Your guide to California’s Assembly District 57 race: South Los Angeles

After representing South Los Angeles in the state Assembly for more than a decade, Democratic Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer will be forced out of office this year by term limits.

The Assembly District 57 race is now open to a field of newcomers vying to represent the heavily Democratic area that includes much of downtown Los Angeles. Five Democrats are vying to replace Jones-Sawyer, who is running for the Los Angeles City Council. No Republicans have entered the race.

The two candidates who receive the most votes in the March 5 primary will advance to the general election in November.

• Efren Martinez, Democrat, small-business owner.

Martinez is a Marine veteran and has served as the executive director of the Florence-Firestone/Walnut Park Chamber of Commerce. He has credited his struggles with poverty growing up in South L.A. as his motivation for community activism.

If elected, Martinez has vowed to prioritize “community policing” that focuses on prevention and emphasizes positive interactions with law enforcement.

In 2020, Martinez ran against Jones-Sawyer in a tight race, collecting 42% of the vote, in which he enjoyed the support of the California Correctional Peace Officers who opposed the incumbent’s criminal justice reform efforts.

In this election, he has been endorsed by U.S. Reps. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) and Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) as well as Democratic L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

• Sade Elhawary, Democrat, educator and community organizer.

Elhawary helped create the curriculum at the Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice in Brooklyn, N.Y., and has worked for the Community Coalition, an organization dedicated to the racially “exacerbated socioeconomic inequities” in South L.A. that was founded by Mayor Karen Bass. She also worked on Bass’ mayoral campaign in 2022.

She has named universal healthcare, reproductive justice and equity issues such as equal pay and paid family leave as priorities if elected.

In addition to Bass, her endorsements include Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and a list of influential labor unions including the California Teachers Assn.

• Greg Akili, Democrat, nonprofit director.

Akili is a longtime community organizer and co-founder of a labor union for domestic workers. He named restorative justice and the expansion of “good-paying union jobs” as priorities of his campaign.

He has received endorsements from labor leader Dolores Huerta and actor Danny Glover and has vowed to fight for the “working poor” if elected. In 2012, he unsuccessfully ran against Jones-Sawyer.

• Dulce Vasquez, Democrat, neighborhood council member.

Vasquez is an educator, community activist and Mexican immigrant. Ending gun violence, ensuring reproductive freedom and investing in climate change policy are all priorities of her campaign.

She is endorsed by Jones-Sawyer and former L..A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

In 2022, she unsuccessfully ran for the Los Angeles City Council.

• Tara Perry, Democrat, reparations advocate.

Perry is an activist and community organizer. She created Black Pact, an organization dedicated to opposing racism and securing reparations for the descendants of enslaved African Americans.

Her campaign platform includes a commitment to “addressing historical injustices.”

In 2020, she unsuccessfully ran for the Los Angeles City Council.

Downtown and Historic South-Central Los Angeles are part of Assembly District 57, as well as the Florence Graham area. The Democratic-leaning district includes historic Black and Latino neighborhoods. More than 70% of the population is Latino.

California’s reparations task force has recommended the state pay reparations to descendants of African Americans who were enslaved in the United States. State lawmakers will decide whether California implements any of the recommendations. The Times asked candidates if they support reparations for eligible Californians, and what types of reparations they would support from a list of recommendations in the task force report.

Akili, Elhawary, Vasquez and Perry said they support some form of reparations to eligible California residents who are descendants of slaves. Martinez did not respond to the Times questionnaire.

Akili, who serves as a board member for the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, said he has worked to promote reparations “for many years” and pointed to the organization’s support for affordable housing assistance and voting rights for all former incarcerated people as possible solutions.

Vasquez said she supports free tuition to state public colleges for descendants, as well as fair market wages for prison labor.

Elhawary and Perry are in favor of cash payments, as well as fair prison labor wages and free tuition.

Martinez has vowed to create legislation that allocates “substantial and accountable” funding for affordable housing in Los Angeles and beyond, according to his campaign website. He supports tax incentives for developers who build affordable housing projects and expanding tenant protection laws and mental health services to curb homelessness.

“We all deserve a place called home,” he said on his website.

Vasquez, who is endorsed by the YIMBY organization that advocates for more home building, said her priorities include legislation that can streamline construction of new homes, incentivizing and funding permanent supportive housing and “increasing the state’s responsibility for our mental healthcare system.”

Elhawary said she would work to increase “street outreach” to deliver resources to the unhoused. She said she would also aim to develop adaptive reuse zoning and subsidized housing.

Akili said “housing as a human right” is among his top priorities, vowing to develop plans for local governments to provide rent stabilization programs and focus on tenants’ rights.

Perry outlined a series of measures to address homelessness, including mandating that affordable housing units be included in new developments and eliminating credit checks as a requirement to access affordable housing.

“By combining these measures, we can create a more comprehensive and effective approach to addressing homelessness in California,” Perry said in a statement to The Times.

California is facing a budget deficit estimated at tens of billions of dollars in the upcoming fiscal year, and shortfalls are projected in the following years as well.

Akili, Perry, Elhawary and Vasquez all said that, if elected, they would support a combination of reducing spending and raising taxes in order to close the financial gap.