I was first elected to the California State Senate in December 2014, representing the 35th State Senate District that includes the communities of Carson, Compton, Gardena, Harbor Gateway, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lynwood, North Long Beach, Rancho Dominguez, Rancho Palos Verdes, San Pedro, South Los Angeles, Torrance, Watts/Willowbrook and Wilmington.

I previously represented California's 64th Assembly District from 2008 to 2014 and served as the Chair of the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee. I also served on the following policy committees: Elections & Redistricting and Human Services.

During my tenure in the Assembly, I authored notable legislation and have been an influential and decisive voice on various public policy issues including: addressing the state’s fiscal crisis, job creation, reducing childhood obesity and diabetes, improving public safety, expanding access to education technology and the creation of a sustainable statewide water policy.

In 2009, I successfully authored legislation to help build the world’s first ‘green’ professional football stadium. Located in Los Angeles County, the proposed 75,000 seat LEED certified NFL stadium and entertainment complex will create over 18,000 jobs and utilize the latest in technology, planning and design to create the most environmentally sustainable athletic stadium complex ever created.

I began my career of public service in 2001 when I was elected to the Compton Unified School District Board of Trustees. I served two terms as President of the Board and oversaw important reforms to attract highly qualified teachers and increase funding to classrooms throughout the district.

In 2003, I was elected to the Compton City Council where I served in various leadership positions including Mayor Pro Tem. While on the City Council, I oversaw efforts to increase youth access to parks and recreational activities, reduce crime and promote business growth throughout the city.  During this time I also served on the Metropolitan Water District Board, the Gateway Cities Council of Governments and the Southern California Association of Governments becoming a prominent regional voice for communities throughout southern California.

I received a Bachelor of Art’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Arts Degree in Public Administration from National University.  In 2011, I was awarded a Master’s Degree in Management and Leadership from the University of Southern California, and dual Doctorates in Theology and Religious Studies from Next Dimension Bible College.  I am also a proud member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Born and raised in Compton, California, I am the youngest of six children.

I am a product of 44th Congressional District. For decades, I have served communities throughout this region with one objective: work together to achieve our common goals. We all want great schools for our children, safe neighborhoods to raise our families and the ability to make an honest wage for honest work. That has been my focus while serving on the Compton School Board, the Compton City Council, the State Assembly, and the State Senate, and it will be my focus representing the people of the great 44th Congressional district.

As the youngest of eleven kids raised by parents who immigrated to this country from Mexico, she knows that you have to fight for those things.

Nanette grew up in Carson and the surrounding areas where she attended Stephen M. White Middle School, learned to swim at Carson Pool, and studied at the Carson Library. In a district where the median income is $44,000, only 60% of students graduate from high school, and only 10% graduate from college, she beat the odds and put herself through UCLA and USC Law School.

Nanette worked in Washington at the White House for President Clinton and at the NAACP, where she focused on social justice issues and researched racial health disparities. Most recently she was a leader in the successful fight against Measure O, a ballot measure that would have allowed oil companies to drill in the Santa Monica Bay. She served as the first Latina ever elected to the Hermosa Beach City Council. Nanette lives in San Pedro and currently works with one of Los Angeles’s largest and most prominent children’s advocacy organizations to provide free legal services to children in foster care who have special education needs.

In Congress, Nanette will fight for working people. That means protecting American jobs, bringing more good-paying jobs with benefits to our community, raising the minimum wage, and guaranteeing equal pay for equal work.

I'm running because I beat the odds here in the district -- the district where I grew up, where my family resides, and where people need a voice the most -- I want to make sure children here today can achieve the same American Dream that I achieved.

I believe that regardless of age, income, zip code, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, we all want the same things: the opportunity to find a good-paying job, access to great schools, and safe, healthy communities where you can raise a family.

The 44th district deserves a fighter who is committed to serving the interests of the people who live here. Frankly, we already have enough people in Congress who put big business, big oil and big polluters ahead of the people they’re supposed to represent. We don’t need more of them.

In Congress, I will fight for working people. That means protecting American jobs, bringing more good-paying jobs with benefits to our community, raising the minimum wage, guaranteeing equal pay for equal work, protecting social security, making college more affordable and addressing the inequalities in school discipline that impact communities of color the most that creates the school-to-prison pipeline. And, unlike my opponent, I will put people ahead of profits and I won’t accept campaign contributions from special interests like big oil, payday lenders, or tobacco.

Armando is a single dad living in Carson, CA. During a recent conversation with his sons, Armando reflected on the greatness of the U.S. economy. The more he reflected, the more he realized how much of that economic greatness has faded. Armando fears that his sons are growing up in a jobless, penniless world — and so he took action.

Armando entered the race for the 44th Congressional District in the name of everyone who has lost jobs at the hand of the U.S. economic shortcomings.

SOLUTIONS NOT PROMISES

In Congress, Armando will fight for working people in an effort to put the word “United” back in the United States of America.  Armando aims to bring back the products that used to be made in America, to fight recent trade agreements that cost U.S, jobs, to provide more high-paying jobs with benefits, to raise the minimum wage, and to guarantee equal pay for equal work.

In the 44th District, the average income is $44,000, only 60% of students graduate from high school, and only 10% graduate from college. Armando will represent those who struggle month to month to provide for their families. He believes that everyone should live equal lives. Regardless of age, income, neighborhood, ethnicity, gender, everybody should have access to a high-paying job, access to high-quality educations, and everyone should have the opportunity to live in an environment suitable for raising a family.

Armando, nicknamed Don Armando, grew up in South Central in a Mexican-American family with his mother, who immigrated from Mexico and his father, who came from Texas. Armando understands the adversity that weighs on children who grow up in underprivileged neighborhoods. His childhood is lined with memories of his parents overworking in order to fill the table with enough food to feed him and his brothers and sisters.

During his studies at Los Angeles Harbor College, Armando started his political career with a project. His professor assigned a choice of either running for public office or simply turning in a term paper. Ambitious and driven by a passion for his community, Armando ran for California State Assembly in 1978. The political bug never left him.