Assembly District 20 Featured Candidates

Alameda County - Hayward & Fremont

ACLU California Action asked California State Assembly 20 candidates where they stand on the most vital civil rights and civil liberties issues facing Californians today. Here’s how they responded:

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Criminal Justice

Will you publicly advocate for greater investment in community-based programs and services and reject legislation that lengthens sentences and increases penalties for nonviolent offenses?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Criminal Justice

Do you agree that mental health diversion, drug treatment, and reentry programs that rehabilitate, employ, and house people convicted of a crime are more effective crime prevention solutions than increasing sentences and classifying more low-level crimes as felonies?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Criminal Justice

Will you publicly oppose efforts to undo or weaken Proposition 47 or Proposition 57, criminal justice reforms overwhelmingly passed by voters to reduce mass incarceration, which has disproportionately impacted Black and brown communities?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Police Practices

Will you publicly support policies that shift the responsibility of public safety responses away from law enforcement and instead to trained social service providers for homelessness and mental health incidences?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Police Practices

Will you publicly support modernizing existing laws to allow for greater public access to police records?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Police Practices

Will you publicly support policies that promote strong civilian and community oversight of police practices that have been found to disproportionately target Black and brown communities?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Police Practices

Will you publicly support making permanent a ban on the use of facial recognition technology in police-worn body cameras, which are known to result in the misidentification of Black and brown individuals?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Immigrant Rights

Given the challenges that currently exist at the federal level for immigrants seeking asylum in the United States, do you publicly support allocating additional state resources to aid asylum-seekers in pursuing their cases in a safe and efficient manner?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Immigrant Rights

Will you publicly support a prohibition on state and local law enforcement from notifying ICE about release dates of individuals in their custody, transferring individuals to ICE once they’ve completed their sentence, and from holding individuals on behalf of ICE?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Voting Rights

Will you publicly support legislation that reduces political influence on local government redistricting by transferring redistricting authority from conflicted local elected officials to non-partisan, local independent citizen commissions?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

LGBTQI+ Rights

Will you publicly support eliminating loitering laws that have resulted in the disproportionate policing of transgender women of color?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

LGBTQI+ Rights

Will you publicly support the decriminalization of consensual sex work?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Reproductive Justice

Do you agree that supporting pregnant people and their families by expanding access to health care, housing, and childcare, results in better outcomes for parents and children than overreliance on police and the child welfare system?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Yes

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Racial and Economic Justice

Will you publicly oppose legislation to force unhoused individuals by court order into mental health treatment without their consent?

Yes

Liz Ortega (d)

Shawn Kumagai (d)

Thank the candidates for stating their positions on the most civil rights and civil liberties issues facing Californians today:

ACLU California Action is non-partisan and does not endorse candidates for public office. Our candidate survey is designed to educate ACLU’s members and members of the voting public about public policy positions that impact our mission.