Accomplishments

I ran for office in 2018 promising to fight for East Bay families on the issues that impact us most — and in my first year in the California State Assembly, I worked hard to make the kind of positive change I promised. 

I ran for office in 2018 promising to fight for East Bay families on the issues that impact us most — and in my first year in the California State Assembly, I worked hard to make the kind of positive change I promised. 

Affordable Housing and Homelessness

We know that our housing crisis affects all of us, so I’m dedicated to tackling the problem from all angles. In 2019 I authored AB 1485, which provides more affordable housing for a large segment of Californians who often get left out of the discussion on this critical issue — the “missing middle,” which includes California teachers, nurses, and other professionals. Making sure these folks can live in the communities they serve is critical, and to do that, we need to be aggressive about building more housing for them. 

I also co-authored AB 1482, the most progressive tenant protection bill in the country, with my Bay Area colleague Assemblymember David Chiu. California tenants have historically been without many protections from landlords who are determined to exploit loopholes in order to manipulate them. Now, thanks to this bill, 8 million California renters will be protected from outrageous rent-gouging that forces people out of their homes, and from unjust evictions — both practices that have been used to hurt hardworking people. 

Though we have much more to do to end this crisis, these two measures are a significant step in the right direction — and they signal the kind of ingenuity and passion among lawmakers and advocates we need to make change. 

Championing community-based gun violence prevention

There’s a reason that many of the most passionate gun violence prevention activists are parents: sending your child to daycare or school or to a movie and wondering about their safety is a terrible feeling, and it’s more than enough to spur you into action. 

My daughter Jojo, and the thousands of young people who call Assembly District 15 home, are the driving forces behind my mission to fight gun violence in our communities. In my first year in Sacramento I secured $30 million for CalVIP, investing in community-based gun violence prevention programs in a deeper way than ever before. These kinds of programs, built by and grounded in community, are demonstrably the most successful, because they are led by people who know which solutions their neighborhoods need. 

Gun violence is personal to all of us, and I sincerely hope that through common sense measures like this — along with large scale reforms to our federal policy — we can ensure safety for all our kids.

Fighting hunger

The out-of-control income gap in the Bay Area has greatly exacerbated our historic housing crisis. But it has taken other shapes, like with widespread hunger, which impacts families across the East Bay. 

We know that hunger can be the deciding factor determining a young person’s ability to succeed in school. And in the Bay Area, one of the most productive and well-off areas in the entire country, we must equip all our children with the resources they need to thrive, at home and at school. That’s why I authored and passed AB 1377, streamlining CalFresh, making it easier for children and families receiving free and reduced lunch to enroll in the program.

Environmental justice in the face of climate change

For the last number of years, Californians have been faced with the terrifying reality of climate change — from a years-long drought to multiple annual wildfires that, at best, result in blackouts, and at worst, uproot entire lives. 

There is much to do in California and at the federal level to slow the pace of climate change and protect a healthy planet for our kids — and it is one of my top priorities in the California State Assembly. In my first year, I authored AB 836, which establishes clean-air centers across the state; it also provides grants to retrofit existing systems in schools, libraries and other public spaces. 

While we fight at the state level, and demand change at the federal level, we are now able to mitigate the urgent health risks caused by natural disasters like wildfires — by giving people a place to breathe clean air and be safe, regardless of where they live. 

Investing in education

I am a proud product of public schools, and I am committed to investing in public schools across California. Our state ranks 45th in the nation in terms of taxable income spent on education, and I came to Sacramento to do all I could to change that.

In my first year in the Assembly, I co-authored AB 39, which increased public school funding by $2 billion per year, just by instituting a tax on the largest corporations in California — the top .2% of corporations, to be exact. Though we have a long way to go to restore educational equity in our state, AB 39 is an important first step. 

I was proud to vote for SB 126, holding charter schools to the same standards as our public schools. This is critical to ensuring that no matter where our kids attend school, they get the high-quality education they deserve.

I am also a proud product of California community colleges, and know that even at our lower-cost schools, it can still be difficult for students of limited means to cover tuition costs. That’s why I was proud to support Governor Newsom’s 2019 budget — which included two years of free community college for all Californians, in addition to the largest per-pupil spending for grades K-12 in California history.

Healthcare equity

Healthcare may be the defining issue of our time as a nation, and though California is far better about investing in access to high-quality care than other states, we still have much further to go — because everyone, no matter where they live or how much money they make, deserves to live a long, healthy life.

That’s why I was proud to vote for SB 29 in 2019, which expanded Medi-Cal coverage to everyone under 25, regardless of their immigration status. If we’re guaranteeing high-quality care to everyone who calls California home, that means everyone — especially as our undocumented fellow citizens face great discrimination from so many state governments, and the White House. 

I also ran for office as a vocal supporter of women’s reproductive rights — and in 2019, when state legislatures around the country worked to strip women of our fundamental rights, I took to the Assembly floor to share my own abortion story and introduce a new constitutional amendment declaring California a “Reproductive Freedom State for All.” I will work tirelessly to ensure California becomes a beacon of hope for women everywhere, despite other states — or our Supreme Court — working to strip us of our reproductive freedom.