California 94.35%
Minnesota 3.24%
Texas 0.48%
Nevada 0.35%
Other 1.58%
My name is Jonathan Abboud and I’m ready to be your next State Assemblymember, representing Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties.
My parents came to the US from Lebanon in the 1980s. They raised my sister and me in a working class immigrant neighborhood in Los Angeles, in a rent-controlled apartment near an oil field and major freeway. We belonged to an underfunded school, until my mom was able to transfer us to another public high school nearby with more resources. This awakened me politically by asking the question why is there even a “good school” and a “bad school” in the first place? This is why I believe your zip code shouldn’t determine your future.
In 2010 I moved to the Central Coast and became the first in my family to go to college by attending UC Santa Barbara, graduating with a BA in Political Science and a Master of Technology Management. There I got involved in the community and in the fight to defend public higher education during the state budget cuts, working to register and turn out voters during the Prop 30 campaign in 2012. In my last year, I served as Student Body President during a difficult and tragic time in Isla Vista.
In 2014 I decided to stay in the area to organize within the community and with our legislators in Sacramento to empower our town with a form of self-governance; I’m proud to now serve as the General Manager of the Isla Vista Community Services District. I've served as a Trustee on the Santa Barbara City College Board for five years, the entire time advocating in Sacramento for our community's higher education interests.
