Samantha Mota
Candidate for U.S. Representative, Congressional District 37
Samantha Mota was born in September 1998 and raised in Los Angeles County in a rent-controlled apartment, in a single-parent household that relied on WIC, SNAP, and Medicaid to get by. She studied political science at Santa Monica College. In high school, an environmental and U.S. history teacher sparked her interest in activism, and she went on to join Climate Action Santa Monica, a grassroots youth group focused on climate mitigation and adaptation, and to start guerrilla-gardening projects in vacant lots to fight food insecurity and beautify neighborhoods. She championed Santa Monica's support for a local food-production policy initiative and in 2021 received the Premio de Orgullo Award from the city's Hispanic Heritage Month Committee for her urban-agriculture work. Also in January 2021 she was appointed to Santa Monica's Public Safety Reform & Oversight Commission, where she reviewed police department practices and proposed reforms amid the national reckoning on racial justice. She ran for Santa Monica City Council in 2022. She later moved to Baldwin Hills with her husband because of Santa Monica's housing costs, and describes experiencing activist burnout after years of advocacy work.
Positions in brief
Mota's platform centers on universal healthcare, immigration reform, environmental justice, economic security for workers and small businesses, student debt relief, and expanded family and medical leave.
On her campaign website, Mota lists universal healthcare and immigration reform as top issues, along with environmental justice, economic security and support for small businesses, education reform including student loan forgiveness and lower tuition costs, ensuring housing for all, expanding and reforming the Family and Medical Leave Act, and government/democracy reform. Her site presents these as headline priorities without extensive further detail on each.
On the issues
- Health & Health Care
Supports universal healthcare, listed as a top campaign priority.
Source → - Immigration & Border
Supports major immigration reform including ending detention as a deterrent, banning for-profit detention, expanding community-based alternatives, protecting asylum access and due process, and a path to citizenship.
Source → - Environment, Energy & Climate
Supports local and state climate action, including meeting Paris Agreement-level standards, zero-emissions building and EV reach codes, and urban agriculture/food resilience.
Source → - Economy & Jobs
Lists economic security and support for small businesses as a campaign priority.
Source → - Education & Schools
Supports education reform, student loan forgiveness, and lowering tuition costs.
Source → - Housing & Homelessness
Supports ensuring housing for all, listed as a campaign priority.
Source → - Family & Social Services
Supports expanding and reforming the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Source → - Government, Elections & Democracy
Lists democracy reform as a campaign priority.
Source →
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