Jimmy Panetta has spent much of his time in Congress focused on issues that are central to the current legislative agenda, from food assistance programs to undocumented farm workers to the military to gun control. But he’s also spent years cultivating relationships with members of the other party that could make him a key dealmaker. Panetta was commissioned as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2003 and volunteered for a tour in Afghanistan in 2007. He served a year with the Joint Special Operations Command. Panetta moved to the prosecutor’s office in Monterey County and was assigned to the Gang Team in Salinas in 2011, where he was a deputy district attorney prosecuting violent gang members.

Learn what Jimmy Panetta says about finding common ground