As noted in Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper, Laura Richardson’s “meteoric rise” has been nothing short of amazing.
At the age of six, living through the civil rights movement, Congresswoman Richardson decided her first choice of profession would be public service. Ms. Richardson started on that path by getting her first job at the age of 12 and later by participating in the Olympic trials at the age of 17. She graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in political science, then received a Masters in business administration from USC, and went on to spend fourteen years working for Xerox Corp.
In 2006, after serving six years as a Long Beach City Councilwoman and delivering over $10 million to a traditionally underserved community, Laura Richardson won a seat in the California Assembly in the 55th District serving as Assistant Pro Tempore in the Assembly. She was recognized as the first, South Bay representative, freshman, and African- American woman to hold this prestigious position. In the nine short months she spent in the California Legislature, she succeeded in getting three bills signed by the Governor that were vital to the Legislature’s ability to further initiatives expanding access to healthcare, empowering public education, and ensuring safe neighborhoods.
In 2007, Richardson went on to succeed 16 candidates in a special election and was elected to her first term in the House of Representatives to represent California's culturally and economically diverse 37th Congressional District setting a record of distinction in having served all three levels of government; local, state and federal all in the span of less than a year.
Since being elected to serve in the House of Representatives, Richardson was assigned to serve on the influential Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Committee on Science and Technology. Congresswoman Laura Richardson intends to focus on homeland security, providing greater resources for first responders, adequate and accessible health care services, proper transportation utilization and better utilization of nationwide funding for Federal programs. Speaker Pelosi has referred to Representative Richardson as bright, energetic, intelligent, and an asset to the committee chairs, caucuses and her constituents.
Representative Laura Richardson has a 99% voting record, 100% committee attendance record, is the 239th female and the 26th African-American female to serve in the U.S. Congress.