Lateefah SimonIncumbent
Candidate for U.S. Representative, Congressional District 12
Lateefah Simon is the Democratic incumbent for California's 12th Congressional District. The district covers Oakland and much of the East Bay. She was elected in November 2024. She has served since January 3, 2025. She won the seat after Rep. Barbara Lee did not seek reelection to it. Before Congress, Simon served on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board of Directors. She represented District 7 there from 2016 to 2024. She began her advocacy career as a teenager. She started at the Young Women's Freedom Center in San Francisco. She became its executive director as a young adult. She led the group for roughly a decade. She later worked at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. She also worked at the Rosenberg Foundation. Then-District Attorney Kamala Harris appointed her to lead Back on Track. That is an anti-recidivism program. She received a MacArthur Fellowship at age 26. She has served on the California State University Board of Trustees. Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her to that board. Simon holds a bachelor's degree in public policy from Mills College. She earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco. She is running for reelection to a second full term on November 3, 2026. Born 1977. Home: Oakland, California, in the East Bay. Occupation: U.S. Representative, California's 12th Congressional District. Prior office: incumbent since January 2025. Earlier: BART Board of Directors, District 7, 2016 to 2024.
On the issues
- Economy & Jobs
Supports a living wage, stronger labor law protections and collective bargaining rights, anti-wage-theft enforcement, and a ban on corporate price-gouging, while backing job-creating infrastructure investment.
Source → - Taxes & Cost of Living
Supports raising taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations to fund affordability programs, framed as a fairness measure amid rising cost of living.
Source → - Health & Health Care
Supports building toward a single-payer health system via a public option, expanding Medicare drug price negotiation, lowering the Medicare eligibility age, adding dental/vision/hearing to Medicare, and closing the Medicaid coverage gap while protecting the ACA.
Source → - Immigration & Border
Supports expanded legal pathways to citizenship, codifying DACA protections with a path to citizenship for Dreamers, clearing asylum backlogs, and has opposed funding increases for ICE/CBP, citing enforcement abuses.
Source → - Reproductive & Social Issues
Supports codifying nationwide abortion access, contraception, and IVF; backs LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination protections, codifying transgender/nonbinary rights, gender-affirming care access, and a conversion therapy ban.
Source → - Education & Schools
Has championed protections for special education funding and opposed cuts to the Department of Education, and secured federal funding for health-professional higher-education facilities in her district, but has not published detailed positions on student debt relief or federal pre-K policy.
Source → - Public Safety & Policing
Supports universal background checks, a federal extreme risk ("red flag") law, and safe storage requirements, and has been recognized by a gun-safety advocacy group for her record.
Source → - Criminal Justice & Courts
Supports abolishing the federal death penalty and requiring re-sentencing of federal death row inmates; earlier in her career she developed an anti-recidivism program, but she has not published specific positions on bail reform or drug decriminalization.
Source → - Environment, Energy & Climate
Supports a transition to net-zero emissions via a Green New Deal-style framework, opposes the fossil fuel industry, backs streamlined clean-energy transmission permitting, and supports protecting public lands and clean water.
Source → - Foreign Policy & Defense
Opposes continued growth of the military budget and favors redirecting funds to domestic priorities, supports an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East and diplomacy over military intervention, and commits to improving veterans' healthcare.
Source → - Government, Elections & Democracy
Supports expanding voting rights (including the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, automatic voter registration, and ending gerrymandering), banning congressional stock trading, eliminating secret corporate campaign spending, and imposing Supreme Court ethics/term-limit reforms.
Source → - Technology & Privacy
Supports stronger data privacy safeguards, expanded affordable internet access, and general regulatory frameworks for emerging technology including AI, cryptocurrency, and blockchain, but has not published specific positions on online speech/content moderation or antitrust enforcement against major tech companies.
Source →
Profiles are compiled from the candidate’s own statements and public records. We never tell you how to vote.