cast of ABC’s Desperate Housewives, which aired from 2004-2012.

Enormous Wealth

Longoria earned $13 million between May 2010 and May 2011, and Forbes listed her as the television industry’s top-paid actress in 2011. By the final season of Desperate Housewives, she was earning as much as $375,000 per episode.

From 2007-2011, Longoria was married to National Basketball Association star Tony Parker, whose player salary hovered above $10 million per season during that time. As of 2023, Longoria had an estimated net worth of $80 million as a result of her acting, modeling, and directing career.

Supporter of the Democratic Party & the Left

In addition to her work in the entertainment industry, Longoria has cultivated a reputation as a leftwing activist and an avid supporter of the Democratic Party.

Shortly after attending an Obama White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in late April 2012, Longoria vocally rejected the notion that wealthy Hollywood celebrities should stay out of politics. “I always scoff at that, because I’m an American first and foremost and I’m very civically engaged,” she said. The actress also indicated that Obama and the Democrats were the natural choice for women and minority voters: “So when the election comes, it’s going to be a pretty clear choice if you’re a woman, if you’re Latino – it’s going to be very clear who’s on your side.”

Close Ties to Barack Obama

In May 2009 in President Barack Obama’s White House, Longoria was a guest at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

In October 2009, Longoria served as a host for “Fiesta Latina,” a White House event in which the Obama administration celebrated the richness of Latin American music. The event featured a combination of wealthy leftwing celebrities like Gloria Estefan, George Lopez, and Marc Anthony, in addition to political figures like Ken Salazar, Hilda Solis, and Sonia Sotomayor. “Although Latin music takes many forms, the spirit of diversity also unifies us,” President Obama told those in attendance.

In October 2009 as well, Obama appointed Longoria to a commission tasked with establishing a “National Museum of the American Latino.”

Longoria returned to the White House in May 2010 to attend President Obama’s state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

In September 2011, Longoria joined numerous leftwing celebrities in denouncing the conservative Tea Party movement for its opposition to President Obama. “[Mr. Obama] keeps getting beat up lately because there’s such an extremist movement, and for me, it’s very dangerous because it’s not the character of America,” said the actress. She also noted that Obama had been “very receptive [to] me, I’m a big advocate for Latino issues, and so he’s been a big listener and he’s done a lot of coalitions and round tables regarding what we want changed.”

Longoria introduced President Obama at a celebrity-led Los Angeles fundraiser for his re-election campaign in October 2011, remarking that Obama “speaks to the Latino community because he knows he’s the president of all Americans.” Admission to the event, which aimed to boost voter turnout for Obama among Hispanics, cost from $5,000 to $35,800 per person.

In early 2012, Longoria was named as one of the 35 co-chairs of President Obama’s re-election campaign.

In September 2012, Longoria addressed the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, in support of the Obama-Biden re-election campaign. Among her remarks were the following:

“[Mitt Romney] would raise taxes on middle-class families to cut his own [taxes]—and mine. That’s not who we are as a nation, and here’s why: The Eva Longoria who worked at Wendy’s flipping burgers—she needed a tax break. But the Eva Longoria who works on movie sets does not.

“We face a choice this election. President Obama is fighting for changes that grow the economy from the middle out and help all Americans succeed—jobs, education, health reform, the DREAM Act, equal pay for women. He is moving us forward with opportunity today for prosperity tomorrow. Mitt Romney wants to take us back to yesterday…. We know what we need to do. Let’s re-elect President Obama!”

As a result of Obama’s re-election victory in November 2012, a jubilant Longoria, who said she was “honored” to have been praised by the president for her efforts on his behalf, issued the following remarks:

• “I was moved to tears and I was so excited because we did work very hard for the campaign.”
• “It was a huge night for a lot of people. For women …A huge night for the LGBT [community] that showed up for the president. And of course it was a huge night for Latinos, and I was very happy to be a part of that.”
• “I didn’t do this as a celebrity; I think none of us did. We were doing it because we care deeply about this country. I think for me there was a very, very clear choice for the future that I want to see for this country and I did it as my civic duty.”
• “It is time to shape the peace here in this country and to move forward, to end the gridlock that we’ve been seeing in Congress…. Hopefully these partisan politics will end and [Obama] will be able to get more things done that he needs to get done.”

In August 2015, The New York Times reported that Longoria was among the various Hollywood and Silicon Valley figures advising Barack Obama on career paths he could possibly pursue after his second term in office ended.

