Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez
2024 Don Edwards Lecture

Cindy Chavez is supervisor for Santa Clara County District 2, representing more than half a million people in central, east and south San Jose areas. She is chair of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority board of directors that is expanding transit services in East San Jose and bringing BART to San Jose and represents Santa Clara County on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. 

Supervisor Chavez has worked hard for the residents of Santa Clara County on multiple issues. She worked tirelessly mobilizing several protests to stop the closure of the Regional Medical Center’s trauma unit. She successfully mobilized the effort to stop selling lead gas at Reid-Hillview Airport after a lead study revealed the airport was poisoning residents with a goal of decommissioning the airport by 2031. Working with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office, she created a working group to begin a fentanyl public awareness campaign and distribute Narcan to all school districts. Because of her work on this issue, the state legislature created policy for school districts using Santa Clara County efforts on fentanyl as a prototype. She is responsible for most affordable housing in Santa Clara County after crafting the $950 million affordable housing bond passed by voters in 2016. The county is ahead of schedule in building the projects, having so far funded more than 4,400 homes throughout the county, many of which are now in operation or nearing completion. She led the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds revitalization project and, working with county nonprofits, she is leading an unprecedented movement to get a 400 percent increase in funding for survivors of sexual assault, human trafficking, and gender-based violence. 

Her visionary policies include bringing improved services for physically and sexually abused children to the new Children’s Advocacy Center, comprehensive help and resources for foster youth, bringing expansive, structural changes to digital and broadband services for students in disadvantaged areas, and providing health care for all children. She is also in the process of developing a Latinx Health and Wellness Center comparable to the Vietnamese American Service Center. 

Cindy is a graduate of San Jose State University, with a B.A. in Political Science. She is married to Mike Potter, and they have a college-age son.

Click here to see the 2024 Don Edwards Lecture. 
Date: October 30, 2024, 7:00pm
Location: Student Union Theater, San José State Campus