Buffy Wicks
2022 - Present
2026
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Buffy Wicks (Democratic Party) is a member of the California State Assembly, representing District 14. She assumed office on December 5, 2022. Her current term ends on December 7, 2026.
Wicks (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the California State Assembly to represent District 14. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
Buffy Wicks earned a B.A. in political science and government from the University of Washington in 1999. Wicks' career experience includes founding Rise Strategies, LLC, and working as the California campaign director of Common Sense Kids Action, the executive director of Priorities USA Action, and the deputy director of The White House Office of Public Engagement. She served as a fellow with the Institute of Politics and Public Service at Georgetown University.[1]
Committee assignments
Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes yearly updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: [email protected]
2023-2024
Wicks was assigned to the following committees:
- Banking and Finance Committee
- Budget Committee
- Housing and Community Development Committee, Chair
- Housing and Community Development Committee
- Labor and Employment Committee
- Natural Resources Committee
- Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee
- Transportation Committee
- Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee
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2021-2022
Wicks was assigned to the following committees:
- Banking and Finance Committee
- Housing and Community Development Committee
- Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee
- Public Safety Committee
- Transportation Committee
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2019-2020
Wicks was assigned to the following committees:
- Rules Committee
- Banking and Finance Committee
- Budget Committee
- Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee
- Public Safety Committee
- Rules Committee
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Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2024
See also: California State Assembly elections, 2024
General election
General election for California State Assembly District 14
Incumbent Buffy Wicks defeated Margot Smith in the general election for California State Assembly District 14 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Buffy Wicks (D) | 70.5 | 58,279 |
 | Margot Smith (D)  | 29.5 | 24,360 | |
| Total votes: 82,639 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 14
Incumbent Buffy Wicks and Margot Smith defeated Utkarsh Jain in the primary for California State Assembly District 14 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Buffy Wicks (D) | 73.5 | 78,750 |
| ✔ | | Margot Smith (D) | 17.1 | 18,272 |
 | Utkarsh Jain (R) | 9.4 | 10,075 | |
| Total votes: 107,097 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
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Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Wicks in this election.
2022
See also: California State Assembly elections, 2022
General election
General election for California State Assembly District 14
Incumbent Buffy Wicks defeated Rich Kinney in the general election for California State Assembly District 14 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Buffy Wicks (D) | 88.4 | 139,331 |
 | Rich Kinney (R) | 11.6 | 18,242 | |
| Total votes: 157,573 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 14
Incumbent Buffy Wicks and Rich Kinney advanced from the primary for California State Assembly District 14 on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Buffy Wicks (D) | 100.0 | 85,180 |
| ✔ | | Rich Kinney (R) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 37 |
| Total votes: 85,217 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
2020
See also: California State Assembly elections, 2020
General election
General election for California State Assembly District 15
Incumbent Buffy Wicks defeated Sara Brink in the general election for California State Assembly District 15 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Buffy Wicks (D) | 84.7 | 204,108 |
 | Sara Brink (Independent) | 15.3 | 36,732 | |
| Total votes: 240,840 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 15
Incumbent Buffy Wicks and Sara Brink defeated Jeanne Solnordal in the primary for California State Assembly District 15 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Buffy Wicks (D) | 83.6 | 135,623 |
| ✔ | | Sara Brink (Independent) | 8.5 | 13,841 |
 | Jeanne Solnordal (R) | 7.9 | 12,791 | |
| Total votes: 162,255 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2018
General election
General election for California State Assembly District 15
Buffy Wicks defeated Jovanka Beckles in the general election for California State Assembly District 15 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Buffy Wicks (D) | 53.6 | 104,583 |
 | Jovanka Beckles (D) | 46.4 | 90,405 | |
| Total votes: 194,988 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 15
The following candidates ran in the primary for California State Assembly District 15 on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Buffy Wicks (D) | 31.4 | 37,141 |
| ✔ | | Jovanka Beckles (D) | 15.8 | 18,733 |
 | Dan Kalb (D) | 15.2 | 18,007 | |
 | Judith Appel (D) | 11.5 | 13,591 | |
| Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto (D) | 8.3 | 9,826 | |
| Pranav Jandhyala (R) | 5.9 | 6,946 | |
| Andy Katz (D) | 5.2 | 6,209 | |
| Ben Bartlett (D) | 3.3 | 3,949 | |
 | Cheryl Sudduth (D) | 1.3 | 1,493 | |
| Raquella Thaman (D) | 0.9 | 1,007 | |
| Owen Poindexter (D) | 0.7 | 819 | |
| Sergey Vikramsingh Piterman (D) | 0.6 | 689 | |
| Total votes: 118,410 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Wicks was endorsed by former President Barack Obama (D) in the general election.[2]
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Buffy Wicks did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Buffy Wicks did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Buffy Wicks completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wicks' responses.
