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Candidates › CA-12 race › 2025–2026
Lateefah Simon
D Democratic nominee for U.S. House, CA-12
Representative since 2025
Other accounts (2)
The same platforms’ other accounts, such as a congressional office’s or an earlier campaign’s.
- On the ballot
- Lost the general electionNov 3, 2026 · 94,591 votes (41.5%) · 2 of 2
- Where to vote
- Find your polling place (opens in a new tab) · More ways to vote
- Top priorities
- Public Safety
- Affordable Housing
- Homelessness
- Affordability and Job Creation
- Healthcare for All
- In Congress
- Representative since 2025 · votes with their party 97% of the time. See the record · Office phone 202-225-2661
- Money
- $1.7M raised, $1.3M spent, $725.8K cash on hand (through Oct 14, 2026). Where it comes from
- Who gives
- 7.7% of individual money from donors at $200 or less · 86% from California · largest committee giver NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, $10K
- Outside groups
- $111.6K supporting Simon
- Sponsored most in
- Commerce, Transportation and Public Works, Crime and Law Enforcement
16 priorities from lateefahsimon.com, in the order they are listed there. Every heading and the text under it is copied exactly, as one passage for each page it is from, and links to that place on the page; hover a source to see which passage it opens.
With a 30-year commitment to public safety and justice, Lateefah brings unmatched experience and leadership to this race. Starting her career as a senior leader in the San Francisco’s District Attorney’s office, she served as the Chief of Reentry under then-District Attorney Kamala Harris, where she crafted the award-winning Back on Track program, reducing crime and recidivism through education and job training for nonviolent offenders. This model has been widely recognized and replicated as a national success in criminal justice reform.
Before her work in the District Attorney’s office with Kamala Harris, Lateefah led the Young Women’s Freedom Center, a beacon of hope for justice for young women. Through employment and empowerment programs, she helped create pathways out of the criminal justice system, reducing recidivism and changing lives. Her visionary leadership earned her the prestigious MacArthur 'Genius’ Award and she became the youngest woman ever to receive the award.
Lateefah’s public safety experience extends to her leadership on the BART Board of Directors, where she implemented progressive policing policies by launching the Progressive Policing and Community Engagement Bureau (PPCEB). This initiative, the first for a U.S. transit agency, in addition to its sworn officers, deploys non-sworn Transit Ambassadors and Crisis Intervention Specialists to provide welfare checks, handle Code of Conduct violations, and de-escalate situations. The PPCEB’s efforts have freed up sworn officers to respond to emergency calls faster—resulting in one of the region's fastest response times for tier 1 emergency calls, averaging just over 4 minutes.
Lateefah will champion legislation that closes loopholes in federal gun laws, stops the flow of illegal firearms into the community, and provides resources for mental health, addiction treatment, and programs geared towards preventing recidivism. Lateefah will advocate for investment in public safety measures in California’s 12th district, combining her track record of effective leadership with her vision for a safer, more just community.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/new-issue
Housing is a fundamental right, and real solutions are needed to address the housing crisis in our district. With a focus on urgency and innovation, Lateefah is leading efforts to build affordable housing and transit-oriented development. Her work on the BART Board will add over 1,000 new bedrooms to the district, providing critical relief for working families, seniors, and individuals struggling to find stable, affordable homes.
Lateefah will leverage her strong relationships in the House and Senate to champion resource procurement for Oakland’s housing crisis. Working with elected colleagues in California, she will aggressively pursue the $4.5 billion needed to build and operate permanent supportive housing for all homeless residents in the district.
In Congress, Lateefah will advocate for policies that end landlord discrimination, ensure that federal funds are allocated towards making public housing a positive, community-oriented, and safe space, and increase rental subsidies so that residents can stay in their homes. She will continue to support legislation like SB 567, the Homelessness Prevention Act, to ensure that renters' and tenants' rights are protected and financial burdens on tenants are alleviated, especially those who are already struggling to make ends meet.
