Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters is the U.S. Representative for California’s 43rd District, a seat she has held since 1991.¹ She is the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee and chaired the panel from 2019 to 2023.¹ Before her election to Congress, Waters served 14 years in the California State Assembly and was the Democratic Caucus Chair.¹ She worked as a teacher and Head Start volunteer coordinator, and she founded the youth job-training group Project Build and co-founded the nonprofit Black Women’s Forum.²

In 2026 Waters spoke out against the Trump administration’s attempt to suspend federal homelessness grants for Los Angeles, which a court order blocked, protecting approximately $241 million in funding that supports programs for more than 11,000 people.³ She says she introduced the Ending Homelessness Act and worked across the aisle on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which was signed into law.³ She voted in favor of a resolution to direct the removal of U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities in Iran and against attempts to override California harbor-craft pollution rules.⁴ She says she helped direct federal resources to the Jordan Downs public-housing revitalization in Watts, where 863 new apartments have been completed.⁵ Her official website says she spearheaded the Minority AIDS Initiative in 1998, and that under her leadership its annual funding rose from $156 million to about $400 million.²