Jessie Vargas Throws His Hat in the Political Ring and Finds Himself an Underdog Again

Few professional boxers have a plan for what they will do when they can no longer box. Jessie Vargas is an exception. The LA-born, Las Vegas-raised prizefighter, a former world title-holder at 140 and 147 pounds, aspires to a career in politics. On Monday, Nov. 8, Vargas, 32, took the first step toward reaching that goal when he announced his candidacy for the United States Congress where, if elected, he would represent Nevada’s District 4, a district whose population is overwhelmingly concentrated in North Las Vegas.

Vargas won his first 26 pro fights but is 3-3-2 in his last eight. The defeats came at the hands of Timothy Bradley, Manny Pacquaio, and Mikey Garcia. All three bouts were reasonably competitive although Judge Dave Moretti’s 114-113 card for Pacquiao was a bit of a stretch; the fight wasn’t quite that close.

Vargas was an underdog in all three fights – a sizeable underdog to Pacquiao and Garcia – and in his first foray into the political arena he finds himself an underdog again. For one thing, he is running as a Republican in a blue state. Democrats have won five of the last seven presidential elections. Nevada currently has a Democratic governor. Both Senators and three of the four emissaries in the House are Democrats.

On the state level, few organizations are as politically powerful as Nevada’s Culinary Union Local 226 and affiliated Bartenders Local 165. Members include not only kitchen workers and food and drink servers, but bellmen, porters, housekeepers and laundry workers. The district that Vargas hopes to represent includes several upscale communities, but is predominantly blue-collar.

In Nevada, the 2020 U.S. presidential race pit the Union, whose leadership pushed hard for Biden, against the late casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump’s biggest donor. The Union, more than 60,000 strong, 45 percent immigrant, prevailed. Nevada stayed blue.

Before he can challenge incumbent Steven Horsford, who will almost certainly seek a third consecutive term, Vargas must get by the primary. Two others have declared their intention to run as Republicans including Colombian-American political operative Carolina Serrano who will undoubtedly drain some Hispanic votes away from the prizefighter. Moreover, Nevada’s voters have been partial to women lately. Four of the six members of Congress are female.

Jessie Vargas, however, has a lot going for him. He’s photogenic and he’s well-spoken in two languages. He’s been involved in the community. Among other things, he has taught self-defense to recruits at the Las Vegas Police Academy. He’s worked as a color commentator for HBO Latino and DAZN, expanding his profile.

Vargas is a lapsed Democrat. Judging from the results of the recent gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, he has a lot of company. Moreover, in Nevada, Republicans have been making some inroads, however slight. Trump garnered 47.7 percent of the Silver State vote in 2020, up from 45.5 in 2016. Jessie Vargas’s entry into the political arena as a convert to Republicanism may have come at just the right time, but as the old saying goes, a year is an eternity in politics.

Is Vargas done with boxing? Not necessarily. He acknowledges that he is considering some offers. He had an agreement in principle to fight on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez’s May 8 tilt in Texas with Billy Joe Saunders – it would have been Jessie’s first venture at 154 – but promoter Eddie Hearn was unable to dredge up a suitable opponent. Liam Smith called out Vargas last month after he blew past Anthony Fowler in the “Battle of Liverpool.” Since Smith is aligned with Hearn, that would be an easy fight to make.

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Should Vargas win a seat in Congress, he would hardly be the first boxer to make his mark in politics.

During the 19^th century, as the Irish were seizing control of the political machinery in many large cities, the boxer-politician came to the fore. Bare-knuckle boxer John Morrissey, who was a young child when his Irish immigrant parents brought him to America, raised the bar.

During his fighting days that culminated with him winning the American championship, Morrissey became a pet of Tammany Hall, New York’s notoriously corrupt Democratic machine. With Tammany support he became a two-term U.S. Congressman and then, when a schism developed in Tammany over the pay of New York City’s municipal workers, declared himself the workingman’s candidate and was elected to the New York State Senate. He would be best remembered as the founding father of the Saratoga racetrack.

Many ex-boxers, when they entered the political arena, chose some branch of the judiciary that didn’t require a law degree. Voters in many communities were partial to the two-fisted variety of sheriff, men that didn’t need to un-holster their gun to chase away the bad guys.

Tommy Gibbons, who followed his brother Mike Gibbons into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, was elected sheriff of Ramsey County, Minnesota, in 1934 and served six four-year terms. Ramsey County encompassed the city of St. Paul where Gibbons was born to Irish immigrants.

The great Alexis Arguello was the mayor of Managua, Nicaragua, when he took his own life in 2009. His case was different as he was a reluctant office-seeker, a tool of the Sandanistas with whom he became disenchanted. Vitali Klitschko is the mayor of Kiev, the capitol city of the Ukraine, a post he has held since 2014.

There was no hesitation on the part of Manny Pacquiao when he threw his hat into the political ring. The amazing PacMan came up short in his first bid for political office, but went on to win a seat in the Filipino Senate and is now favored at off-shore betting sites to become the president of a nation of 111 million people.

This, needless to say, is a very short list of boxer-politicians. As for Jessie Vargas, wouldn’t it be interesting if his hoped-for career in politics takes flight? Among other things, it would certainly enhance the value of any keepsakes from the Pacquiao-Vargas fight.

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