Fierce Opponent of Republicans & Conservatives

In March 2012, Longoria accused eventual Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney of being “probably the one on the wrong side of every issue pertaining to Latinos.” For example, she depicted Romney’s stance on immigration as “dangerous,” and she claimed that Republicans as a whole were waging “an attack on women’s healthcare.”

Advocate for Unfettered Abortion Rights

In October 2012, Longoria appeared in a pro-abortion video sponsored by MoveOn.org, in which she lamented that Republican presidential candidate “Mitt Romney is for ending funding to Planned Parenthood.”

In 2018, Longoria served as the executive director of a pro-abortion documentary titled Reversing Roe. In a trailer for the film, feminist icon Gloria Steinem said, “It’s the basis of democracy that you control your own body.”

Promoting Latino Voter Participation

In May 2014, Longoria helped found the Latino Victory Fund PAC, whose stated objective was to promote “a substantial increase in progressive Latino elected officials, Latino voter participation, and Latino political donations, making Latino voters a deciding factor in elections up and down the ballot throughout the country” – starting with the upcoming midterm elections slated for that November. “We can’t as a community be so engaged in the presidential election and elect a president and yet not turn out for the midterm to elect the people who will work for the president,” said Longoria, explaining that the PAC’s goal was to establish “Latino currency.” According to NBC News, the Latino Victory Fund was “an outgrowth of creation of the Futuro Fund … which raised more than $30 million from Latino donors to re-elect Obama.”

On November 1, 2014, Longoria appeared alongside Vice President Joe Biden at a Las Vegas rally intended to encourage Latino voters to support Democrats in the midterm elections that were just three days away.

Lamenting Societal Sexism against Women

At a November 4, 2014 Web Summit conference in Dublin, Ireland, Longoria complained about sexism in Western societies at large: “I think traditionally, the sexism in [the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] is still prevalent. I did my master’s thesis specifically on Latino women in STEM fields, and I found a lot of them were discouraged even to this day from going into these fields. I want to challenge all the women here today to become mentors to young women, and show them the way, and show them your path. Without mentors, the system does not work.”

Contempt for Donald Trump

At a June 2015 luncheon for the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, Longoria likened Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, because of Trump’s recent assertion that many illegal migrants from Mexico were bringing drugs and crime to the United States. “What I think he doesn’t understand and what people don’t understand is words create emotional poison,” said the actress. “… Hitler moved a nation with words, just words…. If you say something like that, as he has said, you must expect a backlash.”

Longoria excoriated Donald Trump during a speech she delivered at the July 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

• Condemning the Republican for his plan to build a wall along America’s southern border, and for his assertion that many illegal migrants from Mexico were criminals and rapists, she stated: “I’m from a small town in South Texas, and if you know your history, Texas used to be part of Mexico. I’m ninth-generation American. My family never crossed a border; the border crossed us. When Donald Trump calls us criminals and rapists, he’s insulting American families. My father is not a criminal or a rapist. In fact, he’s a United States veteran.”
• Longoria also denounced Trump for having told NBC in 1994 — more than two decades earlier — that “putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing” because pregnancies represent an “inconvenience” to businesses. “When he said that a wife who works is a very dangerous thing, he not only insulted me, he insulted my mother who worked as a special-education teacher for 40 years and raised four children while being a wife,” said the actress.
• “When Trump cruelly mocked a disabled reporter,” Longoria added, “he was also mocking my special-needs sister, Lisa, and many like her.”[2]

In an interview for Variety magazine’s “Inclusion Summit” in November 2018, Longoria lamented that “[a]s a Latino I’m personally … attacked daily by this [Trump] administration,” which, she claimed, had gone out of its way “from day one,” “to attack my community and all brown people to be murderers and rapists.”

At the Senate Democrats’ Latino Summit in October 2019, Longoria condemned the Trump administration’s border and immigration policies. “I do think we as Hispanics have been focused on the moral imperative — this is inhumane what is happening on the border,” she stated. “How we are treating other human beings, it’s just appalling.”

In August 2020, Longoria hosted the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the course of her remarks, she said of the Trump administration: “The past four years have left us as a nation diminished and divided.” She also lamented America’s “ongoing systemic racial injustice.”

