Malia Cohen

As a mom, Malia Cohen evaluates and protects California’s finances with families in mind. She understands what’s at stake in how state funds are spent, or when state employees get paid. As Controller, she also sits on over 70 boards and commissions, bringing her lived experience to conversations about everything from affordable housing to land management. In a state with the world’s fourth-largest economy, Malia ensures that families always have a seat at the table. Vote Mama is proud to endorse her for reelection.

Cohen has deep public finance experience — she chaired SF's Budget and Finance Committee, ran the SF Employees' Retirement System ($35B), and now sits on CalPERS and CalSTRS boards (~$1T combined). She led a task force that produced 20 reforms after California's largest-ever charter school fraud. She publishes pay data for 2M+ government workers.

Malia Cohen has enough experience in public finance for two candidates, and yet we only get to vote for her once. She’s got experience in the job that has not been marred by scandal. She’s increased audit transparency for charter school finances and modernized the state’s payroll system. If you live in SF and you remember teachers going without paychecks because of a payroll system error, consider that Cohen’s upgrade of the payroll system didn’t generate a single negative headline. The other two candidates in the race would be dangerous to the state’s finances or aren’t qualified for the job.