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Meet Katie
Katie’s been a U.S. Congresswoman She’s been a consumer protection advocate, helping California families protect their homes from predatory banks. She’s been a teacher, training the next generation of advocates for our rights. And she’s a mom who’s invested in our kids’ futures — and actually knows the price of groceries.
After the 2016 election, Katie launched her first-ever campaign, motivated out of concern about Donald Trump. Two years later, she flipped the congressional seat from red to blue and became the first Democrat to represent the area in 75 years. Katie served three terms in Congress, receiving national attention for taking on Trump administration officials who failed Californians. In March 2020, when we had few tools to address the pandemic, her dogged oversight of Trump’s CDC Director, with her whiteboard, secured free COVID testing for every American.
In Congress, Katie passed bills to stop corporate cheaters and strengthen disaster response. She wrote new laws that crack down on health insurers wrongfully denying care and save patients thousands of dollars from Big Pharma’s unreasonable price hikes. She also passed legislation that would raise firefighter pay and strengthen mental health treatment for first responders.
This year, Katie returned to teaching at the UC Irvine School of Law, where she is training a new generation of consumer advocates. As a UCI professor before going to Congress, Katie was appointed by then-Attorney General Kamala Harris to be California’s independent monitor of banks in a nationwide $25 billion mortgage settlement, helping families get back on their feet in the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis.
Katie is a single mom of three kids. She lives with her family in Irvine, California.
Defending Your Health Care From Trump’s Attacks
Our next governor must be a health care governor! In Congress, I took on our health care challenges — passing a strong law to stop insurance companies from wrongfully denying care, and saving patients billions from drug companies’ price gouging.
Now, there is no doubt that the biggest threat to our health care in California will be from Trump and his allies in Washington. In their far-right budget proposal, Trump and his cronies are attacking the very foundations for our health care system with drastic and devastating cuts. These cuts would put Medicare and Medicaid funding on the chopping block, take away critical money for our safety net hospitals, slash funding that helps middle class Californians afford health insurance premiums, and destabilize programs that help seniors and low-income families get preventative care that keeps them out of hospitals. Who gets hurt? All of us! You and your family! Your neighbors! Doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers! As your Governor, I will fight these cuts with every fiber of my being and work to fortify our health care system at the state level so we can protect, expand and improve health care for all of our residents, while making sure our health care workforce has the support they need to care for Californians.
Everything Costs Too Much! Let’s Make It Easier to Live Here
California families can’t keep up As a single mom of three kids — I know that everything from eggs, bacon, and even flour and sugar are ridiculously expensive right now, and I have seen how the purchasing power of most families has gotten worse since the pandemic. In Congress, I was only ever motivated by one thing: making Californians’ lives better. That won’t change when I am governor. I’ll fight to rein in costs for Californians, expand economic opportunity so families can better tackle inflation, and fight Trump Administration policies like counterproductive tariffs that will only hit you in the pocketbook with higher prices for necessities and make the problem worse.
Bring Businesses, Workers, and Government Together So Our Economy Thrives
As a consumer advocate and a professor specializing in business law, I saw first hand the power of innovation, competition, and workers to create prosperity. California is the engine of America’s economy and a world economic powerhouse — all thanks to the entrepreneurs and workers who had a good idea and put that idea to work. The businesses that started here employ millions of Californians and have allowed our state to have an outsized voice on the world stage. We have to keep that momentum going. I’ll bring businesses, workers, and government together to solve problems and ensure the next generation of technological innovations and economic advancements happen right here in California. I will fight for sustainable good paying union jobs and to ensure our workers have the skills and training they need to thrive in the modern workforce. Every Californian should have the opportunity to be part of California’s economic success and reap the benefits from the amazing things that happen here.
Build More Housing and Keep Californians Off the Streets
California is in the grips of a decades-long housing crisis. My own kids, who are teenagers and college-age, have told me they worry they will never be able to afford to live in their home state of California because of the high cost of housing. We face a generation of Californians in their 20s, 30s, and even 40s who are forced to defer starting a family and owning a home because the cost is just too high. Critical workers — like teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers — are forced to commute hours each day because they can’t afford to live in the communities they work. And more than 150,000 Californians are living unhoused on our streets and sidewalks. We must build more housing of all types — from housing for our seniors who want to age in place to our next generation of talent graduating from our universities. I’ll push the federal government to invest in California’s housing challenges; our biggest need must be Washington’s biggest priority. And I’ll leverage funding streams, greenlight innovative building strategies, shred unnecessary red tape, and create incentives to build the housing that our economy and communities need.
Defend Clean Air Laws and Expand Clean Energy
In Congress, I took on Trump’s attempts Now, Trump is restarting his extreme pro-polluter agenda, and California’s environmental laws will be in his cross hairs. I won’t back down in defending our landmark clean air laws that have reduced pollution and help our kids breathe easier. I will protect our wildland, open spaces and oceans — all resources that power our economy and create amazing communities. And I will fight to ensure that California remains on the front-edge of clean energy innovation and technology so California can be the first state to achieve 100% renewable energy output, 365 days a year.
Prepare For Disasters Like Wildfires, Earthquakes & Floods
Natural disasters can come at any time, so California needs a governor who is tough enough for the task of preventing and rebuilding. We face threats of fires, floods, earthquakes, and even tsunamis, and every dollar in preparation protects us all. In Congress, I authored legislation to raise firefighter pay and passed it through the House of Representatives. And I wrote legislation that would have mandated and funded after-action reports by FEMA so the agency could sharpen best practices and improve their response from disaster to disaster. But the Trump Administration is taking the opposite approach — making deep cuts to FEMA, laying off critical wildland firefighters and safety experts, cutting funding for the agencies like NOAA that study weather patterns. Meanwhile, Trump and his cronies have threatened to illegally hold California disaster money hostage. I will fight for every federal dollar that our communities are owed, create incentives for businesses, families, and governments to invest in disaster resistance, and I’ll fight to improve and expand our ability to fight fires and respond to natural disasters at the state level.