Christopher Cabaldon

Christopher Cabaldon’s route to the state Senate runs through West Sacramento City Hall: he served as mayor from 1998 to 2020 and became the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history. Before and during those years, he worked through the institutions of California education policy, from the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee to the California Community Colleges System. He was sworn in for Senate District 3 in December 2024, representing 22 cities across Solano, Yolo, Napa, Sonoma, Contra Costa and Sacramento counties. Cabaldon is the first Filipino-American senator in California history. His first Senate assignments put him on the Education, Housing, Local Government and Appropriations committees and made him chair of a budget subcommittee overseeing government operations and performance.

ROOTS AND THE JOB BEFORE THE JOB

Cabaldon’s first political work came in seventh grade. A founding pupil at the Center for Enriched Studies, the first magnet school in Los Angeles, he spoke at conferences and in media interviews about desegregation and later became student body president. At the University of California, Berkeley, he earned a degree in environmental economics and served as student body vice president. He earned his master’s in public policy and administration as a member of the founding class of that program at California State University, Sacramento.

At 24, Cabaldon became chief consultant and staff director for the Assembly Higher Education Committee. He also served as legislative director of the University of California Students Association and as chief of staff to the chair of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. From 1997 to 2003, he was vice chancellor of the California Community Colleges System. Later posts included chief executive officer of EdVoice, president of the Linked Learning Alliance and program officer for the California Education Policy Fund.

WEST SACRAMENTO

Cabaldon was selected mayor by his fellow council members in November 1998. In 2004, he won West Sacramento’s first direct mayoral election, followed by victories in 2006, 2008 and 2010. He ran unopposed in 2012, received 84.3% of the vote in 2014, ran unopposed again in 2016 and was reelected in 2018. City Council member Martha Guerrero defeated him in 2020.

The work at City Hall repeatedly returned to education. Cabaldon led West Sacramento to connect all children to high-quality preschool, joined a digital-badging network supporting learning by local teens and launched the West Sacramento Home Run initiative for educational attainment.

His mayoral record also extended into national and statewide organizations. He authored a 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors resolution supporting the Filipino Veterans Fairness Act and a 2009 resolution supporting marriage equality and hate-crimes legislation. Cabaldon, who came out publicly during his 2006 State of the City address, was also a founding member and president of the Asian Pacific Islander caucus of the League of California Cities.

THE JUMP

Cabaldon sought an Assembly seat in 2008 and later served as California co-chair of Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, introducing Buttigieg at the campaign’s 2019 launch. In 2024, he entered the race for Senate District 3. He won 30% more primary votes than his closest Democratic opponent, then defeated Dixon Mayor Thomas Bogue in the general election.

His Senate duties accumulated quickly. Cabaldon became chair of the group of legislators representing University of California campuses. At the end of his first year, he was named chair of the Senate Committee on Privacy, Digital Technologies & Consumer Protection, vice chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and presiding officer for the Senate floor. In July 2024, Capitol Weekly voted him “Best Prepared” legislator.

THE POLICY SIGNATURE

The clearest policy signature in Cabaldon’s record is education access and attainment. The work has moved through legislative staff positions, the community-college system, advocacy organizations, interstate policy bodies, university teaching, municipal programs and now a Senate committee assignment. He was appointed California’s representative on the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education in 2011 and reappointed in 2014 and 2018; in 2019, he facilitated a review of the California Master Plan for Higher Education. That year he also became the Hazel Cramer Endowed Chair at Sacramento State.

The people named most consistently in that record are children entering preschool, local teens, college students and public education institutions. Other documented commitments sit beside that work: Filipino veterans, Asian Pacific Islander participation in local government, marriage equality and hate-crimes legislation. In the Senate, the institutional map is broader—education, housing, local government, appropriations, audits, technology and consumer protection—but education remains the work Cabaldon has carried from one level of government to the next.