Blanca Pacheco

Assemblywoman Blanca Pacheco (D-Downey) has represented California's 64th Assembly District since December 2022, serving communities across southeastern Los Angeles County and northern Orange County including Downey, Norwalk, Whittier, and La Mirada ^[1,2]. The daughter of a nurse and a public school bus driver, Pacheco rose from a working-class upbringing to become an attorney, the first Latina Mayor of Downey, and now Chair of the Assembly Rules Committee ^[2,3,4]. While her voting record aligns with the progressive Democratic caucus on most social issues -- including a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood Affiliates ^[5] -- her deep roots in community service, youth mentorship through Teen Court and Kiwanis, and her commitment to strengthening families through public safety and elder abuse prevention legislation offer meaningful points of connection with the CFC's mission to protect children and strengthen families ^[3,6].

Blanca Nieves Pacheco was born on April 17, 1974, and grew up in a working-class household. Her mother was a nurse and her father, Gonzalo, was a public school bus driver -- both were union members ^[2,3]. She attended elementary school in Cudahy before moving to Downey, where she attended middle school and graduated from Downey High School (Class of 1993) ^[3,7].

Pacheco went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a specialization in Chicano/a Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1998, followed by a Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles in 2002 ^[1,2,4]. She passed the California State Bar exam in 2003 ^[3].

Her 14.9% Biblical Values Scorecard rating across 74 scored floor votes reflects consistent divergence from CFC's worldview framework. Her 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.

Pacheco's legislative agenda spans several areas. Her signature legislative effort has been the push to allow diacritical marks -- accents, tildes, umlauts, and cedillas -- on California vital records such as birth, marriage, and death certificates.