Shirley Weber (née Nash; born September 20, 1948) is an American academic and politician serving as the

secretary of state of California The secretary of state of California is the chief clerk of the U.S. state of California, overseeing a department of 500 people. The secretary of state is elected for four year terms, like the state's other constitutional officers; the officeho ...

. She was previously a member of the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The A ...

for the 79th Assembly District, which includes portions of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

Chula Vista Chula Vista (; ) is the second-largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh largest city in Southern California, the fifteenth largest city in the state of California, and the 78th-largest city in the United States. The popul ...

, and National City and all of Lemon Grove and La Mesa. Prior to being elected to the Assembly in 2012, Weber served on the San Diego Board of Education, and as a Professor of African-American Studies at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

. A member of the

California Legislative Black Caucus The California Legislative Black Caucus, also known as the CLBC, is a California political organization composed of African Americans elected to the California State Legislature. Priorities The California Legislative Black Caucus represents and ad ...

, she is the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to be elected to the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...

south of Los Angeles. In December 2020,

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...

appointed Weber as California's secretary of state, succeeding

Alex Padilla Alejandro Padilla ( ; born March 22, 1973) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from California since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Padilla served as the 30th secretary of state of California from 2015 ...

, whom he had appointed as California's junior United States senator. Weber is the first

to serve as California's secretary of state and the fifth to serve in a statewide position.

Early life and education

Weber was born in

Hope, Arkansas Hope is a city in Hempstead County in southwestern Arkansas, United States. Hope is the county seat of Hempstead County and the principal city of the Hope Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Hempstead and Nevada counties. As of ...

and raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Her father was a farmer and left school after sixth grade but encouraged Weber and her seven siblings to prioritize their education. At three years old, she and her family fled their farm and moved west after her father refused to back down in a dispute with a white farmer and a lynch mob threatened his life. The family relocated to the

Pueblo Del Rio Pueblo Del Rio is a public housing project located in the Central-Alameda neighborhood of South Los Angeles, California. The address of Pueblo Del Rio is 1801 East 53rd Street, which is near the intersection of 55th and Alameda streets. History ...

housing projects in South Los Angeles where Weber grew up. She earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

, and PhD in communication from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Career

Academics

Weber is a professor emerita of Africana studies at

. She helped to establish that department in 1972 and became its chair, teaching there for 40 years. She was president of the National Council for Black Studies from 2002 to 2006.

Early political career

She served as a board member and later president of the

Board of Education from 1988 to 1996. She also served as Chairwoman of the San Diego Citizens’ Equal Opportunity Commission.

California State Assembly

In Fall 2011, she was recruited to run for office in the

Toni Atkins Toni Gayle Atkins (born August 1, 1962) is an American politician serving as the 51st and current President pro tempore of the California State Senate since 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 69th Speaker of the ...

. In November 2012, Weber won election to the state assembly with 61.7% of the vote, defeating her Republican opponent, Mary England. During her time in the assembly, Weber was a member of the California Assembly's Committee on Higher Education. She promoted the development of a state university location in

as a satellite or extension campus of the

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...

system. In 2020, Weber authored Senate Bill 3121, which created a California Reparations Task Force to study how to redress

slavery in California Slavery in colonial California began with the systematic enslavement of indigenous Californians. The arrival of the Spanish colonists introduced chattel slavery and involuntary servitude to the area. White colonists from the Southern and E ...

; the task force met for the first time in 2021.

California Secretary of State

Shirley Weber speaking at the signing of AB392

On December 22, 2020, Governor

appointed Weber to the position of

Secretary of State of California The secretary of state of California is the chief clerk of the U.S. state of California, overseeing a department of 500 people. The secretary of state is elected for four year terms, like the state's other constitutional officers; the officeho ...

, effective upon confirmation by the

, to replace

, whom he had just appointed to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

. Weber is the first African American to serve as Secretary of State. Weber was sworn in on January 29, 2021, having been confirmed unanimously by the state senate the day before. As secretary of state, Weber played a central role in administering the

2021 California gubernatorial recall election The 2021 California gubernatorial recall election was a special recall election, recall election that began in August 2021 and concluded on September 14, 2021, when California voters chose not to recall incumbent Democratic Party (United States), ...

that targeted Newsom. She won a full term in the 2022 election.

Personal life

Weber's husband,

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Daniel Weber, died in 2002. She has two children and three grandchildren. Her daughter, Akilah Weber, is a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and was a member of the La Mesa

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

from 2018 to 2021. On April 19, 2021, Akilah was sworn in by her mother to succeed her in the

after winning in a

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-larges ...

Electoral history

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

References

External links

Government website

Campaign website
*
Join California Shirley Weber
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Shirley 1948 births 2020 United States presidential electors 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians African-American state legislators in California African-American women in politics Living people Democratic Party members of the California State Assembly People from Hope, Arkansas Politicians from San Diego San Diego State University faculty Secretaries of State of California University of California, Los Angeles alumni Women state legislators in California 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women