Antonio Villaraigosa

Mayor Villaraigosa served as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles.

In his mid-twenties, he was elected President of the American Federation of Government Employees, a local union representing employees who enforced civil rights laws in five states. Over the next fifteen years, he continued to work as a union organizer for the Service Employees International Union, United Teachers Los Angeles and then served as President of the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In 1994, Villaraigosa was elected to the California State Assembly and three years later, was elected Assembly Speaker. While serving, he brought together environmental and business groups for a $2 billion park bond, the largest in California’s history, authored the Healthy Families program for nearly three quarters of a million uninsured children and passed a $9 billion school bond measure, the largest to that date.

In 2005, he was sworn in as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles. As Mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa led an effort to make Los Angeles one of the safest big cities in America, while building a 21st century transportation system, achieving fundamental and far-reaching education reform, spurring economic development by eliminating government red tape, streamlining the city bureaucracy and making Los Angeles a national model of sustainability and green growth. He served until 2013.

Villaraigosa was a candidate for Governor of California in 2018.