Reelected to represent the 20th State Senate District in 2018, Senator Connie M. Leyva is serving her second term in the California State Senate. The district includes the cities and communities of Bloomington, Chino, Colton, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Montclair, Muscoy, Ontario, Pomona, Rialto and San Bernardino.
As our State Senator, Senator Leyva is committed to improving California’s schools, environment and communities, as well as creating quality jobs throughout the 20th State Senate District and California.
Since being elected, Senator Leyva authored important legislation signed into law that empowers rape survivors, expands rights of survivors of discrimination and harassment, strengthens the rights and benefits of workers, reduces pollution, requires review of environmental justice impacts on local communities, enhances educational opportunities for students, increases access to reproductive health care, improves health and safety in mobile home parks, protects consumers from toxic chemical exposure, and ensures continued health coverage for Californians, among others.
Senator Leyva serves as Chair of the Senate Education Committee and the Senate Democratic Caucus, as well as on the Business, Professions and Economic Development, Elections and Constitutional Amendments and Health committees. She also currently serves on the California Air Resources Board, as well as the Senate Select Committees on California-Mexico Cooperation, Manufactured Home Communities and Ports & Goods Movement.
A lifelong activist standing up for working people and families, Senator Leyva started working at her local Alpha Beta market as a senior in high school. She served as both Union Representative and President of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1428, helping grocery workers gain a stronger voice for fair wages and benefits. Following in that tradition of community service and action to improve the lives of others, she was elected in 2004 as the first woman President of the California Labor Federation, representing more than 2.1 million workers throughout the state.
Raised in Chino, Senator Leyva has lived in the Inland Empire since she was a small child. She attended local schools and graduated from the University of Redlands with a bachelor’s degree in communicative disorders.
Senator Leyva and her husband Al, live in Chino and are the proud parents of adult twin daughters, Allie and Jessie.