Hilda Solis

Hilda Solis was born in Los Angeles in 1957 and raised in La Puente, California, the daughter of working-class immigrant parents from Nicaragua and Mexico.[2][3][5] She graduated from La Puente High School in 1975, then earned a bachelor's degree from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1979 and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California in 1981.[2][3] Solis worked in the Carter White House Office of Hispanic Affairs and as a management analyst in the civil rights division of the federal Office of Management and Budget, and in 1982 she became director of the California Student Opportunity and Access Program.[2][3]

Solis was elected to the Rio Hondo Community College District board of trustees in 1985 and re-elected in 1989.[3][5] She served in the California State Assembly from 1992 to 1994 and the State Senate from 1994 to 2001, and she was the first Hispanic woman to serve in the State Senate.[2][3][5] In 2000 she received the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation's Profile in Courage Award for her work on environmental justice, and her campaign website says she was the first woman to receive it.[3][6] She represented California in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009, in the 31st District (2001-2003) and then the 32nd District (2003-2009).[2][3]

Solis served as the 25th U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Barack Obama from February 2009 to January 2013.[2][3] She won the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors First District seat outright in June 2014 and took office that December, and she served as chair of the board in 2015-2016 and 2020-2021.[2][3] Her term ends December 7, 2026, and she did not run for re-election to the seat.[2][3] According to her campaign website, her work as a supervisor has included the Measure H homelessness funding measure, Project Roomkey and a $20 million workforce and job training program.[6] She won the November 3, 2026 general election with 67.7% of the vote to Pedro Casas's 32.3%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[1]