Suzette Martinez Valladares was sworn in this week to represent Los Angeles County’s the 38th Assembly District, which consists of the Santa Clarita Valley, portions of the West San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley.
She succeeds Christy Smith, as the California Legislature began its 2020-22 session. Smith unsuccessfully ran for the 25th Congressional District seat instead of running for reelection.
Valladares defeated fellow Republican Lucie Lapointe Volotzky 76.1 percent to 23.9 percent in the Nov. 3 election. Valladares finished first in a field of two Republicans and five Democrats in the primary with 31.8 percent of the vote.
Valladares was a district representative for then-Rep. Buck McKeon and executive director of Southern California Autism Speaks before succeeding her late mother in 2018 as CEO of Little Steps of Faith, a Christian preschool in Sylmar.
According to biographical information supplied by her campaign, Valladares was reared in the San Fernando Valley, the granddaughter of a farmworker who worked alongside Cesar Chavez in the vineyards near Bakersfield.
Valladares was reportedly told in high school, ‘You’re Latina, therefore you are a Democrat.’’ But after hearing then-Vice President Al Gore speak at a local high school, she said she realized that she did not believe in the values he espoused and was drawn to the Republican Party ideals of liberty, limited government, self-reliance, and quality of life, the same values her parents had instilled in her.
Valladares is the mother of a 3-year-old daughter Charlotte.