Supporting Hillary Clinton for President

In February 2016, Longoria endorsed, and campaigned on behalf of, Hillary Clinton in Nevada during the Democratic presidential primaries. Among the remarks she made at that event were the following:

• “I’m here as an American, an American who cares deeply about the progress this country has made. And I’m here as a Latina. I’m also here as a woman who cares deeply about equity. I’m here today as a sister of a special needs woman whose health problems are a daily battle she has faced since the day she was born. I’m here as a small business owner. I’m here as a human who inhabits a beautiful earth. We are not a single issue group.”
• “I keep hearing, ‘I’m just not inspired by Hillary.’ If Hillary doesn’t inspire you, you aren’t paying attention. For over three decades she’s fought for us. Now it’s time to fight for her.”

In June 2016, Longoria appeared at a celebrity concert for Mrs. Clinton in Los Angeles. The event featured performances by Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, John Legend, Ricky Martin, and Andra Day. Also present were such luminaries as Kate Walsh, Mary Steenburgen, Jamie Foxx, Cher, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, and Shonda Rhimes.

In September 2016, Longoria hosted a “Latinos for Hillary Dinner with [vice presidential candidate] Tim Kaine” at her Los Angeles-area home. The cost of tickets for the fundraiser ranged from $10,000 to $100,000 apiece.

After Mrs. Clinton’s loss to Trump in the 2016 presidential election, Longoria was “so devastated” that she remained “in bed for almost two days.”

Supporting Beto O’Rourke for the U.S. Senate

In October 2018, Longoria endorsed Democrat Beto O’Rourke‘s bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, where he was ultimately defeated by incumbent Senator Ted Cruz. Among Longoria’s remarks in a pro-O’Rourke campaign video were:

• “There is so much at stake this November, especially for our Latino community. Our state is going to respect our values if we show up and vote.”
• “My story and my success are signs that the American dream can work – that hard work and education can be rewarded. And that this idea can work for Latinas like me and you,” she added.
• “Beto believes in us. He supports us. He supports health care for all. He’s going to fight for our kids’ future and invest in our public school systems so that every kid can succeed.”

Claiming That Brett Kavanaugh Was Guilty of Sexual Violence

In September 2018, Longoria and a number of fellow leftwing female celebrities and activists created a video montage wherein they thanked Christine Blasey Ford for stepping forward to claim that President Trump’s then-Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, had sexually assaulted Ms. Ford at a party 36 years earlier when both were teenagers. The speakers took turns reciting various lines of a message that read as follows:

“Dear Professor Ford, we know how difficult it is to stand up to powerful people. We want to thank you for publicly sharing your story of sexual violence. We can also imagine how shocking and overwhelming it must have been to have your truth shared on a national stage without your permission.

“You should be the decision maker about how your story is shared, if ever. We applaud your courage in coming forward for the public good. And we will be with you as you face the inevitable backlash. You are strong, and you are not alone. You are a survivor. And millions of us have your back. You and your testimony are credible. We believe you. Signed, your sisters.”

Lamenting Discrimination against Latinas

At a November 12, 2018 American Civil Liberties Union event in California, Longoria received a “Bill of Rights Award” in recognition of  her support for various leftwing and charitable causes. In the course of her acceptance speech, she said:

• “In the current political climate, we’re [Latina women are] one of the groups facing the most discrimination. I’m ninth-generation American. I’m more American than Donald Trump.”
• “… I decided to start the Eva Longoria Foundation with the idea that I wanted to narrow the opportunity gap and the economic gap that exists for Latinas. I decided to focus on women because if women ran the world, it would be a better place.”

Lamenting America’s “Endless Racial Terrorism”

Shortly after George Floyd’s infamous death in a confrontation with a white Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Longoria took to Instagram to honor his memory, writing:

“My heart hurts every time I read the news! When will this stop?? Please help our country regain its humanity! We are all humans who deserve to be protected. Not killed. Please don’t write any stupid comments. If you are not outraged by this, then unfollow me.”

Longoria also wrote: “Please watch the video of George Floyd being murdered by four white policemen. Find the one that’s the whole ten minutes. Bear witness to his painful last moments. Listen as he begs the cops to let him breathe. As he calls for his mama. As he tells them they are killing him. As he gasps his final breaths. Watch as these cops do nothing, except hold him down and watch as he dies. It’s unbearable to see, but we must. To ignore this terrorism, to turn our back on this injustice, to close our eyes to this suffering make us complicit to the endless racial terrorism that is happening in communities all over our nation. The video fucked me up, I imagine it will you too, but please watch it and then call the Minneapolis DA’s office at 612-348-5550 and demand they press charges.”