Lateefah will uplift bills like the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act as key tools for addressing this issue. The bill expands and strengthens the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, encouraging more investment in the development and maintenance of affordable housing. She also supports the plan announced by Vice President Kamala Harris to build 3 million homes over the next four years, provide assistance for first-time home buyers, and encourage local governments to remove the barriers to construction. For the district, it means more homes for those with the greatest needs and a meaningful response to the housing shortage. Lateefah supports this legislation because it will create more opportunities for families to live close to work, with access to public transportation, and in diverse communities. This district can become a model for equitable, affordable housing solutions with focused effort.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/affordable-housing
As the state faces its biggest challenge in homelessness, Lateefah understands that the government must do its part to tackle the moral crisis on our streets. Our unhoused neighbors deserve to receive compassionate care and adequate support to get out of homelessness. As a member of Congress, she will fight to leverage federal funds to transform empty government buildings like the old County Jail in Oakland into dignified emergency shelters for those living on the streets. Lateefah will ensure that the East Bay gets the resources to build more transitional housing units. Lateefah knows mental health is front and center of this issue, and she will continue to fight to strengthen mental health services as she has on the BART Board. Lateefah will champion efforts to get federal aid to increase mental health and social worker staffing and get them the support they need because she recognizes that they are at the frontlines of this crisis.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/homelessness
For nearly 30 years, Lateefah has been a steadfast advocate for economic justice by building and running organizations and initiatives focused on providing opportunities for working-class and middle-class communities to prosper. As someone who has helped create hundreds of jobs and is supported by labor unions across the district, Lateefah understands job creation's social and economic impact as a key to creating safer communities. She is committed to building an economy that works for everyone by cutting costs and protecting consumers, including supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ pledge to tackle food inflation and lower grocery prices by banning corporate price-gouging. Her unwavering commitment will continue in Congress, ensuring every American can access good-paying jobs. She supports a living wage, aid to small businesses, and investment in infrastructure projects that create jobs and stimulate local economies. Lateefah will push for economic policies that ensure the wealthiest Americans and corporations pay their fair share to reduce income inequality so families have an opportunity no matter their neighborhood.
As a nationally recognized community organizer, Lateefah has lived a life on the front lines and understands the power of collective action, bargaining, and protecting the right of workers to unionize. That is why, once in Congress, Lateefah will continue to fight for the rights of workers by enacting comprehensive labor law reforms to ensure collective bargaining and workplace democracy for all workers, establish a 12-week paid federal Family and Medical Leave program, and strengthen laws to prevent big corporations from engaging in wage theft, misconduct, illegal employment of children, workplace violations, and retaliation based on workers’ immigration status.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/affordability-and-job-creation
Access to affordable, high-quality healthcare is a fundamental human right. Lateefah will fight to expand and protect healthcare coverage, advocating for a public option and ultimately working towards an affordable single-payer health system. Building on Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s staunch support for the Affordable Care Act, Lateefah will work to lower prescription drug prices by expanding Medicare drug price negotiation to cover all drugs, close the Medicaid coverage gap, expand Medicare to include dental, vision and hearing, and lower the Medicare eligibility age.
Lateefah will also work to address health crises by investing in maternal and infant mortality, particularly in communities of color, and mental health and substance use treatment and prevention, particularly for the opioid epidemic. Lateefah will fight to codify every American’s right to reproductive health care to protect abortion, contraception, and IVF access across the United States.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/healthcare-for-all
Throughout her career, Lateefah has been a fierce advocate for women's reproductive freedom, fighting to ensure that all women have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. If elected to Congress, she will fight like hell alongside Democrats to win back a woman’s right to choose. Lateefah knows this battle is not just about healthcare—it’s about dignity, equality, and justice. She will be relentless in pushing back against every effort to strip away these rights and will fight tirelessly to guarantee that every woman, no matter where she lives or how much she makes, has access to safe and legal abortion.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/reproductive-freedom
A lifelong resident of the Bay, Lateefah has dedicated herself to fighting for racial and social justice in Oakland and her community and has no plans to end her fight for equity and equality when she reaches the halls of Congress. As a Black woman and a single mother of two, Lateefah has seen firsthand how the most marginalized and disadvantaged communities, often immigrant communities and communities of color, are the first to have their civil and social rights put on the chopping block by conservative legislators.
