My mother, Carmen, cleaned houses and took care of elderly people.
— Kevin de Leon
My mother passed away young - she died from ovarian cancer at just 54 years old. Her sacrifices for my sisters and I evoke a tribute in her honor each and every Mother's Day.
Thanks to policies mandating clean energy development, California's electric grid is one of the least carbon-intensive in the world.
I am not just a defender of the California Dream. I am a product of it.
When you have a president who mocks our inclusivity, who demonizes our diversity... you can't ask for patience.
As the youngest child of a single immigrant mother with a third-grade education, I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd ever be an elected official.
I wouldn't have voted to prosecute 13-year-olds as adults.
Addressing budget issues is usually a balancing act in which cuts are weighed against revenue increases to find the best solution for the state.
California serves as our nation's cutting edge on many fronts.
Dependence on oil from volatile foreign markets undermines our economic security and threatens our national security. Moreover, that addiction is producing toxic air and a public-health epidemic.
Banning plastic bags so that people use paper bags or imported reusable bags that will end up in local landfills soon thereafter is not the only solution to our plastic bag challenge.
Drafting local police into Trump's immigration crackdown undermines public safety and is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.
Our communities will become more - not less - dangerous when local police officers are pulled from their duties to arrest otherwise law-abiding maids, busboys, and day laborers for immigration violations.
Domestic workers allow many people with disabilities to maintain independent, productive lives and live in their own homes - not in institutions.
California continues to pass the most ambitious laws in the world to expand clean energy and combat climate change.
Cap and trade is an important tool in California's climate policy portfolio. It sends a price signal to industries to reduce their carbon pollution while generating billions of dollars in revenue for investments in clean transportation and direct pollution reduction.
California is the greatest beacon of opportunity the world has ever known. But we didn't get here through years of political seniority - we built it through acts of audacity.
Poverty is poverty. At the end of the day, people want a job.
I worry about civil-rights activists being targeted as black-identity extremists. I worry about the government saying, 'I don't like this progressive blogger' and subjecting them to scrutiny.
I wouldn't have voted for the war in Iraq, which has cost us trillions we could have been spending on a carbon-free economy, affordable college, and single-payer health care.
No corner of our society has been left unscathed by the horrors of gun violence. To end it, we'll need to bring together the best from each corner, taking what works from government, the private sector, and our local communities and crafting common-sense solutions to gun violence.
Clean air shouldn't be a privilege dictated by where you can afford to live but a right to which we are all entitled.
Yes, we absolutely need to eliminate the single-use plastic bag, but we don't have to eliminate the jobs of hardworking Californians to accomplish this goal.
Unlike Washington, the California legislature has proved that cooperation is both possible and essential to successful policymaking, while stubborn absolutism will have you trailing head lice in popularity polls.
No one wants dangerous criminals in our communities.
I've been surrounded by strong, hardworking women like my mother all my life.
Clean energy isn't just good for the planet; it's good for consumers' monthly utility bills and for the economy.
If I've learned one thing as a state leader, it's that California will never fulfill its truest potential if we wait for Washington to change on its own.
We can't cross our fingers and hope that President Donald Trump can 'learn and change.'
Democrats are very good at governing. When it comes to messaging, I'm not too sure about.
I wouldn't have supported invoking Taft-Hartley to help George Bush end a strike.
There's always more employers can do to protect their employees.
Lawmakers must stand up for companies that choose public safety over profit margins.
There isn't enough renewable fuel in the world to crack our growing addiction to foreign oil. We need to decrease miles driven and increase engine efficiency.
Recycling more plastics can help local businesses and expand jobs while supporting the goals of sustainability.
California lost its way in 1994 with Prop. 187, but that tragic episode gave birth to a new California consciousness - one that will now do everything within its power to protect our diversity and the economic power it has created.
Police chiefs know a thing or two about public safety.
