Alex Lee (李天明) represents California’s 25th Assembly District which includes the Alameda County communities of Fremont and Newark, and the Santa Clara County Communities of Milpitas, San Jose, and Santa Clara. 

Assemblymember Lee was elected in 2020 and became the youngest Asian American legislator ever elected and first openly bisexual state legislator in California history at the age of 25. 

In his first year in office, championed universal healthcare, renters rights, criminal justice reform, social housing, and a wealth tax on billionaires. He was named “Legislator of the Year'' by the Golden State Manufactured Home Owners League (GMSOL) as well as the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ).

Previously, he worked on statewide policy regarding public safety, climate change, and education for California State Senator Henry Stern and Assemblymember Evan Low. Lee has been a Bay Area resident since birth and called both San Jose and Milpitas his home for all his life. He is a graduate of Milpitas High School and the University of California, Davis, where he served as Student Body President. 

He currently serves on the following committees in the State Assembly: Education, Transportation, Business & Professions, Rules, Subcommittee on Education Finance, and several select committees including on Social Housing, transformative legislation he proposed.

Forty-six years ago, Kansen Chu immigrated from his home in Taiwan to the United  States of America. Shortly after moving to California, he received his master's degree in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Northridge. He then worked at IBM for 18 years before deciding to start his own restaurant with his wife in 1989. While running the restaurant, Kansen decided he wanted to get involved with the community. During the 90s, he worked on the Job Training Partnership Board where he helped disadvantaged workers adjust to technological advancements and changes in employment trends. He was also on the Santa Clara County Mental Health Board and worked to help destigmatize mental illnesses and improve the quality of life of those suffering. Then, in 2001, Kansen was elected to the Berryessa Union School Board. During his time as a board member, he fought for equality in education among all students and increased participation among parents. Kansen oversaw the renovations of 13 of the 16 school sites using Bond funding to ensure that the facilities in the district are state of the art. In addition, he made sure that the teachers union and school administration maintained a peaceful relationship with the common goal of guaranteeing the safety and high performance of all the students. 

Then, in 2007, Kansen decided to be fully committed to political activism and ran for San José City Council. After winning the race, he started to work immediately for the people of San José. He focused on making the city safer, greener, and more friendly to small businesses. He made the community safer by creating and serving as a chair on the North San José neighborhoods planning task force. The neighborhood watch program was vastly improved through this task force, and he is a current member of the Neighborhood Accountability Board to make sure that the people of San José feel safe in their homes. He also pushed for the installation of automatic heart defibrillators across the city of San José. 

Additionally, he implemented many green initiatives in his time as councilmember including eliminating single-use plastic bags and requiring all buildings in the city to achieve silver-level LEEDT certification with the goal of being gold and platinum level certified. He also moved forward with the Commodore Park project implementing a concrete path around the entire park. The design of the path protects water quality by filtering stormwater through the surrounding plants and soil while also replenishing groundwater. The city received an award for this design from the Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program. He started the Berryessa business association to encourage small business growth within the community by connecting business owners with other business owners. He also started the Berryessa farmers market to help local farmers and bring direct access to fresh produce to the people of San José. He brought the bay area rapid transit to San José and pushed for renovations to the Education Park Library, showing his commitment to having quality infrastructure in San José. 

After seven years of working for the people of San José, Kansen was elected to the State Assembly to represent the 25th district of California. During his six years of service, he never strayed from his core values of working for the people and ensuring that they are safe, healthy, and have equal opportunities. One of the bills Kansen co-authored was the California Racial Justice  Act. This bill prevents the state of California from using explicit bias against a defendant based on race, ethnicity, or national origin. It also prohibits the state from using statistical disparities in charging, sentencing, and conviction. He authored a bill to require that all school buses in the state of California have seatbelts with shoulder and lap belts by the year 2035. The California Highway Patrol estimates that by 2025 over 90% of school buses will be equipped with lifesaving seatbelts because of this legislation. He also authored a bill that requires carpet manufacturers to increase their recycling efforts and address their own negative impact on the environment that is caused by the production and disposal of carpets to ensure the industry becomes more sustainable. 

Through the state budgeting process, Kansen acquired funding for several key programs, including $3.75 million for police departments to address the spike in car break-ins, $5.5 million for emergency preparedness and hazard mitigation, and $32 million to fund the senior nutrition and services program which provides nutritious meals to seniors and emphasizes the role that nutrition plays in long term health and disease prevention. He also championed environmental regulation and conservation, receiving a lifetime rating of 94% by the California Environmental Voters Organization. He chaired three committees during his time in the assembly, which were the human services committee, arts, entertainment, sports, tourism, and internet media committee, and hate crime committee. He was a member of six other committees, which were the Transportation Committee, Insurance Committee, Job, Economic Development and the  Economic Committee, Labor and Employment Committee, Revenue and Taxation Committee, and Water, Park, and Wildlife Committee. 

In 2019, Kansen decided not to seek re-election for the assembly due to the deteriorating health of his mother and he wanted to be closer to her. She peacefully passed away in April of last year. Kansen has not given up his efforts to improve the lives of those in California's 25th  district, he was appointed to the Berryessa Union School District Board of Trustees last year and has continued to fight for quality education. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped acquire over 130,000 pieces of PPE for local hospitals, farmers, police departments, and the general public. 

