Buffy Wicks

Buffy Wicks came to the East Bay’s Assembly seat after years spent organizing campaigns rather than holding office. She began with rallies against the Iraq War in the San Francisco Bay Area, then worked on presidential campaigns, in the White House, in the labor movement and on issues affecting women and families. District voters first elected her in 2018, after a race against Richmond City Council member Jovanka Beckles. In Sacramento, her work has included housing, protections related to pregnancy outcomes and, more recently, rules governing how operating-system makers and app stores collect users’ ages. One moment that drew international attention came on August 31, 2020, when Wicks appeared on the Assembly floor holding her newborn while speaking in favor of housing legislation.

BEFORE PUBLIC OFFICE

Wicks was born in Foresthill on August 10, 1977. She graduated from Placer High School in 1995 and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and history from the University of Washington in 1999. In 2000, she entered an international master’s program in peace, conflict and development studies at Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, Spain; she left the following year without completing the degree.

Her political work began in the Bay Area in the early 2000s, organizing rallies against the Iraq War. She joined Howard Dean’s unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign and later became one of the early hires on Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. There, she worked on grassroots mobilization and outcome-based organizing and ran state operations in California, Texas and Missouri.

Wicks subsequently served as deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. From 2010 to 2011, she managed the early months of Rahm Emanuel’s campaign. She returned to Obama’s operation in 2012 as national director of Operation Vote, responsible for mobilizing African American, Latino, women and young voters.

THE PATH AND THE JOB

From 2014 to 2015, Wicks was executive director of Priorities USA Action. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign named her California state director in 2016. Her résumé outside those campaigns included work as political director of Wake Up Wal-Mart, a movement funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers, and as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress focused on policies affecting women and families.

Wicks declared her candidacy in 2017 for the 2018 Assembly election and defeated Beckles in the general election on November 6, taking 54 percent of the vote. In her second term, she chaired the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development.

Not every initiative advanced. Wicks co-sponsored the More HOMES Act, SB 50, which was defeated. A pared-down measure, SB 920, passed the Senate but died in an Assembly committee. She also sponsored a requirement that all California workers receive COVID-19 vaccines. Labor unions opposed it, and the bill was postponed. In those instances, measures she sponsored or co-sponsored were defeated, died in committee or were postponed.

THE POLICY SIGNATURE

Housing is a prominent line through Wicks’s Assembly record. She authored housing measures including AB 2011 and, in 2025, sponsored legislation to exempt most urban housing developments from the California Environmental Quality Act. She also co-sponsored the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, SB 79. A pared-down version of the earlier More HOMES Act, SB 79 passed both houses and was signed into law on October 10, 2025; it comes into force on July 1, 2026.

Her record also includes protections related to pregnancy outcomes. Wicks introduced AB 2223, intended to protect women from criminal prosecution for experiencing a miscarriage or inducing an abortion. Anti-abortion commentators characterized the measure as legalizing infanticide. On April 22, 2022, a convoy of anti-abortion truckers attempted to demonstrate outside her home.

Her more recent work reaches beyond those concerns. The Digital Age Assurance Act, AB 1043, signed in 2025, requires operating-system makers and app stores to collect a user’s age or date of birth at device setup. By early 2026, MidnightBSD had announced that it would exclude California residents from its desktop version starting January 1, 2027, as a risk-mitigation step regarding new state legislation.

Taken together, the documented Assembly record includes repeated work on housing development, along with AB 2223’s protections related to pregnancy outcomes. It also includes a proposed statewide worker-vaccination requirement opposed by labor unions, legislation exempting most urban housing developments from CEQA and a statewide age-verification law.