Jessica Caloza

Why Thrive LA endorses Jessica

Jessica Caloza represents California's 52nd Assembly District, covering Northeast LA neighborhoods including Echo Park, Silver Lake, Highland Park, and Eagle Rock, along with downtown Glendale. A first-generation Filipino immigrant, she served as Deputy Chief of Staff to California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as an LA City Public Works Commissioner, and as a policy advisor in the Obama Administration's Department of Education before winning her Assembly seat. This is a cautious endorsement. Caloza carries endorsements from organizations that give us real pause: UNITE HERE Local 11, which has pushed anti-business hotel mandates across Los Angeles, and DSA-aligned City Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez, and Nithya Raman. Her legislative orientation toward wage mandates and renter protections, including AB 2609 (regulating pet-related rents), signals a comfort with imposing new burdens on housing providers and small businesses. At the same time, she has earned support from California YIMBY, Abundant Housing LA, the Housing Action Coalition, and YIMBY Action, organizations that want to make it faster and cheaper to build. She has also secured endorsements from the LA Area Chamber of Commerce Jobs PAC and Central City Association, which suggests she is at least listening to the business community. She is not an ideological purist, and that matters in Sacramento. Caloza has delivered tangible results on fire safety, securing investment in firefighter training and recruitment. She carries the endorsement of California Professional Firefighters, UFLAC (IAFF Local 112), LA County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014, and CAL FIRE Local 2881. That is a clean sweep of every major fire union in her footprint. She has also spoken credibly about accountability for existing homelessness spending, though her approach leans toward services and housing-first strategies rather than the enforcement tools that LA's streets desperately need. Jessica Caloza has the relationships and the institutional support to deliver for her district. We expect her to use that leverage for housing production and fiscal restraint, not just expanded regulation.