The race for California’s newly drawn 41st Congressional District is heating up, with another Democrat jumping into the race with a focus on housing and mental health services.
Shonique Williams, 34, is a criminal justice advocate. Her platform includes proposing a mandatory cap on how much rent can be raised each year and an annual wage increase that would apply to businesses that employ a certain number of people, though she hasn’t decided what that figure should be just yet. She also supports reallocating some funding for police to mental health services and substance abuse treatment programs.
Williams described herself as “very far left” on the political spectrum, though, at the same time, she doesn’t believe her positions are all that radical.
“What’s ‘radical’ about (advocating for) affordable housing? Mental health services? … We all know affordable housing is needed nationwide,” she said.
And she said voters deserve a representative who’s willing to take “bold” positions and hold all lawmakers, no matter their party, accountable. Williams said she would be willing to speak out when she disagrees with someone, even if it’s a member of her own party.
This is Williams’ first time running for political office.
Two other Democrats with far more political experience have already declared their candidacies: Rep. Linda Sánchez, who represents California’s 38th Congressional District but had her home residence of Whittier redrawn into the new 41st Congressional District under the redistricting plan that California voters approved last month, and former Assemblymember Hector De La Torre.
The newly drawn 41st Congressional District will include communities in Downey, Whittier, Norwalk, Bellflower and Lakewood in southeast Los Angeles County, as well as Los Alamitos and La Habra in Orange County, in next year’s midterm elections.
Although U.S. House candidates aren’t required to live in the district they are running in, Williams, who lives in Pomona, said she’s considering moving to Lakewood or Downey after she completes her online law degree this spring from Purdue Global Law School, where she said she also earned a master’s in legal studies.
Her initial plan was to become a criminal defense or civil rights attorney — though that career path might shift if she’s elected to Congress.
Williams’ interest in the law and the legislative process stems from her personal experiences.
She said she was 8 when an uncle received a decades-long sentence for multiple robberies, a sentence she thought was too long considering the circumstances of the crimes, where she said no one was killed or injured. That’s when she decided she would pursue law as a profession.
But it wasn’t a straightforward path to law school.
Court records show Williams was arrested in late 2014 on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon or by force to cause great bodily injury. She was later convicted by a jury of a felony.
Williams confirmed the conviction in an interview and said she served one year in state prison, though she still maintains her innocence and said she is a survivor of domestic violence.
Since her release from prison, Williams said she’s worked for various organizations to advocate for criminal justice reform, including the Anti-Recidivism Coalition. She’s also pushed for bills like California’s “Ban the Box” legislation to prevent employers from asking job applicants about conviction records before making a job offer.
But working with lawmakers also made her see that many lacked the political will or courage to pass certain laws despite their personal support of them, she said.
“I was frustrated when I would go get a bill authored, at the Assembly level, the Senate level. We would hear conversations such as, ‘This is such a great bill. However, this is not the right political season,’” Williams said. “When is the right time to fight for someone’s life? For someone’s mental health services? For homeless services? For someone wrongfully convicted? For affordable housing?”
Given her experience with the legislative process, Williams said she knew she would one day run for office in hopes of changing things.
Although she had not anticipated that day would come so soon after law school, she said that with a new House seat opening up as a result of redistricting, she wants to seize the opportunity.
The primary election for House races will take place on June 2. The top two vote-getters will then advance to a November run-off.
Staff writer Jason Henry contributed to this report.