In Congress, Lateefah will continue to fight for structural changes to improve the lives of her constituents and people across the United States. She will support legislation to prohibit the use of the death penalty at the federal level and require re-sentencing of those currently on death row. She has decades of experience working to empower and protect survivors of trafficking and violence with the Young Women’s Freedom Center and started the nationally recognized Back-on-Track program in then-DA Harris’ office to prevent recidivism. This background has given her both the motivation and expertise to create and advocate tirelessly for racial justice legislation.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/racial-and-social-justice
Lateefah knows the value immigrants bring to our communities and our economy. She will work to create a fair and humane immigration system that would disentangle the criminal system from the immigration system and expand legal pathways to work authorization and citizenship.
That simply recognizes a few basic principles: America has been the world's envy for decades because people have aspired to pursue the American Dream. A fair and humane immigration system only works when there are no backlogs that prolong waiting periods for asylum applicants and employment-based immigration.
Dreamers are Americans; their home is here. We must defend these young people who have so much to offer our country by defending DACA and leading the way in enshrining it in law. Every year, Dreamers contribute millions of dollars in taxes to America’s social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security. Lateefah believes Dreamers should have a pathway to citizenship and have access to the social safety net that their tax dollars go to.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/immigration
Lateefah has been a lifelong advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, fighting for full equality and protection under the law. She will not only support but champion policies that combat discrimination, protect transgender rights, and ensure access to healthcare and social services for LGBTQ+ people. She will support the protection of LGBTQ+ people and people with HIV from discrimination at work, school, and in public spaces and codify the rights of transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people, including gender-affirming care and health care, and prohibit conversion therapy. Her advocacy is a testament to her commitment to equality and inclusion for all.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/lgbtq-rights
Lateefah is committed to advancing the rights of people with disabilities, including those with chronic illnesses, physical disabilities, and intellectual differences. If elected, she will be one of the few disabled voices in Congress; she will fight for full ADA compliance across all public spaces, ensuring accessibility is a right, not an option.
Her platform puts disabled individuals at the center, advocating for stronger enforcement of disability rights, expanded resources, and the removal of barriers to self-determination. Lateefah envisions a future where disabled people can live with dignity, independence, and equal opportunities to shape their own lives.
Her goal is clear: to ensure that disabled people have the access, opportunity, and self-determination to live prosperous and dignified lives.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/disability-rights
To strengthen our democracy, Lateefah will prioritize protecting and expanding voting rights. She will support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, push for automatic voter registration, and advocate for measures that reduce barriers to voting. Lateefah will support ranked-choice voting and ending partisan gerrymandering. She will aim to reduce money's influence in politics by eliminating secret corporate spending in elections, promoting transparency and accountability in government, and supporting a ban on stock trading and ownership for members of Congress and the Federal Judiciary.
In an age of partisan judiciaries, politicization of judicial interpretation of laws, and a Supreme Court that has exposed itself to be vulnerable to external lobbying and gift-giving, Lateefah will work to provide sorely needed reform to the Supreme Court and the lower courts. She will support expanding the number of justices on the bench, implementing term limits, and creating new judgeships across the federal system. Lateefah will also support and help impose an enforceable code of conduct on the Supreme Court, including instituting accountability measures and restrictions on gifts and requiring judicial disclosures and recusal.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/voting-rights-and-democracy-reform
Inspired by the legacy of Congressman Ron Dellums and Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Lateefah is committed to challenging the unchecked growth of military spending and refocusing our national priorities. For far too long, billions have been funneled into an overinflated defense budget that fuels the military-industrial complex without making our communities any safer.
As a supporter of the People Over Pentagon movement, Lateefah believes it’s time to reinvest in the people's needs. Instead of wasting billions on outdated weapons and corporate contracts, funds could be used to power homes with renewable energy, hire more teachers, reduce college costs, and ensure our veterans receive the healthcare and dignity they deserve. These investments, not military overspending, strengthen our country.
A strong advocate for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in the Middle East, Lateefah believes proper security comes from diplomacy—not war profiteering and unchecked military budgets. Lateefah will carry Dellums’ and Lee's anti-war values, fighting to cut wasteful defense spending and redirect those resources toward critical areas like healthcare, education, and housing. She will strive to build a world where peace and justice prevail over war and violence.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · lateefahsimon.com/issues/global-security