Angélica Dueñas

Angélica Dueñas is raising five children in the Los Angeles public school system that educated her. Born in Sun Valley to parents who immigrated from Mexico, she became the first in her family to pursue higher education.¹

She earned a political science degree at Cal State Los Angeles and a master's in organizational leadership at Woodbury University. She says her mother's loss of a longtime factory job in 1997 helped shape her interest in economic fairness and public service.¹

Dueñas served on the Sun Valley Neighborhood Council, including two terms as president and one as vice president. Her community work involved local maintenance concerns and mutual aid, while Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign drew her more deeply into federal electoral politics.¹

Her platform calls for Medicare for All, affordable housing, stronger labor rights, tuition free public college and protections for abortion access. She also supports abolishing ICE, legal status for undocumented immigrants and an end to U.S. weapons aid to Israel.² Dueñas faces fellow Democrat Luz Rivas, the incumbent and an engineer who founded DIY Girls before serving in the Assembly and Congress. The November contest gives Valley voters a choice between two Democrats with different public service backgrounds and approaches.³