Lateefah Simon

Lateefah Aaliyah Simon (born January 29, 1977) is an American politician who is the U.S. representative for California's 12th congressional district since January 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first member of Congress known to be congenitally blind in both eyes, and the first Muslim member from California and outside of the Midwestern United States.

She served on the Bay Area Rapid Transit board of directors and on the board of trustees of the California State University system. She served as a trustee of the San Francisco Foundation and president of MeadowFund, a community investment fund created by Patricia Quillin, the wife of Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, and was president of Akonadi Foundation, an organization focused on racial justice in Oakland, California.In 2003, she became the youngest woman to receive a MacArthur Fellowship for her leadership of the Center for Young Women's Development (now the Young Women's Freedom Center) in San Francisco at the age of 19.

Early life

Simon earned a Bachelor of Arts in public policy at Mills College, where she was the 2017 commencement speaker, a Master of Public Administration from the University of San Francisco, and was a 2014 Social Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Fellow at Stanford University.

Earlier political career

During the tenure of Kamala Harris as San Francisco District Attorney, Simon led the creation of the city's Back on Track program for young adults charged with low-level felony drug sales. Simon also previously worked as the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2016, Simon was appointed to the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees by Governor Jerry Brown.

Simon was elected to represent the seventh district on the Bay Area Rapid Transit District board of directors in 2016. Her motivations for running included her reliance on BART, as someone who is legally blind and unable to drive. In 2020, she was elected president of the board of directors.

U.S. House of Representatives

2024 election

In February 2023, Simon announced that she was running for California's 12th congressional district. The previous representative for the district, Barbara Lee, did not seek re-election to the seat and instead ran as a candidate in the 2024 United States Senate election in California. On November 2, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom endorsed Simon's candidacy. Simon defeated CSU East Bay professor Jennifer Tran, a fellow Democrat, in the November general election.

Committee assignments

For the 119th Congress:

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
- Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services
- Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement
Committee on Small Business
- Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development
- Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations

Caucus memberships

Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
Congressional Black Caucus
Congressional Progressive Caucus (Vice Chair)

Personal life

Simon is the mother of two children. Simon's husband, Kevin Weston, was a recognized journalist and activist who died from leukemia in 2014. She is Muslim and legally blind.