Ultimately, Kansen's experience serving as a state assemblyman will allow him to hit the ground running if he were to be elected in 2022. His dedication to improving the quality of life for all Californians has been demonstrated throughout his time in public service and he will continue to fight for Californians of every race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and gender. 

Kansen Chu is an accomplished public servant who has used his experiences as an immigrant, small business owner, and longtime Bay Area resident to fuel his extensive work for his community. Kansen is passionate about bringing progress to the Bay Area across a variety of areas, with special emphasis on public safety, homelessness, education, transportation, and economic development.

It is Kansen’s top priority to ensure the safety of the communities he is privileged to represent. In response to the disturbing rise in hate crimes in 2016, Kansen helped spearhead the local response by establishing the Assembly Select Committee for Hate Crimes. If re-elected, Kansen will reestablish this committee dedicated to the unfinished work of protecting minority groups in our communities. Kansen also supports bringing our law enforcement into the 21st century by requiring increased cultural sensitivity and crisis intervention training as well as holding the police accountable through increased checks and balances and policy reviews. This will work towards ensuring that every Californian receives the respect and fair treatment they deserve from law enforcement while empowering our good police officers to do the critical work of protecting our communities.

Homelessness is another area where Kansen wants to take action for Californians. The Bay Area has experienced high levels of homelessness for many years, and after COVID-19 hit, these numbers rose to crisis levels. Not only has there been a dramatic increase in the homeless population over the last few years, but during the pandemic, these individuals also faced unprecedented levels of hardship and mortalities. Kansen understands that the best solution for everyone is to help give these individuals the resources they need to be able to support themselves. This is why Kansen supports equitable funding for homeless families with students and increased affordable housing in the Bay Area, in conjunction with research-based approaches to addressing the chronically homeless population. Kansen has demonstrated his support for such policies by sponsoring successful bills such as the “Housing Crisis Act of 2019” and the “California Access to Housing and Services Act” and will continue to do so if re-elected. 

Another issue at the forefront of many Californians’ minds is education. While here in the Bay Area we boast several top-tier universities, our high school and younger students are suffering: California’s K-12 education system is ranked dismally low, at 40th across the nation. Kansen’s passion for Bay Area schools is reflected by his public service, from serving on the San Jose School District Board to sponsoring bills that provided much-needed funding to local schools. Kansen also has a track record of fighting for the well-being and mental health of our students: he has served on the Santa Clara County Mental Health Board and received national recognition for his efforts to increase funding for student mental health services in the legislature. Among his new ideas to bring California’s early education system out of the dump are: partnering with the private sector to provide more career education opportunities to students, addressing the negative impact of COVID on our student population, and increasing funding for daycares.

As a longtime Bay Area resident, Kansen knows firsthand the traffic congestion and commuting difficulties that rank the Bay as 2nd worst in the U.S. for traffic delays. Rather than jumping on every new multi-billion-dollar project that promises to fix these issues, Kansen supports practical, common-sense solutions: investing in our infrastructure and connecting a select few commuter points that would have the greatest impact. Kansen will prioritize funding to strengthen and repair our roads and bridges, as these form the backbone of our transportation system which endures heavy traffic day after day. Kansen will also advocate for allocating resources to connect carefully selected commuter points that would have the most positive impact on traffic congestion and commuter experience, including a connection of Interstate 880 and 680 at Mission Blvd and the establishment of light rails to the Eastridge transit hub. Kansen’s goal, through these planned actions and future opportunities, is to bolster the Bay Area’s transportation system to be safer, more efficient, and as more people can effectively use public transport, more environmentally friendly.

Finally, an issue area near and dear to Kansen and of utmost importance to his campaign is economic recovery for the Bay. The COVID-19 pandemic has left our region economically vulnerable, with numerous small businesses forced to close and many Californians more worried about their finances than ever. As a former owner of a local small business he operated for 16 years, Kansen knows the hardships faced by these hard-working residents. This is why Kansen is in strong favor of supporting small businesses and expanding local business programs, with emphasis on minority-owned businesses that are often overlooked. Combined with increased tourism promotion and more public-private sector partnerships to expand growth opportunities, Kansen is confident these policies will ensure the success of the Bay’s recovering economy. As with Kansen’s previously described policies, his economic approach expresses Kansen’s goal of bringing positive progress to the Bay Area for all residents to thrive in and enjoy.

Teresa Keng knows that unlocking the American Dream in California is possible. She’s lived it. As a first-generation immigrant from Hong Kong and Taiwan, Teresa started life from modest beginnings, spending the first years of her time in the United States on the verge of homelessness. But through hard work and the support of her community, she persevered, and today, she sits on the Fremont City Council and is a proud small business owner, mother, and community volunteer.

Teresa is a leader who listens, and she’s running for State Assembly to get our state government focused on what really matters, to get back to the basics. That means helping people to overcome adversity, acting with urgency to help families overcome rising costs, and unlocking paths to a good living, safe communities, and great schools.