Kevin de León, the son of a single immigrant mother with a third grade education, rose from San Diego’s Logan Heights barrio to become the first Latino to lead the State Senate in over a century. He is currently President pro Tempore Emeritus of the California State Senate. As leader of the Senate, de León delivered landmark gun-safety legislation, clean-energy mandates, environmental protections, and immigration reform. He authored the “Sanctuary State Bill” Senate Bill 54, created the CalSavers retirement security program, reallocated $2 billion for permanent supportive housing for individuals with mental illness experiencing homeless under his ballot initiative “No Place Like Home”, and legally committed California to 100% clean energy with his Senate Bill 100.

Before politics, Senator de León served the public as a community organizer, taught ESL and U.S.citizenship courses, and advocated for public schools. He graduated with honors from Pitzer College. The Senator is currently a professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and a Distinguished Fellow at the USC Schwarzenegger Institute