Exhorting Immigrants, Legal & Illegal, to Fill out Census Forms

In June 2020, Longoria appeared with numerous fellow celebrities in a Stacey Abrams-led PSA video emphasizing that it was “so important for underrepresented communities to respond to the census, especially immigrants.” added the video:

“When we’re counted in the census, our communities get resources and representation. And when we’re not counted, they don’t. Every decade, the same groups of people are undercounted by the census: communities of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, people with low income, and those experiencing homelessness. When these communities are undercounted, they don’t get the health care, education, and representation in the government that they deserve – for 10 years.”

Supporting Biden-Harris for the White House in 2020

In September 2020, Longoria was in Miami encouraging local residents to vote for the Democratic presidential ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

In a November 2020 appearance on MSNBC shortly after Joe Biden had been declared the winner of the presidential race against Donald Trump, a jubilant Longoria said:

“The women of color showed up in big ways. Of course, you saw in Georgia what Black women have done, but Latina women are the real heroines here, beating men in turnout in every state and voting for Biden-Harris at an average rate close to three to one.

“And that wasn’t surprising to us. You know, Latinas are the CEOs of the households. They make all the financial decisions and healthcare decisions and educational decisions. Many Latinas are small business owners and they wanted a plan for recovery for themselves — not for Wall Street. And so, Trump’s policies were never aimed at the struggling Latina community.”

In January 2021, Longoria hosted a telecast covering Biden’s presidential inauguration.

Supporter of the “For The People Act”

On March 31, 2021 Longoria tweeted in support of H.R. 1, the “For the People Act,” describing the legislation as “a historic bill that will enact essential voter protections and reforms.”[3]

Supporter of COVID Vaccination Program

In April 2021, Longoria participated in the Biden administration’s campaign exhorting all Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Accusing the Mainstream News Media of Racism

In June 2022, Longoria blasted the mainstream news media for its negative depiction of nonwhite minorities. Among her remarks were the following:

• “The villainization of black and brown people comes from the media. I mean news. I mean all of this misinformation, especially during election cycles. Specifically, being Latino, we’re murderers and rapists.”
• “If the only thing that we’re ever seeing in movies and TV is the stereotypes and perpetuating those stereotypes, it educates other communities about us.”
• “But most importantly, media informs ourselves of who we are, and that’s the problem. Our communities can’t look up and aspire to be and do more if all they see is Narcos in TV and film.”

Creating a Database of Nonwhite Performers

In June 2022, Longoria announced that she was creating a database of nonwhite actors and performers, as a tool to help Hollywood studios more easily find minority cast members for their various productions.

Friendly Relations with Joe Biden

After a White House screening of Longoria’s Flamin’ Hot in June 2023, President Biden praised the movie as “a film that tells a story about the power of opportunity, a cornerstone of our democracy and exactly what the Hispanic American community embodies.”

Footnotes:

1. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
2. For details about the thoroughly debunked claim that Trump mocked a disabled reporter, click here.
3. According to the Heritage Foundation, H.R.1’s enactment would:
   • “Seize the authority of states to regulate voter registration and the voting process by forcing states to implement early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day registration, online voter registration, and no-fault absentee balloting.”
   • “Degrade the accuracy of registration lists by requiring states to automatically register all individuals (as opposed to “citizens”) from state and federal databases.”
   • “Require states to count ballots cast by voters outside of their assigned precincts, overriding the precinct system used by almost all states that allows election officials to monitor votes, staff polling places, provide enough ballots, and prevent election fraud.”
   • “Mandate no-fault absentee ballots, which are the tool of choice for vote thieves. It would ban witness signature or notarization requirements for absentee ballots; force states to accept absentee ballots received up to 10 days after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by Election Day; and require states to allow vote trafficking (vote harvesting).”
   • “Prevent election officials from checking the eligibility and qualifications of voters and removing ineligible voters.”
   • “Ban state voter ID laws by forcing states to allow individuals to vote without an ID and merely signing a statement in which they claim they are who they say they are.”
   • “Require states to restore the ability of felons to vote the moment they are out of prison regardless of uncompleted parole, probation, or restitution requirements.”
   • “Transfer the right to draw congressional districts from state legislatures to ‘independent’ commissions whose members are unaccountable to voters.”
   • “[P]ermit the IRS to investigate and consider the political and policy positions of nonprofit organizations before granting tax-exempt status, thus enabling IRS officials to target organizations engaging in First Amendment activity with disfavored views.”