Matt Haney is a San Francisco Democrat who has represented the 17th Assembly District since winning a special election in April 2022 [1]. A graduate of UC Berkeley and Stanford Law School [2], Haney built an extensive career in progressive advocacy, nonprofit leadership, and local government before arriving in Sacramento. He co-founded the criminal justice reform initiative #cut50 alongside CNN commentator Van Jones and attorney Jessica Jackson [3], and served on both the San Francisco Board of Education and the Board of Supervisors [1]. In the Assembly, he chairs the Housing and Community Development Committee and the Legislative Renters' Caucus [4], and has focused his legislative energy on housing affordability, fentanyl crisis response, and labor protections [5]. Haney has consistently taken positions that diverge from CFC's family-focused policy priorities, including authoring legislation to allow physicians to prescribe opioid addiction treatment to minors aged 16-18 without parental consent [6] and establishing Transgender History Month in California [5]. He won re-election in 2024 with roughly 85 percent of the vote [1], underscoring the deep alignment between his progressive platform and his heavily Democratic San Francisco district. With a 19% CFC Biblical Values Scorecard rating, his voting record has diverged from the California Family Council's worldview framework on the sanctity of life (Chapter 6), parental authority (Chapter 8), and religious liberty (Chapter 9).
Matthew Craig Haney was born on April 17, 1982, in Santa Cruz County, California, and grew up attending public schools in Albany in the San Francisco Bay Area [2]. He earned a bachelor's degree in urban development from UC Berkeley in 2005 [1], then received an LL.M. in human rights from the National University of Ireland at Galway as a Senator George Mitchell Scholar [2]. He went on to complete both a master's degree in education and a J.D.
Haney entered elected office in 2012 when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Education, where he served until 2019 and eventually became board president [2]. During his tenure, he advocated for affordable teacher housing, expanded computer science education, and reduced student suspensions [4]. He was notably the only San Francisco candidate for any office to receive an endorsement from President Barack Obama [2].
His 12.0% Biblical Values Scorecard rating across 104 scored floor votes reflects consistent divergence from CFC's worldview framework. His voting record has supported abortion access expansion over the sanctity of human life, government-directed education over parental authority and school choice, and progressive social mandates over religious liberty protections.
In the Assembly, Haney has been a prolific legislator. In his first full year, he sent 12 bills to the governor's desk [4]. His signature legislative achievement is AB 12, the Rental Deposit Fairness Act, which limits security deposits to one month's rent statewide [5].
