A former labor lawyer, Linda T. Sánchez represents California’s 38th congressional district – but the first thing her family and friends will tell you is that she’s never stopped “kicking ass for the working class.” Most of all, she is also a proud mom, dog lover, and Dodgers fan.
Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, Ms. Sánchez is the first Latina to serve on the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means and the House Judiciary Committee. A lifelong progressive, she has devoted her career to helping working people get ahead: advocating for families, improving America’s education system, and bringing jobs to Southern California. In 2024, she shattered another glass ceiling, becoming the first Latina and woman of color to serve as a ranking member on a Ways and Means subcommittee. She currently serves as the ranking member of the Trade Subcommittee.
Ms. Sánchez was born in Orange, California, the sixth of seven children, to immigrant parents from Mexico. Her father, Ignacio, worked as an industrial machinist and mechanic at a plastics and rubber plant, and her mother, Maria, was an elementary school teacher who decided to further her education by attending school at night. Growing up in a proud Latino household, she was inspired by her parents to take advantage of the opportunities they never had.
Reflecting upon the importance that her family and parents had in her life, Ms. Sánchez says, “In every Latino family, there’s a sense of ‘We need to stick together.’ But I think in our particular family, that’s even stronger because our folks expected great things from us. They wanted us to take advantage of all the opportunities they never had.”
Throughout her time in Congress, Ms. Sánchez has been a steadfast advocate for working people, including improving school safety; enabling more women, minorities, and veterans to establish small businesses; reforming the tax code to provide relief for long-term caregivers; bringing scrutiny to the misuse of arbitration that unfairly harms workers; and keeping families in their homes through changes to bankruptcy law. She has been a staunch advocate for Alzheimer’s beneficiary and caregiver support, having lost her father and watching her mother suffer from the disease.
She currently serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means, where she advocates for the protection of Social Security and Medicare, fairness for U.S. workers and businesses in trade agreements, and an even playing field for the middle class through tax code reform.
For her complete biography, please visit https://lindasanchez.house.gov/about-linda.
