Malia M. Cohen

Why Thrive LA endorses Malia

Malia M. Cohen is the incumbent California State Controller, first elected in November 2022. A San Francisco native, she holds a master's in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University and has spent over a decade in public finance roles: San Francisco Board of Supervisors (including Board President), Chair of the California State Board of Equalization (the nation's only elected tax commission), and now the state's chief fiscal officer. She sits on the boards overseeing CalPERS and CalSTRS, which together manage roughly $750 billion in pension assets. The Controller's office is California's fiscal watchdog. It audits every agency that spends state funds, disburses $100 billion in annual payments, and serves as the last line of accountability before taxpayer money leaves Sacramento. Cohen has the institutional knowledge and the relationships to keep that machinery running. She carries endorsements from the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association and the California Professional Firefighters, two organizations that do not hand out endorsements casually. In the absence of a challenger who offers a sharper commitment to spending discipline, Cohen is the practical choice to hold this seat. Malia Cohen has the credentials and the platform to be a genuinely effective Controller. Whether she uses them for rigorous fiscal accountability or political convenience is the question that earns this endorsement its conditions.