Lateefah Simon is a nationally recognized advocate for civil rights and social justice who has been serving her community in Oakland and the Bay Area for more than 25 years. She first began organizing as a teenager, when she worked for and later led the Young Women’s Freedom Center, an organization focused on supporting and inspiring local girls to create a positive change in their lives and give back to their communities. From there, Simon’s track record of delivering positive change in her community led then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris to call on Simon to spearhead Back on Track—a first of its kind anti-recidivism initiative. In 2016, galvanized by the death of a 22-year-old Black man named Oscar Grant, Simon ran for and was elected to the Bay Area Rapid Transit board of directors, where she has made public safety a key focus of her tenure.

Now, Simon is taking her passion for justice to new heights by running for Congress, where she’ll be committed to tackling the issues impacting her future constituents the most—including and especially gun violence. Like so many in this movement, Lateefah Simon knows that gun violence is a public health crisis that must be addressed head on, and she’s determined to pass lifesaving measures like universal background checks, a federal extreme risk law to disarm those who pose a threat to themselves or others, and strong safe storage standards. Simon also knows that we must adequately fund efforts to research the root causes of gun violence and allocate needed funding for community violence intervention programs, and she’ll stand up to the gun lobby and anyone who gets in the way of progress.

For too long, our leaders in Washington DC have put politics over the needs of everyday Americans and refused to pass necessary gun safety laws. While we’ve made some progress in recent years, there is still so much more to do if we are going to build a safer future for the next generation. It’s time to send champions like Lateefah Simon to Capitol Hill to get the job done once and for all. We know she’ll never back down in this fight until every Californian can grow up in a world free from violence.

We are proud to award Lateefah Simon the GIFFORDS Champion Award and endorse her for the US House of Representatives.