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
1. Tackling the housing crisis head on: Our East Bay community faces a severe shortage of homes that are affordable to low- and middle-income young people, families, and seniors. Too many members of our diverse community—from artists and teachers to service workers and seniors who've contributed to our community—are being displaced, and we need to provide as much protection as possible to those facing wrongful evictions and skyrocketing rents. As your Assemblymember, I would champion three key approaches to address our community's shortage of homes: one, build more transit-oriented affordable homes for low-income people more quickly two, protect existing tenants from displacement, and three, grow in a smart way by building more homes in walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods, so we can share our community while protecting our East Bay way of life. We must also recognize that the shortage of homes in our community cuts across other issues: exacerbating homelessness, contributing to more greenhouse gas emissions from workers forced into long car commutes, and denying low-income families and hardworking young people equal access to the world-class educational and professional opportunities of the Bay Area. I believe in—and am committed to fighting for—an East Bay that is sustainable and accessible to all. 2. Boosting funding for public education: I am a product of public schools – from kindergarten through college. It helped propel me from a single-wide trailer in a small town in northern California to working for President Barack Obama in the White House. I believe everyone has a right to quality public education and I will support legislation to reduce teacher shortages, increase funding for K-12 public schools, invest in community colleges, and ensure our public universities are accessible and affordable for California residents. We cannot let access to safe schools and a good education be determined by where you live, the color of your skin, or how much your parents make. Our legislature must be a champion for educational equity through specific funding increases for resource-starved schools and by giving teachers the tools they need to lead disadvantaged students on the path to success. We can find that funding by taking a hard look at corporate loopholes under Prop 13, among other strategies. 3. Fighting for Health Care for All: I will fight tirelessly to bring single-payer health care to California as soon as possible, and I fully support Medicare for All federally. A single- payer system has the potential to lower cost, confusion, and uncertainty for our citizens. It would ensure health care security for working people and health equity for all communities, make our companies more competitive, and free Californians from being tethered to their employer for health care. While we work towards this goal, I believe we should immediately create a "Medi-Cal public option" and pass an individual state mandate to ensure affordable and quality care open to all state residents and ensure they are protected from Trump's disastrous policies. I will also work to save Alta Bates, champion our community clinics and safety net hospitals, and ensure quality health care for all Californians, regardless of residency status.
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?
When cost of living is taken into account, California has the highest poverty rate in the country, and yet it also has the highest concentration of millionaires and billionaires. One in four children goes hungry every day, and we now rank 47th out of 50th in standard of living for our kids. This reality is unconscionable. We can and must do better as a state for our children and families, and so I am particularly passionate about championing policies which bolster our social safety net for our kids and families, and which tackle the racial inequities that we see in all our public systems head-on. After working to empower low-income workers and families throughout my career, I have come to understand that addressing California's unacceptable poverty rates requires intense collaboration between community leaders and electeds, as well as an decisively intersectional approach to progressive policy reform. From investing in free or subsidized early childhood education, to prioritizing drug treatment over punitive prison sentences, to strengthening workers' rights to a fair wage, we must be bold in our ideas and creative in our negotiations in order to achieve tangible gains for low-income communities throughout the state. I would lead such efforts by leveraging my experience as an organizer--listening every step of the way to community concerns, building coalitions among varied stakeholders, and identifying truly evidence-based progressive reforms to implement. Moreover, we must recognize that structural inequities in our institutions have long caused communities of color to disproportionately live in high-poverty situations, and so I would devise and consider all legislative solutions through a racial justice lens.
What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?
I have spent my entire career building and running progressive grassroots organizations, and have organized from the most local levels to the highest national level. Working in Sacramento requires knowledge and experience of how to build coalitions, whip votes, and work across ideological lines. I believe that I possess the unique organizing and political experience and capabilities to get the hard jobs done in Sacramento and achieve tangible lasting progressive change for this district and the state. First of all, I am, and always will be, a grassroots organizer, and my ability to connect with and listen to District 15 voters sets me apart as a candidate. I've demonstrated this ability in the over 227 house parties I have held in my race, where I have been in voters' living rooms night after night to understand the concerns and priorities of community members across the district. If elected, I plan to continue using my organizing skills to stay connected to this community and champion their issues in Sacramento. As a potential officeholder, I have approached each issue through an unabashedly progressive lens, and have created positions and policy ideas by carefully thinking through evidence-based policy implications for each issue. I am not, and will never be, here to give the easy answer-- I will fight for the hard and more complex policy solutions and reforms, if it means I will be able to better serve my district, particularly our most vulnerable communities. My experience working with President Obama and his administration also sets me apart as a potential officeholder. As the Deputy Director of President Obama's White House Office of Public Engagement, I led efforts to build strong coalitions among progressives across the United States to create the support we needed to pass the Affordable Care Act, as well as confirm Justice Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The organizing and negotiating skills, policy expertise, and knowledge of political processes that I gained in this role makes me uniquely capable of building coalitions and passing bold progressive reforms in the state legislature that address inequities and move our state forward.
What is your favorite book? Why?
