Wendy Carrillo was elected to serve in the California State Assembly in December 2017 amid a special election and represented the 52nd Assembly District, which is home to approximately 500,000 residents in East Los Angeles, Echo Park, portions of East Hollywood, Silver Lake, Atwater Village, Los Feliz, Glassell Park, Cypress Park, Mount Washington, Highland Park, Montecito Heights, Eagle Rock, Garvanza, Hermon, El Sereno and South Glendale.

Wendy is a homegrown leader raised in Boyle Heights and City Terrace. She is a graduate of local public schools and is a proud Roosevelt High School Rough Rider. She attended East Los Angeles College, received a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetorical Communication Studies with a minor in Chicano Studies from California State University Los Angeles and a Master’s Degree in Specialized Journalism and Political Science with an emphasis in demography from the University of Southern California.

In her policy work Wendy led with the values of equity, justice and opportunity, and with the mantra of doing the most good for the most people.

During her tenure in the legislature, she presided as the Chair of the Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration, and served with distinction on the Assembly Committees on Appropriations, Emergency Management, Health, Housing and Community Development, Labor and Employment, Public Safety, Privacy and Consumer Protection, Utilities and Energy, Water, Parks and Wildlife and the Joint Committee on Climate Change Policies.

While in office, Wendy focused on workforce development, immigrant and restorative justice, comprehensive reproductive freedom, mental health and healthcare access, renewable energy, climate justice, civil rights, housing and homelessness, parks and open space and education equity. She delivered millions of state funds on these issues to the people of California and her district, including $50 million to upgrade and retrofit the historic Los Angeles County General Hospital to develop affordable housing and provide mental health services.

Amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, Wendy played a critical role in the distribution of testing and vaccine efforts, creating and expanding COVID-19 paid sick leave, protecting renters and homeowners amid evictions, ensuring relief for small businesses and raised funds for food distribution to help families in need and students who relied on free or reduced lunch amid school closures. She also led efforts to extend the California Film and Television Tax Credit Program to attract job-creating productions to California and create diversity measurements to expand more inclusive narratives, and secured $7.8 million for an awareness campaign and compensation to survivors of forced or involuntary sterilization at state-run institutions, like state hospitals and prisons stemming from eugenics policies.

In addition, she served as Chair of the Select Committee on Latina Inequities, Chair of the Select Committee on Girls and Women of Color, Vice Chair of the Legislative Progressive Caucus, and served on the California Film Commission, Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission, and on the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Board. Assemblywoman Carrillo was a member of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, the California Armenian Legislative Caucus and was a founding member of the California Native American Legislative Caucus.

Wendy is a lifetime member of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO), the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL), where she served as Chair of the Committee on Media and Culture and served as a member of the Energy & Environment Committee with the Council of State Governments West (CSG-West).

Prior to her election, Wendy was an award winning broadcast journalist, media pundit and digital media pioneer covering culture, human rights, global conflict and US politics. Previously, she worked in communications strategy for a Service Employee International Union (SEIU) local and for the Los Angeles City Council as a communication deputy. Assemblywoman Carrillo immigrated to the United States as a young child during the civil war in El Salvador as an unrecognized refugee, becoming a Dreamer, first-generation American and the first Salvadoran-born state legislator in California and the United States.

Senate District 26

The 26th Senate District includes the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, Mt. Washington, Cypress Park, Lincoln Heights, Atwater Village, Elysian Valley, Arlington Heights, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, Larchmont, Koreatown, Pico-Union, Westlake-MacArthur Park, Historic Filipinotown, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Arts District, Civic Center, City Terrace, and East Los Angeles.