State Sen. Steven Bradford, D-CA
Senator Steven Bradford brings a lifetime of experience to the California Legislature. In over two decades of public service – first as a Gardena City Councilmember, then as a State Assemblymember and now as a state senator, representing the 35th District.
Steven made history when he became the first African American elected to the Gardena City Council. Over the 12 years that he served on city council, he helped create robust job and economic growth, and stabilized the city’s budget when the City of Gardena was on the brink of bankruptcy and was $27 million in debt. By the time he left the council, they had eliminated the debt, allocated $8.5 million in reserve, increased employee salaries without raising taxes or cutting essential services, and secured millions of federal dollars for various improvement projects for North Gardena.
Steven was elected to the State Assembly in a Special Election in 2009, reelected in 2010, and again in 2012. While serving in the Assembly, Steven rose to prominence as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce. He garnered national attention by presiding over hearings investigating the devastating power outages across California.
In 2017, Steven was elected to the California State Senate. During his tenure, Steven secured millions of dollars to support projects and programs in the district, including Compton Community College, Watts Rising for affordable housing, green space, and local workforce development. He has obtained funding for community based organizations to provide transformative rehabilitative programs, to support the Charles Drew University, and for the Mental Health Education Practitioner Fund for former foster youth and improving innovative rehabilitation programs at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) facilities.
In 2018, Steven authored and had signed into law the California Cannabis Equity Act, a first-in-the-nation bill that encouraged equitable participation in the cannabis industry and fostered business opportunities for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the War on Drugs. Steven was successful at securing over $40 million in critical funding for the support of cannabis equity programs to address the lack of inclusivity and equity within the cannabis industry by providing social equity applicants with application or licensing fee waivers and deferrals.
In his continued pursuit to enact policies that provide for equity and fairness, Steven authored a first-in-the-nation bill which allows college athletes who generate billions of dollars for corporate sponsors and their universities through the use of their name and images, to also benefit from their skills and talents. With the approval of this legislation, other states introduced bills to enact the same policy, resulting in the NCAA also supporting the rule change, which allows student-athletes to be paid for the use of their name, image, and likeness, aka NIL.
As Chair of the Banking and Financial Institutions Committee, Senator Bradford helped financially empower underserved communities with funding generated from bad actors in the lending industry.
In 2020, Steven was named Chair of the Senate Committee on Public Safety. As Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Steven has authored legislation to increase law enforcement transparency and accountability. He authored SB 2, arguably the most significant police reform bill California has seen in the last decade. The Kenneth Ross Jr. Police Decertification Act of 2021 created the first statewide process to allow for the decertification of police officers who abuse the public trust and commit serious acts of misconduct. He has also authored legislation that allows children to consult with legal counsel prior to interrogation and before waiving their Miranda rights.
Steven can also be credited with the passage of legislation to assist consumers and businesses in maintaining and recovering during the Pandemic, including legislation to protect struggling tenants and small landlords by providing eviction relief and foreclosure protection and funding for small business hiring tax credit programs. He also successfully advocated for $72 million for revitalization projects in underserved communities in his district.
In 2021, Steven was elected by his peers to serve as the Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC). With the Senator at the helm, the CLBC has passed legislation to improve the lives of Californians in the areas of health, public safety, education and economic development. Among those accomplishments was the grant of $40 million in funding to begin the revitalization of the Allensworth State Park and Township. Col. Allen Allensworth built the all African American town beginning in 1908. Unfortunate acts of suspected racism caused the dem
