Reelect Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo to keep AD-40 on the right track for progress.
Assm. Schiavo’s track record and policy positions demonstrate that she will continue to be a representative voice for the constituents of AD-40 and will govern effectively in the best interests of this diverse district.
Progressive endorsements: Assm. Schiavo has the endorsement of many groups, including Equality California, Sierra Club California, Reproductive Freedom for All California, California Environmental Voters, and many labor groups. She has also received a problematic endorsement from Los Angeles Police Protective League.
Top issues: Economy and jobs creation, Health Care for All, homelessness and housing, mutual aid, women’s issues, and environmental protections.
Priority bills: This legislative session, Assm. Schiavo’s priorities for AD-40 have included 44 bills about PFAS and product safety, worker benefits, homelessness and housing, and childcare. Of these, eight have been successfully chaptered into law, 10 have died, four have been vetoed, and the rest remain in committee. In 2023, she sponsored and passed legislation to require the convening of an Affordable Housing Finance Workgroup to develop recommendations for funding projects, update regulations on payment deferral requests for military reservists, and eliminate corporate greed in the Medicare system. In 2024, she proposed legislation to encourage all school districts to develop a healthy homework policy to guide homework distribution by grade, require the Department of Public Health to raise awareness of the state’s abortion access website, and put new limits on foreclosure proceedings. She scored a CS of 75 out of 100 on Courage Score, our annual analysis of legislators’ progressive voting records. Based on our Courage Score analysis, Assm. Schiavo supported some progressive bills that made it to a vote last year. Assm. Schiavo failed to cast a vote on several important pieces of legislation this session, including ACA13 to amend the threshold for passing ballot measures, AB600 to allow a judge to recall a sentence if there is a change to the law after sentencing, and AB12 to cap the security deposit amount a landlord can require to one month of rent.
Member of the California Legislative Progressive Caucus?: No
Committee leadership/membership: Assm. Schiavo currently sits on five standing committees, including Health, Water, Parks, and Wildlife, and Utilities and Energy. She serves as chair of the Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, and chair of the Select Committee on Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure.
Governance and community leadership experience: Assm. Schiavo has served in this assembly seat since 2022, when she was elected with 50.2% of the vote, a margin of just 500 votes over her Republican opponent.
Prior to her election to the Assembly, Assm. Schiavo was long involved in labor-organizing work. She served as political director for the San Francisco Labor Council, which guaranteed health care in San Francisco. Schiavo also recruited and trained new organizers at the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and represented mental health workers for SEIU in Massachusetts, where she also did low-income tenant organizing. She spent 13 years with the California Nurses Association (CNA), where she worked closely with nurses to organize a statewide coalition for a single-payer system in California, including coordinating the field campaign for SB 562. Her work with CNA also involved time as a field coordinator to deploy nurses for disasters and humanitarian missions to hurricane sites, border shelters, California wildfires, and a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in South Los Angeles. Assm. Schiavo has worked with APEN and a broad coalition in the East Bay on environmental issues, and with Jobs with Justice SF, the Chinese Progressive Association, and various SEIU Local and unions in San Francisco while at the San Francisco Labor Council. In her more recent organizing, Schiavo co-founded West Valley Homes YES! (WVHY) to fight for housing for unhoused neighbors. In 2020, the organization became the largest mutual-aid program in the San Fernando Valley.
Other background: Assm. Schiavo is from Southern California’s West Valley and currently lives in Chatsworth.
The Race
Primary election results: The March 2024 results included incumbent Assm. Pilar Schiavo (D) 50.2%, and Patrick Lee Gipson (R) 49.8%. Assm. Pilar Schiavo and Patrick Lee Gipson will contend in a run-off in the November 5 general election.
Candidate fundraising and pledges: Assm. Schiavo’s campaign has raised $1.7 million and is funded by police, fossil fuel, real estate, and corporate PAC interests. Her problematic donors include Los Angeles Police Protective League PAC, Edison International, California Real Estate PAC, and AirBnB Inc.
Opposing candidate: Republican Patrick Lee Gipson
Opposing candidate’s fundraising and pledges: Gipson’s campaign has raised $273,000 and is funded by police interests.
The District
Counties in district: California’s 40th Assembly District includes parts of Los Angeles County.
Voter registration: 42% Democrat, 29% Republican, and 22% No Party Preference. This district was held by Republicans until 2018 when James Ramos won and flipped it from red to blue.
District demographics: 27% Latino, 15% Asian, and 6% Black.
Recent election results: AD-40 voted for Joe Biden for president in 2020 by 16 points and Gavin Newsom for governor in 2022 by 6 points.
The Position
State assemblymembers represent and advocate for the needs of their district constituents at the California State Capitol. They are responsible for creating, debating, and voting on legislation that addresses issues within their district.
The California State Assembly has 80 districts. Each represents a population of at least 465,000 Californians. Representatives are elected to the Assembly for a two-year term. Every two years, all 80 seats are subject to election. Members elected before 2012 are restricted to three two-year terms (six years) in the Assembly. Those elected in or after 2012 are allowed to serve 12 years total across both the state Senate or Assembly. This term, Democrats currently hold a three-quarters supermajority of 62 seats in the California State Assembly, while Republicans hold 17 seats and one seat is vacant.
