Voters in the 57th Assembly District have a choice in the Nov. 5 election between two Democrats seeking to replace incumbent Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer.
This district, which includes much of South Los Angeles, the lawless Florence-Graham community, USC, and much of downtown from Crypto.com Arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center to Skid Row, needs a representative who can advocate for voters on a range of issues, from the housing and homelessness crisis to criminal justice reform and climate change.
Of the two candidates, Sad Elhawary, a community activist and educator, offers the clearest and most ambitious vision for uniting District communities and improving the daily lives of people struggling with California’s high cost of living, homelessness, crime and other serious challenges.
Her experience working with youth as a high school history teacher, college counselor, and foster parent gives her valuable insight as a legislator, as does her work experience developing social justice curriculum for students, fundraising and community organizing, and training and mentoring youth activists.
Elhavari, whose mother emigrated from Guatemala and her father from Egypt, also shows the most promise for integrating black and Latino residents in a historically black district that is now 71 percent Latino and 17 percent black.
Elkhavari will also be a strong supporter of humane, common-sense efforts to combat homelessness, such as strengthening tenant protections to prevent evictions and building affordable housing and cutting red tape that slows construction. He supports criminal justice reform and wants to fight crime and gun violence against police by focusing on prevention programs. He supports important environmental justice efforts, such as phasing out oil drilling, cleaning up abandoned wells, and transitioning to renewable energy and zero-emission vehicles.
Elhawary may not have held elected office before, but he has the experience to prove he can get things done. For example, as a youth organizer, he helped a Community Wellness Clinic and Community Garden to Fremont High School.
He was attacked for growing up outside the district. It’s a ridiculous criticism because he was born in Los Angeles and grew up near Dodger Stadium. When he was in high school, his family moved to Altadena, but as an adult he spent years living and working in South Los Angeles, advocating for its social and economic improvement and building solidarity between the black and Latino communities. We believe that experience is more valuable than where you spent your childhood.
He recognizes the need to balance his progressive ideals with harsh realities like massive state budget deficits by making smart decisions that don’t squander critical safety net programs — an approach he says was informed by one of his mentors, Mayor Karen Bass, who confirmed this. Elkhavari is with the Community Coalition, a South Los Angeles nonprofit founded by Bass, and is running for mayor. 2022 election campaign.
Elhawary is also approved by long list from prominent lawmakers like U.S. Senator Lafonza Butler and County Supervisors Hilda Solis and Holly Mitchell, and a host of unions and organizations like Abundant Housing LA and Equality California.
Another candidate is Efren Martinez, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and small business owner from Florence-Firestone who heads the local Chamber of Commerce and runs a campaign focused on economic development and public safety.
he was before fought Jones-Sawyer in 2020 supported by the corrections officers union and other law enforcement groups, and backed by police unions, the oil, gas and tobacco industries, and other big business interests.
Some of Martinez’s views resonate with his financial backers. He downplays the impact of nearby oil drilling, and his main proposal for a public safety solution is to put more police on the streets. But he offered a series of vague answers about what he ever did in office. He told the editorial board, for example, that he wants to increase education funding, but he wouldn’t say how he would do it because it would be “irresponsible” for him to come up with a plan before he’s elected. And his campaign sometimes has powerful distribution in a community with a history of conflict between blacks and Latinos.
This district, which is grappling with some of Los Angeles’ most pressing challenges, doesn’t need that.
He needs a representative who is not afraid to share his political plans and whose platform is to unite, not divide. This is Elkhavari and voters should vote for him.
