Media Release

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

May 9, 2017

Contact: Dave Jacobson, (818) 943-2348 Maclen Zilber, (510) 508-9142 Jacobson & Zilber Strategies

LARA LANDS MAJOR STATEWIDE ENDORSEMENT IN INSURANCE COMMISSIONER

CONTEST

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla Backs Senator Ricardo Lara

LONG BEACH, CA -- Serving as the latest evidence of the growing support for his campaign to become California's next State Insurance Commissioner, today State Senator Ricardo Lara scored a milestone endorsement from California's Secretary of State, Alex Padilla.

Padilla, a former President of the Los Angeles City Council and State Senator, announced his endorsement of Senator Lara's statewide bid by stating:

"I'm proud to endorse Ricardo Lara for State Insurance Commissioner. I've known Ricardo for years and have admired his leadership on many issues: from healthcare access to environmental protection, and from defending immigrants to improving public schools. He's got the heart and the smarts to fight for California's consumers. While President Trump and the Republican Congress are working to strip away healthcare and consumer protections, we need Ricardo Lara's leadership now more than ever."

Today's announcement follows news that just yesterday, Senator Lara rolled out his new online video, titled, "Embolden."

This new digital ad takes aim at President Donald Trump's backwards agenda and comments saying that "California is out of control," by illustrating the sharp contrast between the Oval Office's agenda and that of Senator Ricardo Lara, the son of immigrants, and a forward-thinking state lawmaker who has delivered for working families, immigrants and consumers.

To view the ad, click on the screen shot below:

Since the inception of his campaign for California State Insurance Commissioner, State Senator Ricardo Lara has amassed wide-ranging support from leaders and organizations, including:

Elected Leaders

• United States Senator Kamala Harris • California Secretary of State Alex Padilla • State Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León • State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon • California Board of Equalization Chair Fiona Ma • State Assembly Speaker Emeritus and State Senator Toni Atkins • State Assembly Speaker Emeritus and State Senator Robert Hertzberg • State Senator Dr. Ed Hernandez • State Senator Holly Mitchell • State Senator Ben Hueso • State Senator Tony Mendoza • State Senator Scott Wiener • State Senator Steven Bradford • State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson • State Senator Nancy Skinner • State Senator Ben Allen • State Senator Mark Leno (Ret.) • State Assembly Member Jimmy Gomez • State Assembly Member Miguel Santiago • State Assembly Member Blanca Rubio • State Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia • State Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin • State Assembly Member Evan Low • State Assembly Member Tony Thurmond • State Assembly Member Kevin McCarty • State Assembly Member Susan Bonilla (Ret.) • Sacramento Mayor and former State Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg • Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia • California Democratic Party First Vice Chair Alex Rooker • California Young Democrats' President Eddie Kirby

Organizations

• California Latino Legislative Caucus • Equality California (EQCA) • UNITE HERE, AFL-CIO • California State Council of Laborers • California Conference of Machinists • United Steelworkers Legislative Education Committee for Los Angeles and Orange Counties • International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 36 • United Industrial Workers of the Seafarers International Union, SIUNA, AFL-CIO • International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 11

In recent weeks, Senator Lara, who recently co-introduced Californians for a Healthy California Act (SB 562), which amounts to single-payer healthcare for the state, announced that he is running to serve as California's State Insurance Commissioner - a statewide elected office dedicated to protecting consumers, enforcing all insurance regulations, and safeguarding Californians' economic and health security.

Dubbed by the Los Angeles Times as the "Point man in the push for immigrant rights," Senator Lara, who also previously served as Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus and currently serves as Vice Chair of the California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus, announced his candidacy by previously releasing the following statement:

"Our nation is in full blown crisis mode right now. We have a man in the White House with no popular mandate, who is methodically working to strip Americans of their healthcare, their economic security and their civil liberties.

"I'm running to be California's next State Insurance Commissioner because I believe at my core that California needs a strong defender, and a counterpuncher, who will stand up to fight our bullying President, Donald Trump, and his increasingly reckless federal government on issues from healthcare access to economic security and more. If millions of Californians begin losing their health insurance because of actions taken by Donald Trump, I will be there to fight him tooth and nail at every pass.

"As California's Insurance Commissioner, I'll work tirelessly to represent the great people of California, not the corporations, the billionaire class, the pharmaceutical or the insurance companies. I plan to work with anybody who is willing to come to the table, but my allegiance will always be first and foremost to the consumers, the patients, our working families, and our most vulnerable communities in our Golden State."

As a State Senator, Ricardo Lara has already been a leader on numerous issues that the office of the Insurance Commissioner interacts with. As stated above, he recently co-introduced a single-payer healthcare system for the state, and also spearheaded the groundbreaking law that provided health care for 170,000 immigrant children, and has played a strong, dynamic role in shaping, implementing and expanding Covered California.

In 2016, Senator Lara engineered the successful statewide campaign to allow for multi-lingual education in California's schools. He was also one of the key leaders behind a landmark effort to grant driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants in California. This legislation is more important than ever, now that Donald Trump has instructed border patrol agents that they may deport undocumented immigrants for the "crime" of driving without a license.

Senator Lara was born and raised in East Los Angeles and attended schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He graduated from San Diego State University with a double major in Journalism and Spanish. He worked as a legislative staffer for years, including working for State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and for then-Assemblymember and now State Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Léon. In 2010, Senator Lara was elected to the California State Assembly, and in 2012, he was elected to the California State Senate, where he made history as the first openly gay person of color in the State Senate.

His 33rd Senate District is expansive, encompassing nearly one million people, roughly 70% of which is Latino. The district is located in the heart of the South Bay and stretches from Long Beach to Lynwood, and from Huntington Park to Lakewood and Los Angeles.

Significantly, if elected, Senator Lara would be the first openly gay statewide elected official in California. Today, Senator Lara serves as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the California State Senate, considered to be perhaps the most influential committee in the California State Senate.

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Paid for by Ricardo Lara for Insurance Commissioner 2018

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