A LIFETIME OF FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon is a progressive Democrat and nationally recognized advocate for civil rights and social justice running for re-election in California’s 12th Congressional District.

She currently serves as a Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and of the Congressional Equality Caucus. As the first Muslim woman elected to Congress from California and the first member of Congress born with congenital blindness, Congresswoman Simon was also appointed to serve as a Deputy Whip for Policy. She currently serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the House Small Business Committee.

Congresswoman Simon has brought her 30 years of organizing experience and rootedness in community to Congress. She has successfully passed three bipartisan bills in the House of Representatives aimed at expanding opportunities for small businesses in the East Bay and successfully secured over $11 million in transformative federal funding to improve public safety, public transit and expand opportunities for constituents of California’s 12th Congressional District.

Congresswoman Simon began her career of advocacy at age 16 as an outreach coordinator for the Young Women’s Freedom Center.

At age 18, she gave birth to her eldest daughter, Aminah, and quickly learned as a young single mother that government wasn’t working for people like her. A year later, she became Executive Director of YWFC and spent the next decade earning national acclaim for her advocacy on behalf of marginalized young women. In 2003, at age 26, Congresswoman Simon became the youngest woman to receive a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

Congresswoman Simon was later chosen by then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris to lead the creation of Back on Track.

Back on Track was a highly effective, first-of-its-kind anti-recidivism initiative for young adults charged with low-level offenses.

Congresswoman Simon also served as Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she launched successful community-based initiatives such as the Second Chance Legal Services Clinic.

She would go on to become Program Director of the Rosenberg Foundation, where she launched a fund to incubate and accelerate bold ideas from the next generation of progressive leaders in California.

In 2016, galvanized by the death of Oscar Grant, Congresswoman Simon ran and was elected to the Bay Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors.

Born legally blind, Lateefah relies solely on public transportation to go about her day and sought to make BART more affordable for working families and transit-dependent people like herself.

Congresswoman graduated from Mills College with a B.A. in Public Policy, and later earned her MPA from the University of San Francisco. In 2016, Lateefah became president of the Akonadi Foundation, an Oakland-based racial justice organization. In 2020, she was appointed a senior advisor on police reform for California Governor Gavin Newsom. Congresswoman Simon also served on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Foundation, on the Advisory Committee for Human Rights Watch U.S, as an Oxfam Ambassador, and the Board of Directors for Rosenberg Foundation and Tipping Point Foundation.

Congresswoman Simon currently resides in Oakland.

Congresswoman Simon is running for re-election to represent California’s 12th Congressional District, which is home to over 750,000 people across Alameda County, and includes Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, Piedmont, and San Leandro.