John Harabedian

For Assembly District 41 voters, John Harabedian’s public life begins close to home: he was born and raised in Sierra Madre, won a seat on its City Council and served two terms as mayor. He is an attorney who also worked as a deputy district attorney, bringing a legal career to a succession of campaigns for city, county and state office. After two council victories, he sought a place on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, then turned toward the Legislature. He initially announced for the state Senate before switching to the Assembly race in District 41. Harabedian now lives in Pasadena with his wife, Young-Gi, and their three children.

HOME GROUND

John Christopher Harabedian was born in 1981. His father has an Armenian American and Cherokee background, and Harabedian’s own geographic roots are in Sierra Madre, where he was both born and raised.

That local connection is the most persistent feature of his political career.

Harabedian graduated from Loyola High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Yale University. He received a Master of Science in comparative social policy from Oxford University in 2006 and a Juris Doctor from Stanford University in 2010.

The degrees joined political study, social policy and law.

FIRST OFFICE

Harabedian was elected to the Sierra Madre City Council in 2012.

He returned to the voters four years later and was re-elected to the council in 2016. During his time in Sierra Madre government, Harabedian served two terms as mayor.

The documented account does not attach a particular ordinance, vote or city policy dispute to his tenure. What it establishes is continuity: two council victories and two terms as mayor.

THE COUNTY BID

In 2020, Harabedian ran for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in District 5. The campaign represented a move from municipal office to a county contest.

He faced incumbent Kathryn Barger and Darrell Park. Harabedian placed third, behind Barger and Park.

The county campaign did not result in election, but it added another level of government to his political history.

THE TURN TO SACRAMENTO

Harabedian’s next move was toward the California Legislature. He initially announced that he would run for the California State Senate in the 25th district.

He later changed races, making the switch from the 25th Senate district to the 41st Assembly district. The sequence is part of the practical map of his career: City Council and mayor in Sierra Madre, a third-place campaign for county supervisor, an announced state Senate candidacy and then the Assembly contest.

His personal home is now Pasadena, where he resides with Young-Gi and their three children.

THE THROUGH LINE

His education is similarly sustained across several institutions and fields. He studied political science at Yale, comparative social policy at Oxford and law at Stanford. The Oxford degree came in 2006 and the Stanford degree in 2010; two years after completing the law degree, he won election to the Sierra Madre council.

The public record supplied here does not identify a named legislative cause that followed him from school to the courthouse or from legal work into city government. Nor does it assign a particular policy motivation to his changes in office.

The elections also separate the offices he held from those he sought: he won twice in Sierra Madre, served twice as mayor, finished third in the county race and later redirected his state campaign from the Senate to the Assembly.

WHAT TO KNOW

No individual ordinance, budget decision, legislative measure or policy campaign is identified as his signature issue, so attaching one to him would go beyond the established account.

His route has been institutional rather than issue-defined: law, city government, a county campaign and the Legislature. For District 41 voters, the central fact is that Harabedian came to state politics with actual experience in one local government, including two council victories and two terms in the mayor’s office.