Kevin De Leon: President Pro Tempore, California Senate.

AuthorAndrade, Jane Carroll
PositionTHE FINAL WORD

In 2014, Kevin de Leon became the first Latino elected leader of the Senate in over a century. He had served four years in the Assembly before his election to the Senate in 2010. After graduating with honors from Pitzer College, de Leon taught citizenship courses to immigrants, was a community organizer, and worked with the National Education Association and California Teachers Association. In 1995 he helped plan the largest civil rights march in California history against Proposition 187--a voter-approved initiative that denied government services to undocumented immigrants--a law he later worked to overturn.

How will the new Trump administration affect California's policies? California is and must always be a refuge of justice and opportunity for people of all walks, talks, ages and aspirations, regardless of how you look, where you live, what language you speak or who you love. Today California is the fifth largest economy in the world, and we're the strongest driver of our nation's economy, largely because of our progressive policies. We're raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour and providing equal pay for women. We've provided the most advanced and ambitious climate change leadership in the nation, if not the world, and enacted the largest expansion of retirement security since Social Security. We're not going to allow one election to reverse generations of progress at the heights of our historic diversity, scientific advancement, economic output and sense of global responsibility.

What is your most important legislative priority this session and why? To keep the economy growing and continue to provide access and opportunity. We want to move policies that send the right market signals, invite capital to California, and create the jobs of tomorrow. We're actually recalibrating a new economy in the clean energy space: renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric vehicles and transportation electrification--the infrastructure for charging stations-which will be ubiquitous throughout the state of California very soon.

What does it take to be an effective leader? You have to lead with a sense of purpose, with intentionality. I don't believe in allowing the market forces to shape your agenda. We believe strongly that this has been the recipe for success, as opposed to the old, tired corporate tax cuts and tax credits, that some think will somehow miraculously be the panacea to all the economic ills.

What did it mean to you and your family...

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