In 2000, Bonilla, then a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States, joined the board of the Otay Water District in Otay Mesa, California. While in the US, he lived in Chula Vista, California, and was a donor to Republican causes and even was on the California finance committee for John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. In March 2012, he announced his resignation from the water board in order to run for federal deputy and simultaneously join the 2012 presidential campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. At the same time, he renounced his dual citizenship, a move necessary to meet the constitutional requirements to run for office. He became a proportional representation deputy on the PT list, during which time he served as the president of the Northern Border Matters Commission and was the state campaign coordinator for the PT in the 2013 Baja California state elections. Bonilla left the post in 2014 in order to become the state party director for the then-new Morena party. His relationship with López Obrador remained close; in 2016, Bonilla invited him to his Petco Park suite for the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Party members and leaders say that in Bonilla's media holdings, López Obrador saw a "gold mine" to gain media exposure in Baja California.