| Steven Bradford brings a lifetime of experience to the California State Senate. In over two decades of public service - first as a Gardena City Councilmember, then as a State Assemblymember and now as a State Senator - Bradford has proven himself to be an unwavering citizen activist. He views himself as a public servant and not a politician. Public service was instilled in him by his parents who taught him the value of giving back to the community.
Prior to his service in local and state government, Bradford was a Public Affairs Manager for Southern California Edison, District Director for the late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, Program Director for the LA Conservation Corps, and worked for seven years as a marketing and sales representative for International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
He made history when he became the first African American elected to the Gardena City Council. Over the 12 years that he served on city council, he helped create robust job and economic growth, and stabilized the city's budget. When he was elected to the Council, the City of Gardena was on the brink of bankruptcy and was $27 million in debt. There was no money in the bank and employees had not been given raises in over seven years. By the time he left the council, they had eliminated the debt, allocated $8.5 million in reserve, increased employee salaries without raising taxes or cutting essential services, and secured millions of federal dollars for various improvement projects for North Gardena. He also authored and championed ordinances, which established the City's Small Business Task Force and the City's Police Foundation. In addition, as a former solid waste director, he brought those skills to bear, helping negotiate some of the lowest trash rates in the county.
Bradford was elected to the 51st State Assembly District in a Special Election in 2009, reelected in 2010, and reelected again in 2012, but the second time around, to the newly created 62nd District. While serving in the Assembly, he rose to prominence by becoming Chair of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce, which had jurisdiction over electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, private water corporations and other issues related to commerce. In his role as Chair, he garnered national attention by presiding over hearings investigating the devastating power outages across California. He also created a $108 million program to assist low-income households install solar panels at home, increasing equity and the deployment of distributed clean energy resources.
In 2013, Assembly Speaker John Perez named Bradford Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color. Under his leadership, the committee examined many institutional injustices that plague young Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander males in California, which he continues to work on in the Senate. As a result of his efforts, Bradford was invited to the White House to attend President Barack Obama's announcement of "My Brother's Keeper" a national initiative that reduces the opportunity gap faced by boys and men of color, which builds upon the work of his Select Committee.
In 2017, Senator Bradford was re-elected to the California State Legislature, and his first year in the Senate he was successful at getting 11 bills signed into law by Governor Brown. These laws improved public safety, transportation infrastructure, our worker's compensation system, the state's climate goals, and public education. In addition to the legislative accomplishments, Bradford secured $11.3 million in the state budget for Compton Community College and helped secure a $35 million grant to Watts Rising for affordable housing, green space, and local workforce development. He previously served as Chair of the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee and currently chairs the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee.
In 2018, Senator Bradford had an additional 11 bills signed into law, including SB 1294- The California Cannabis Equity Act, a first-in-the-nation bill which encouraged equitable participation in the cannabis industry and fostered business opportunities for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the War on Drugs; SB 978, which increases law enforcement transparency and accountability; SB 1412, which expanded employment opportunities for rehabilitated individuals; and SB 343, which provided critical tax relief for relocated residents in Carson. Senator Bradford also instrumental in a handful of bills he co-authored that are now state law, including AB 987, which helped streamline the Inglewood Revitalization Project and Los Angeles Clippers Arena. In addition, Senator Bradford secured $5 million in funding for community college reentry programs for current and formerly incarcerated students and $10 million for local cities and counties with social equity programs to support individuals, who were most impacted by cannabis criminalization, enter the burgeoning cannabis industry.
In his free time, you will often find him on the golf course or attending jazz events. He started a Junior Golf program while on the city council and his favorite community event is the Gardena Jazz Festival, where he serves as the Founder and Chair. The festival has been celebrated for 16 years and is one of the most popular events in the South Bay. Bradford grew up in Gardena, where he resides to this day. He coached football and baseball for sixteen years in Gardena's Parks and Recreation League and attended San Diego State University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He currently serves on the board of the Mervyn M. Dymally African American Political and Economic Institute, a non-partisan public policy think tank. |