Reelect Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo to keep AD-40 on the right track for progress.
Assm. Schiavo’s track record and policy positions demonstrate that she will continue to be a representative voice for the constituents of AD-40 and will govern effectively in the best interests of this diverse district.
Progressive endorsements: Assm. Schiavo has the endorsement of many groups, including Equality California, Sierra Club California, Reproductive Freedom for All California, California Environmental Voters, and many labor groups. She has also received a problematic endorsement from Los Angeles Police Protective League.
Top issues: Economy and jobs creation, Health Care for All, homelessness and housing, mutual aid, women’s issues, and environmental protections.
Priority bills: This legislative session, Assm. Schiavo’s priorities for AD-40 have included 44 bills about PFAS and product safety, worker benefits, homelessness and housing, and childcare. Of these, eight have been successfully chaptered into law, 10 have died, four have been vetoed, and the rest remain in committee. In 2023, she sponsored and passed legislation to require the convening of an Affordable Housing Finance Workgroup to develop recommendations for funding projects, update regulations on payment deferral requests for military reservists, and eliminate corporate greed in the Medicare system. In 2024, she proposed legislation to encourage all school districts to develop a healthy homework policy to guide homework distribution by grade, require the Department of Public Health to raise awareness of the state’s abortion access website, and put new limits on foreclosure proceedings. She scored a CS of 75 out of 100 on Courage Score, our annual analysis of legislators’ progressive voting records. Based on our Courage Score analysis, Assm. Schiavo supported some progressive bills that made it to a vote last year. Assm. Schiavo failed to cast a vote on several important pieces of legislation this session, including ACA13 to amend the threshold for passing ballot measures, AB600 to allow a judge to recall a sentence if there is a change to the law after sentencing, and AB12 to cap the security deposit amount a landlord can require to one month of rent.
Member of the California Legislative Progressive Caucus?: No
Committee leadership/membership: Assm. Schiavo currently sits on five standing committees, including Health, Water, Parks, and Wildlife, and Utilities and Energy. She serves as chair of the Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, and chair of the Select Committee on Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure.
Governance and community leadership experience: Assm. Schiavo has served in this assembly seat since 2022, when she was elected with 50.2% of the vote, a margin of just 500 votes over her Republican opponent.
Prior to her election to the Assembly, Assm. Schiavo was long involved in labor-organizing work. She served as political director for the San Francisco Labor Council, which guaranteed health care in San Francisco. Schiavo also recruited and trained new organizers at the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and represented mental health workers for SEIU in Massachusetts, where she also did low-income tenant organizing. She spent 13 years with the California Nurses Association (CNA), where she worked closely with nurses to organize a statewide coalition for a single-payer system in California, including coordinating the field campaign for SB 562. Her work with CNA also involved time as a field coordinator to deploy nurses for disasters and humanitarian missions to hurricane sites, border shelters, California wildfires, and a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in South Los Angeles. Assm. Schiavo has worked with APEN and a broad coalition in the East Bay on environmental issues, and with Jobs with Justice SF, the Chinese Progressive Association, and various SEIU Local and unions in San Francisco while at the San Francisco Labor Council. In her more recent organizing, Schiavo co-founded West Valley Homes YES! (WVHY) to fight for housing for unhoused neighbors. In 2020, the organization became the largest mutual-aid program in the San Fernando Valley.
Other background: Assm. Schiavo is from Southern California’s West Valley and currently lives in Chatsworth.
The Race
Primary election results: The March 2024 results included incumbent Assm. Pilar Schiavo (D) 50.2%, and Patrick Lee Gipson (R) 49.8%. Assm. Pilar Schiavo and Patrick Lee Gipson will contend in a run-off in the November 5 general election.
Candidate fundraising and pledges: Assm. Schiavo’s campaign has raised $1.7 million and is funded by police, fossil fuel, real estate, and corporate PAC interests. Her problematic donors include Los Angeles Police Protective League PAC, Edison International, California Real Estate PAC, and AirBnB Inc.
Opposing candidate: Republican Patrick Lee Gipson
Opposing candidate’s fundraising and pledges: Gipson’s campaign has raised $273,000 and is funded by police interests.
The District
Counties in district: California’s 40th Assembly District includes parts of Los Angeles County.
Voter registration: 42% Democrat, 29% Republican, and 22% No Party Preference. This district was held by Republicans until 2018 when James Ramos won and flipped it from red to blue.
District demographics: 27% Latino, 15% Asian, and 6% Black.
Recent election results: AD-40 voted for Joe Biden for president in 2020 by 16 points and Gavin Newsom for governor in 2022 by 6 points.
The Position
State assemblymembers represent and advocate for the needs of their district constituents at the California State Capitol. They are responsible for creating, debating, and voting on legislation that addresses issues within their district.
The California State Assembly has 80 districts. Each represents a population of at least 465,000 Californians. Representatives are elected to the Assembly for a two-year term. Every two years, all 80 seats are subject to election. Members elected before 2012 are restricted to three two-year terms (six years) in the Assembly. Those elected in or after 2012 are allowed to serve 12 years total across both the state Senate or Assembly. This term, Democrats currently hold a three-quarters supermajority of 62 seats in the California State Assembly, while Republicans hold 17 seats and one seat is vacant.