Assemblymember Sade Elhawary represents California's 57th Assembly District, encompassing Historic South Central, Exposition Park, Downtown Los Angeles, Florence-Firestone, Watts, and Skid Row [1,2]. The eldest daughter of Egyptian and Guatemalan immigrants, Elhawary is a longtime educator, community organizer, and foster parent who spent over a decade at the Community Coalition before winning her first elected office in 2024 with more than 61 percent of the vote [1,3]. With a 12% CFC Biblical Values Scorecard rating, Elhawary's voting record has consistently placed her at considerable distance from the California Family Council's worldview framework on the sanctity of life (Chapter 6), parental authority in education (Chapter 8), and religious liberty (Chapter 9).
Zeinab Sade Elhawary was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, the eldest daughter of immigrants from Egypt and Guatemala who came to the United States in pursuit of a brighter future [1,2]. Growing up in a household shaped by her parents' immigrant experiences, Elhawary was inspired by her mother's organizing work around women's employment, equal pay, and abortion-related services [5]. She became the first in her family to attend college, earning a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2010 and a Master of Education in Secondary History from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2011 [1,2,3].
After completing her education, Elhawary returned to Los Angeles and dedicated herself to serving underresourced communities in South LA. She worked as a credentialed high school history teacher and college counselor in low-income neighborhoods, and played a pivotal role in co-founding the Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice, where she helped shape the school's curriculum and mentored its first graduating class from 2014 to 2016 [1,3,5]. Her work in education also led to the creation of the Fremont High School Wellness Center, which was established to reduce health disparities in a medically underserved neighborhood, and she helped secure the School Climate Bill of Rights to reduce racial profiling in Los Angeles schools [1,3].
On the issues central to the California Family Council's mission, Elhawary's voting record has consistently diverged from CFC's worldview framework. Her 12% CFC Biblical Values Scorecard rating reflects a pattern of voting that has supported abortion access expansion over the sanctity of life, government-directed education over parental authority, and progressive social mandates over religious liberty protections.