One of my favorite things to do with my daughter, JoJo, is to read with her before her bedtime. Currently, my favorite children's book that we read together is The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle. It's a wonderful story about helping others, and JoJo loves it too!
What is something that has been a struggle in your life?
When I was 26 years old, I had an abortion. I was in between jobs and in between homes. I had no health insurance. Staying on a friend's couch, unemployed, and facing an unplanned pregnancy was a vulnerable time of my life. In this moment, I turned to Planned Parenthood. I will never forget walking into that clinic, off Eddy Street, in San Francisco. The unease I felt was met with acceptance and compassion by the staff. After a positive pregnancy test and a thoughtful conversation about my options, I decided an abortion was the right decision for me. Access to abortion is often debated in our politics in the abstract, as a matter of rights. But being able to choose when and when not to have children is, for many women as it was for me, an extremely personal and practical consideration. My abortion was a life-changing, empowering decision. It was not my time to have children yet. Fourteen years later, I am a candidate for State Assembly, a wife and the mother of a 23-month-old girl named Josephine. In that span of time, I worked for President Obama for six years, including in his White House as part of the team who helped pass the Affordable Care Act. I launched national women's initiatives aimed at getting better paid leave policies and more affordable child care. I spearheaded and ran a statewide parent organizer program with the goal of getting more funding for public schools. I have helped elect strong women leaders to elective office, like Senator Kamala Harris and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. When I look at how my life has unfolded in these 14 years, I am all the more certain about my decision. It has allowed me to have a fulfilling career, a marriage with the right person, and the ability to have a child when I was finally ready. I have never once regretted my decision. Now more than ever, we need elected leaders who understand these choices. California is at a 20-year low of women legislators in Sacramento, with only 22 percent representation. It's no wonder 43 percent of California counties have no abortion providers. Over half a million women ages 15 to 49 don't have an abortion provider within 50 miles. Medi-Cal, our state's Medicaid program, is required to provide coverage for abortions. Yet many low-income or no-income women, most of whom are disproportionately women of color, don't know they have this as an option. This becomes a critical barrier to access. I am honored to have received the sole endorsement of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and if elected will work relentlessly to ensure that all women have access to preventative healthcare, birth control, and, yes, safe abortions.
Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.
Absolutely. I am from a small town in rural Northern California, which is a majority pro-Trump town. Many of the community members I grew up around have political values and opinions with which I staunchly disagree. But I know from my upbringing in this community and from my 20+ years of being a grassroots organizer, that we can and must still work with people with whom we disagree and find commonalities where we can make positive change, if we truly listen to each other and dig a little deeper past the surface. I truly believe that even in today's political climate, we as a state and a country have more in common than we realize, and that we can use what unites us to find our way out of the wilderness. Throughout my career in organizing and politics, I never compromised on my progressive values or objectives, but I worked every day to dig past my first perceptions of colleagues who disagreed with me, to build relationships and trust with these people, and to find points of commonality that we could use to build coalitions and create lasting positive change. These skills helped me in my role as Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement during President Obama's administration, when I brought a diverse set of stakeholders and advocates from across the country together to support and eventually pass the Affordable Care Act, established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and get Justice Sonia Sotomayor confirmed as the first Latina Supreme Court Justice. It is helping me in my campaign today as I have traveled to more than 227 living rooms up and down the district to listen to a diverse set of voices and conversations about district issues; and I believe it will give me the ability, as an Assemblywoman, to successfully pass bold policies that move the needle on the reforms our district and state care most about. If elected, I will set bold progressive goals, and I will use my grassroots organizing experience and skills to build relationships with legislators and stakeholders, find common ground, and build coalitions that turn these goals into concrete progressive policy for our California communities. I am honored to be endorsed by a number of our state legislators who are ready and eager to work with me to achieve these goals, including: State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson State Senator Scott Wiener Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo Assemblymember David Chiu Assemblymember Susan Eggman Assemblymember Jose Medina Assemblymember Bill Quirk Assemblymember Evan Low Assemblymember Kevin Mullin The California Democratic Legislative Women's Caucus I have also been endorsed by and hope to work with many other state and regional leaders, including California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, and State Board of Equalization Member and Former Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Fiona Ma.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of California scorecards, email suggestions to [email protected].
2023
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In 2023, the California State Legislature was in session from January 1 to September 14.
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2022
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show]. |
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In 2022, the California State Legislature was in session from January 3 to August 31.
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2021
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In 2021, the California State Legislature was in session from December 7 to September 10.
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2020
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
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In 2020, the California State Legislature was in session from January 6 to August 31.
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2019
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In 2019, the California State Legislature was in session from January 7 through September 13.
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2018
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In 2018, the California State Legislature was in session from January 3, 2018 through August 31, 2018.
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See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate California State Assembly District 14 |
Officeholder California State Assembly District 14 |
Personal |
Footnotes
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Tim Grayson (D) |
California State Assembly District 14 2022-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| Preceded by Tony Thurmond (D) |
California State Assembly District 15 2018-2022 |
Succeeded by Tim Grayson (D) |
