Lateefah Simon | |
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![]() Official portrait, 2025 | |
Member of the U.S.HouseofRepresentatives from California's 12th district | |
Assumed office January 3, 2025 | |
Preceded by | Barbara Lee |
Personal details | |
Born | Lateefah Aaliyah Simon January 29,1977 San Francisco,California,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Kevin Weston (m. 2012;died 2014) |
Children | 2 |
Education | Mills College (BA) University of San Francisco (MPA) |
Signature | ![]() |
Website | House website Campaign website |
Lateefah Aaliyah Simon [1] (born January 29, 1977) is an American politician who is the U.S. representative for California's 12th congressional district since January 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first member of Congress known to be born legally blind in both eyes, and the first Muslim member from California and outside of the Midwestern United States. [2] [3]
She served on the Bay Area Rapid Transit board of directors [4] and on the board of trustees of the California State University system. [5] She served as a trustee of the San Francisco Foundation and president of MeadowFund, a community investment fund created by Patricia Quillin, the wife of Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and was president of Akonadi Foundation, an organization focused on racial justice in Oakland, California. [6] [7] In 2003, she became the youngest woman to receive a MacArthur Fellowship for her leadership of the Center for Young Women's Development (now the Young Women's Freedom Center) in San Francisco at the age of 26. [8] [9]
![]() | This section needs expansionwith: Info re parents, family and childhood. You can help by adding to it. (July 2025) |
Simon earned a Bachelor of Arts in public policy at Mills College, where she was the 2017 commencement speaker, [10] a Master of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco, and was a 2014 Social Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Fellow at Stanford University. [11]
During the tenure of Kamala Harris as San Francisco District Attorney, Simon led the creation of the city's Back on Track program for young adults charged with low-level felony drug sales. [12] Simon also previously worked as the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 2016, Simon was appointed to the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees by Governor Jerry Brown. [13]
Simon was elected to represent the seventh district on the Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) board of directors in 2016. [14] Her motivations for running included her reliance on BART, as someone who is legally blind and unable to drive. [15] In 2020, she was elected president of the board of directors. [14]
In 2022, BART officials announced that Simon had been removed from the board after it was determined that her residence lay outside District 7, making her ineligible to represent the district. Simon stated that she had moved due to threats against her family stemming from her advocacy on police reform, and that she had been assured by BART staff prior to moving that the new residence was within district boundaries. She described the outcome as “deeply disappointing.” [16]
Later that month, BART reversed its decision and reinstated Simon to the board. [17]
In February 2023, Simon announced that she was running for California's 12th congressional district. [12] The previous representative for the district, Barbara Lee, did not seek re-election to the seat and instead ran as a candidate in the 2024 United States Senate election in California. On November 2, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom endorsed Simon's candidacy. [18] Simon defeated CSU East Bay professor Jennifer Tran, a fellow Democrat, in the November general election. [19]
For the 119th Congress: [20]
Simon has positioned herself within the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, supporting policies modeled on European social democracies. [24]
She has advocated for a federal jobs guarantee, a national minimum wage of at least $15 per hour, universal health care, expanded union protections, and strengthened safety-net programs such as Medicaid and food assistance. [25] She has opposed budgetary cuts to education, health care, and social services while criticizing defense appropriations, pledging to vote against legislation that funds warfare. [26]
Simon has aligned with environmental justice groups in California, voicing support for policies aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels and resisting corporate lobbying from the oil industry. [27]
In Congress, Simon has been critical of U.S. military intervention and funding of foreign conflicts. She has called for reductions in defense spending and a reorientation of federal resources toward domestic welfare, health care, and education. [28]
Simon has opposed tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese imports, describing them as harmful to working families by driving up consumer prices. She has framed tariff policy as a form of “economic sabotage” that burdens households while failing to address structural inequalities. [29]
Simon has been outspoken in her criticism of Israeli military operations in Gaza and U.S. financial and military support for them. She described Israeli actions against Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid as “devastating, deplorable, and unacceptable,” and stated that the United States has been complicit in civilian deaths. [30] She has characterized the situation in Gaza as a humanitarian crisis marked by famine and civilian suffering, urging an end to U.S.-backed violence and restrictions on aid delivery. [31]
Simon is the mother of two children. [11] Simon's husband, Kevin Weston, was a recognized journalist and activist who died from leukemia in 2014. [32] She is Muslim and legally blind. [33] [34]
Primary election | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
Democratic | Lateefah Simon | 86,031 | 55.9 | |
Democratic | Jennifer Tran | 22,999 | 14.9 | |
Democratic | Tony Daysog | 17,222 | 11.2 | |
Republican | Stephen Slauson | 9,710 | 6.3 | |
Democratic | Glenn Kaplan | 6,799 | 4.4 | |
Democratic | Eric Wilson | 4,252 | 2.8 | |
Democratic | Abdur Sikder | 2,857 | 1.9 | |
Republican | Ned Nuerge | 2,535 | 1.6 | |
Democratic | Andre Todd | 1,632 | 1.1 | |
Total votes | 154,037 | 100.0 | ||
General election | ||||
Democratic | Lateefah Simon | 185,176 | 65.4 | |
Democratic | Jennifer Tran | 97,849 | 34.6 | |
Total votes | 283,025 | 100.0 | ||
Democratic hold |