Gil Cedillo

The seat had been vacated by Kevin de León, who won the 22nd State Senate seat.

Cedillo served as chairman of California's Latino Congressional Caucus.

Gilbert Anthony Cedillo (born March 25, 1954) is an American politician, who served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council for the 1st district from 2013 to 2022.

A member of the Democratic Party, Cedillo was previously a member of both the California State Assembly and the California State Senate.

In 1977, Cedillo earned a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from UCLA.

In 1983, Cedillo earned a J.D. degree from the People's College of Law, in Los Angeles.

Cedillo participated in Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA).

Cedillo worked for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU Local 660), Los Angeles County's largest union, where he served as general manager from 1990 to 1996.

In his years as general manager, he protected youth programs and played a critical role in securing $364 million in federal assistance to ensure that the Los Angeles County Health Care system remained afloat.

President Bill Clinton stated that his decision to provide funding "was reached after critical consultations with SEIU".

Cedillo was fired from the union after losing a power struggle with Local 660's board of directors.

Cedillo won a special election on January 13, 1998, to the California State Assembly's 46th district, and served there until 2002.

Cedillo tried nine times, since 1998, to get bills passed in the California State Legislature that would allow undocumented immigrants in California to obtain driver's licenses.

In 2001 and 2002 Governor Gray Davis vetoed two of Cedillo's bills that would have permitted this.

In 2002, he was elected to the State Senate.

Cedillo attempted to have driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants reinstated, and was the author of the California DREAM Act.

He also worked on increasing and expanding access to health care, developing regional solutions to combat homelessness, and encouraging economic development in his Downtown Los Angeles district.

Gil Cedillo is a member of the Council of La Raza.

In the midst of the 2003 recall election, Davis backed and signed SB 60 (2003), Cedillo's driver's license bill.

After Davis was recalled and Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor, the state legislature, with Schwarzenegger's support, repealed the new law before it went into effect.

Senator Cedillo agreed to repeal the law he wrote under the agreement with the Governor to work on a bipartisan bill.

Cedillo was re-elected in 2006, defeating South Pasadena City Councilman Mike Ten, a Republican.

Cedillo received 71,199 votes, Ten received 18,581 votes, and Murray Levy, a Libertarian candidate, received 3,469 votes.

He was Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Immigration and the Economy and was a member of the Senate standing committees on Appropriations, Health, Public Safety, Rules, and Transportation and Housing.

On September 28, 2006, Cedillo was arrested along with approximately 200 others for blocking Century Blvd. in front of LAX, during a protest supporting the right for employees to unionize at the LAX hotels.

When Hilda Solis joined the Obama administration, Cedillo became a candidate to replace her for California's 32nd congressional district seat, but lost to Judy Chu in the 2009 special election.

Cedillo lost his Los Angeles City Council seat in the 2022 election to left-wing challenger Eunisses Hernandez.

Since October 2022, Cedillo faced widespread calls for his resignation after an audio recording of him and other council members making racist remarks was released.

He was formally censured by the City Council in a unanimous 12-0 vote on October 26.

Cedillo was born in Barstow, California and grew up in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles.

His father worked as a mechanic at American Can in Vernon and was a member of the United Steelworkers of America.

His mother was a garment worker at Sears and Times-Mirror Press.

Cedillo attended Lorena Street and Euclid Avenue Elementary, Stevenson Junior High and Roosevelt High.

On January 8, 2009, Cedillo announced his candidacy for the 32nd Congressional District seat, which was vacated by Congresswoman Hilda Solis.

Congresswoman Solis accepted an appointment from President-elect Barack Obama as United States Labor Secretary.

In the blanket primary (now superseded by Proposition 14's "top two" primary system), Cedillo competed against Judy Chu, a former Monterey Park assemblywoman and vice-chairman of the State Board of Equalization; the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, voted to endorse Chu.

Cedillo received a majority of other major endorsements, including eight members of California's Congressional Delegation, LA Sheriff Lee Baca, Los Angeles Police Chief Bill Bratton, and more than 100 current and former public officials, including Senator Gloria Romero, Senator Ron Calderon, and Assemblymember Ed Chavez, who all dropped out of the race and endorsed Cedillo.

Chu defeated Cedillo with 15,338 votes (31.9%) to Cedillo's 11,244 votes (23.4%).

Following his failed bid for U.S. Congress, Cedillo was elected to the California State Assembly's 45th District seat in 2010.

In 2010, Cedillo authored California's SRC 113, a resolution for a statewide boycott of the State of Arizona, following Arizona's passage of SB 1070, an undocumented immigration enforcement bill.