Growing up and working throughout the world, launching and growing multiple business ventures, volunteering in his community, and raising three children has exposed Josh Lowenthal to life’s challenges, and taught him many things. Foremost among them is that creative solutions are born not from recycled ideas but from broad experience, collaboration, a willingness to embrace innovation, and that standing up for yourself, and others, is a crucial public responsibility. Despite coming from a family of elected officials, Josh trail blazed his own path as an entrepreneur, consumer advocate, and business owner. 

Josh wants to bring his broad experience to our state legislature. Like all of us, Josh is weary of the partisan bickering that only hurts our state and communities. He wants to utilize the problem-solving skills he’s learned in his long business career to government: consensus-building and collaboration, firm resolve in standing up to special interests, and the merit of creative solutions to move us all forward. 

Josh also knows that we shouldn’t rely on government to fix all of society’s problems, and that’s why as Board President of Children Today he raised millions of dollars to help homeless children find stability in their lives, get access to vital fully accredited early education, and have enough support to transcend the challenges they face in their early lives. With three young daughters in local public schools, Josh not only understands the urgency of taking action, but the exponential positive effect every success will have on our children’s future. 

That’s why he is passionate about protecting our coast and open space, improving our schools, and working to ensure that at-risk children have the resources and support they need to succeed. Josh Lowenthal lives in Long Beach with his three children.

1.     Born in New York to a father who was a surgeon and mother a nurse.  At the age of two Dr. Taheri's parents moved to Afghanistan to help the people and country.  Overcoming obstacles and challenges is nothing new for Dr. Taheri. As a young girl in Afghanistan, Dr. Taheri was orphaned when her father, the Health Minister of Kandahar Province, along with her mother and four-year-old sister, were assassinated by the Russian military (Soviet Union).  Her father's persistent refusal to join the Communist regime utlimately caused their lives.  Dr. Taheri was only seven, and after being smuggled out of Afghanistan with her only surviving sibling, she returned to the United States.  Dr. Taheri was raised by extended family and required government assistance to survive her circumstances.  She vowed early in life to dedicate herself to the care of others as her parents had.  Determined to have an impact and leverage the support she received to achieve self-sufficiency and give back to her communities, Dr. Taheri focused on her education, ultimately earning a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from the University of California San Francisco. She has worked as a Nurse/Nurse Practitioner for 24 years mainly Emergency rooms in Los Angeles County working with the underserved communities, veterans, uninsured, and most vulnerable, people experiencing homelessness.  Currently, Dr. Taheri is overseeing thousands of homeless clients who are permanently housed and receive wrap around services at their homes or clinics near them.

During COVID, Dr. Taheri opened and oversaw three quarantine isolation COVID sites/hospitals for Department of Health Services Los Angeles County as a Clinical Commander.  She hired hundreds of healthcare team and oversaw thousands of patients with no deaths during her oversight. Dr. Taheri helped decompress the local hospitals by taking on COVID patients with severe symptoms as well as decrease the spread of the virus by taking in patients living in multigenerational homes.  Her third COVID site was the largest in the nation with 245 beds of Sheraton Hotel in Pomona converted into patient rooms.

Her successful work with COVID led her to be recognized by her local union, SEIU, and asked to be an advisor to the presidential COVID Task Force representing over 1 million frontline workers.  Dr. Taheri continued to speak up and advocate for frontline workers as well as all Americans to be able to get free COVID testing.  She helped write a policy on details of testing.  The president approved $50 billion dollars for testing to ensure safety of all Americans.

During the COVID pandemic, Dr. Taheri noticed lack of oversight that resulted in mismanagement of spending at the federal, state, and county levels.   She felt compelled to enter this candidacy given her experiences so that she can continue to advocate for the underserved and be a strong watch dog for tax payers spending. 

The Government has a duty to protect the most vulnerable residents.  COVID has revealed the health inequities especially in the Black, Latino, indigenous, Cambodian, and low-socio-economic essential workers in my district, Long Beach and the surrounding areas.

In California there are 150,000 people experiencing homelessness of which 70,000 are in Los Angeles County, and 3,000 in Long Beach. 

Housing first is the best solution for the homelessness crisis.  Our homeless population in Los Angeles County has increased by 12% every year.  People become homeless when they can no longer afford housing, healthcare, and inability to overcome disabilities.  People need stable homes so that they can successfully be treated.  In addition to temporary shelters which should not be a priority over permanent housing solution therefore we need to build more permanent affordable housing.  Project home key has successfully converted motels into permanent support housing, this is one of the methods to reduce the homelessness crisis.  The best way of preventing homelessness is to make sure that people have resources to stay in their homes. 

On average, it costs $40,000 to support a person experiencing homelessness per year.  If we put a fraction of this amount into keeping people in their homes, we would reduce the homelessness population. 

California has designated $12 billion dollars into homelessness services over the past three years. 

I have worked with the people experiencing homelessness for years and from my experience, I can confidently state that there is no oversight or reporting on funding towards our homelessness crisis efforts. 

Therefore, we don’t know how the resources are spent.  It is important for us to have reporting from the city, county, and agencies that provide care for people experiencing homelessness. 

Currently, we do not have transparency on how cities and counties are spending state money for the homelessness crisis.  

The state auditor also had stated that "California lacks a centralized way to track spending, so it’s unable to determine where efforts are duplicative".

I believe that we should have a reporting once per year from local agencies to the state legislature that will be transparent and voters will also be able to review these numbers. 

Healthcare is a fundamental right.  Healthcare should not be a profit driven venture.  Many times people become homeless because the head of household has an illness or injury and no longer able to provide for his/her family and if they received healthcare for themselves and their families through their jobs they no longer have these benefits and unable to pay for their healthcare. 

I believe that universal coverage should be state mandate. 

The government has a duty to protect those who are experiencing mental health, substance use, and domestic violence so that they don’t end up on the streets.  Those individuals who are able to become self reliant with the assistance of government programs can receive the necessary help including technical school and training. 

I believe in epxanding reproductive services. 

Our district, Long Beach is the second busiest port in the nation.  There is a lot of pollution due to railway and trucks moving goods from the port.  I support implementing electric trucks and tractor trailers to move goods without harming the environment.

Our shorelines need to be protected.  I am against off shore drilling.  I believe that we should train people and invest in renewable energy to help the environment and provide higher paying jobs.  This will help us be less reliant on foreign fossil fuel.

We are one of the wealthiest and most advance countries in the world and there is no limit to our capabilities as a state and nation therefore, I am a firm believer on increasing jobs for our people and less reliant on foriegn help.  I support business owners and always believed that those who provide jobs and goods to our communities, state, and country should be encouraged to continue their services, small or large.