Sacramento, CA – Today, Matt Haney was sworn in as the Assemblymember for the 17th Assembly District after winning a landslide victory in the April 19th special election. The newly elected Assemblymember will represent the diverse district encompassing the eastern side of San Francisco.
“It’s an honor to be sworn in to represent the people of San Francisco in the State Legislature,” said Assemblymember Haney. “I’m proud of what I was able to accomplish in San Francisco and ready to deliver for my constituents on a new level. That means finding concrete solutions to California’s biggest challenges, especially the housing crisis, homelessness, climate change, and growing inequality. The work has already begun.”
Assemblymember Haney represented District 6 on the San Francisco on the Board of Supervisors and previously served as the Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee, overseeing the City and County’s $13+ billion budget. He earned a reputation for championing policies to make San Francisco safer and cleaner, such as 24-hour public bathrooms, new bike lanes, slow streets, and streamlined housing for the City’s homeless residents. He also authored the “Overpaid Executive Tax” to provide San Francisco with tens of millions of dollars to hire more nurses, social workers, and emergency responders.
Prior to his election to the Board of Supervisors in 2018, Assemblymember Haney served on the San Francisco Board of Education from 2013-2019 where he fought for affordable teacher housing, expanded computer science education, and cut suspensions that overwhelmingly targeted students of color. Over the course of his career, he co-founded a nonprofit combating mass incarceration, served as Executive Director of the UC Student Association, worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign, and served as a Legislative Aide and State Senate Fellow in the office of then State Senator Joe Simitian.
Assemblymember Haney holds a BA in Urban Development from UC Berkeley, an MA from Stanford University School of Education, a JD from Stanford Law School, and an LLM in Human Rights from National University of Ireland. He lives in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood and is one of three renters elected to the State Legislature. He plans to commute to Sacramento by Amtrak.