Deborah Klein Lopez

Why Thrive LA endorses Deborah

Deborah Klein Lopez is the Mayor Pro Tem of Agoura Hills, first elected to the City Council in 2018 and reelected in 2022. She holds dual degrees in Mathematical Methods in Social Sciences and Economics from Northwestern University, and has worked as a financial analyst, currency trader, and field representative for the California State Assembly. She is now running for Assembly District 42, a sprawling district that stretches from Pacific Palisades and Malibu through Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, and into Simi Valley. Assembly District 42 faces an unusual convergence of challenges: wildfire recovery in Pacific Palisades and Malibu, housing affordability pressures across the corridor, and the everyday public safety and quality-of-life concerns that suburban communities expect Sacramento to take seriously. Klein Lopez brings the right combination of local government experience and financial training to represent this district effectively. Her background in quantitative economics and capital markets gives her a fluency with budgets and risk that most legislators lack, and her years on the Agoura Hills City Council mean she understands how state mandates land on real cities with real constraints. On public safety, Klein Lopez supports expanding resources for local law enforcement, including technology, training, recruitment, and retention. She backs drug treatment courts and additional mental health beds as tools to keep repeat offenders out of the cycle that Proposition 47 accelerated. She earned the endorsement of LA County Firefighters Local 1014 during her 2022 council race, a meaningful signal from a union that evaluates candidates on operational competence, not ideology. On housing, she has pushed for workforce and senior housing production and supports cutting red tape for disaster rebuilding, a position that is immediately relevant as Palisades fire recovery moves forward. Her nearly 20 years managing a weekly winter homeless shelter demonstrates sustained, hands-on engagement with homelessness rather than sloganeering. Her campaign emphasizes reducing the cost and regulatory burden of doing business in California, supporting employers of all sizes, and leveraging major economic events for local opportunity. Klein Lopez also carries endorsements from termed-out Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, former LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, and a broad coalition of local elected officials across both counties. That breadth of support reflects a candidate who builds coalitions rather than picking ideological fights. Deborah Klein Lopez is the experienced, analytically rigorous Assembly representative District 42 needs.