Dirty. Deceitful. Democrats. They take industry money and cover for the oil and gas industry’s lies and deception and then claim to do so in the interest of working people. They hide behind their political party affiliation hoping we won’t notice.
Well, the jig is up. This spring, Greenpeace USA, California Working Families Party and Courage California, along with other local and statewide allies are exposing California’s Dirty Dems — the Democratic State Assembly Members and Senators who take the most money from the oil and gas industry and have a poor voting record on progressive issues.
Californians, who are paying for the climate crisis with their lives, homes, money, and so much more, are tired of corrupt politicians making callous decisions about our future. It’s time to hold our leaders accountable to the families and communities they serve.
Are you ready to meet these Dirty Dems? Each week we will surprise the messiest Democratic legislators with events in their district to confront their climate records and demand they pledge to do better. Words aren’t enough — it’s time for action.
Urge your legislator (Dirty Dem or not!) to take the no fossil fuels money pledge.
Thousands of candidates and elected officials have already taken the pledge. Make sure your legislator knows that true leaders answer to the people, not to corporate donors.
Dirty Dems Class of 2025
Are these your representatives? Demand that they do better by your community and take the no fossil fuel money pledge.
Assembly Member Stephanie Nguyen chooses corporate money over clean communities.
Representing the 10th District of South Sacramento’s Elk Grove area, Assembly Member Stephanie Nguyen has directly accepted $31K from the oil and gas industry, as well as personal gifts from the Western States Petroleum Association (the largest trade association representing the oil and gas industry in California). And during her election in 2022, a PAC funded primarily by big oil companies, including Chevron, spent $900K to get her elected.
Assembly Member Nguyen has a shocking pattern of abstaining from voting on progressive priorities. She has received an F grade across the board from multiple environmental and environmental justice scorecards since she has been in office and she is on Courage California’s Hall of Shame.
A few of the lowlights of Assembly Member Nguyen’s time in office:
— Skipped the vote on a bill aimed at reducing noxious pollutants (linked to asthma and cancer) from being released into our communities
— Skipped votes on multiple bills aimed at ensuring the oil and gas industry pays to clean up idle wells quickly and not stick taxpayers with the bill
— Skipped the vote for the historic climate financial risk disclosure laws in 2023, as well as bills aimed at clean transportation and local environmental choice
— Skipped the vote on a bill allowing the Civil Rights Department to better investigate and enforce civil rights violations
— Voted against protections for grocery workers, against increasing the number of paid sick days, and against strengthening labor law enforcement
Are you in Assembly Member Nguyen’s district? Demand that she do better by your community and take the no fossil fuel money pledge.
Assembly Member Mike Gipson chooses corporate money over California’s future.
Representing the 65th District of Los Angeles’ South Bay region, Assembly Member Mike Gipson has accepted money from the oil and gas industry every session he’s been in the state legislature (since 2014), totaling an astonishing $260K. Routinely abstaining from voting on progressive priorities, he received failing grades in 2023 and 2024 from the Sierra Club and California Environmental Voters scorecards. On Courage California’s Hall of Shame, he is listed as representing, ‘‘corporate donors and his old friends in law enforcement …”
It’s no secret that the climate and environmental justice crisis disproportionately impacts communities of color, which results in higher rates of asthma and respiratory illnesses. Assembly Member Gipson represents a district that is over 80% people of color and whose residents live close to an oil refinery and one of the nation’s largest ports. Yet, in 2024, Gipson scored a failing F grade from the California Environmental Justice Alliance scorecard.
A few of the lowlights of Assembly Member Gipson’s time in office:
— Skipped the vote on a bill aimed at reducing noxious pollutants (linked to asthma and cancer) from being released into our communities, as well as a bill to reduce toxins in packaging
— Skipped votes on multiple bills aimed at ensuring the oil and gas industry pays to clean up idle wells quickly and not stick taxpayers with the bill
— Skipped the vote for the historic climate financial risk disclosure laws in 2023, as well as bills aimed at groundwater data and permit monitoring and allowing the state oil and gas regulator to properly enforce state law
— Skipped votes for common sense civil liberties and economic justice reforms, including a bill to limit big corporate control of available housing, a bill to improve worker safety and require workplace violence plans, and a bill to reform state prison visitation policies
Are you in Assembly Member Gipson’s district? Demand that he do better by your community and take the no fossil fuel money pledge.
Assembly Member Blanca Rubio Chooses corporate money over healthy neighborhoods.
Representing the 48th District of Los Angeles’ eastern San Gabriel Valley, including West Covina, Baldwin Park, and Glendora, Assembly Member Blanca Rubio has accepted more than $240K from the oil and gas industry, including more than $45K in just the last session. She also accepted gifts in the form of sponsored travel from the California Independent Petroleum Association, a trade association representing fossil fuel producers in the state. Her ties to the fossil fuel industry have earned her the nickname ‘Big Oil Blanca’ by some of her critics and opponents.
Assembly Member Rubio has consistently received astonishingly abysmal grades across quite a number of progressive scorecards. She has earned a failing grade every year in office from the Sierra Club, including a low score of just 20% in 2023. She received an F grade every year since 2019 from both Courage California and California Environmental Voters and she has never scored higher than a D grade from the California Environmental Justice Alliance. The California Labor Federation has repeatedly given her failing grades, along with the Initiate Justice Alliance and United Food & Commercial Workers Western States Council.
A few of the lowlights of Assembly Member Rubio’s time in office:
— Skipped the vote on a bill aimed at reducing noxious pollutants (linked to asthma and cancer) from being released into our communities, as well as a bill aimed at reducing pollution from oil drilling in neighborhoods and the historic climate financial risk disclosure laws in 2023
— Skipped votes on multiple bills aimed at ensuring the oil and gas industry pays to clean up idle wells quickly and not stick taxpayers with the bill
— Skipped votes on multiple bills focused on voting transparency and fairness, ensuring the clarification of confusing ballot measures and disclosure of the funders of a referendum
— Skipped the vote on a bill to limit big corporate control of available housing, as well as a bill to protect Californians from inflated utility prices by requiring the comparison of rates to actual costs
Are you in Assembly Member Rubio’s district? Demand that she do better by your community and take the no fossil fuel money pledge.
Senator Susan Rubio chooses corporate money over resilient communities.
Representing the 22nd District in Southern California, including West Covina, Ontario and Pomona, Senator Susan Rubio has accepted more than $116K from the oil and gas industry since being elected to the legislature in 2018, $74K from the last session alone. She was also the beneficiary of an independent campaign backed by more than $2.8M in oil money which helped her initially get elected in 2018.
Senator Rubio often skips votes on environmental justice and other progressive priority bills. This tactic, although an attempt to hide from the responsibility of standing up for the health and future of her constituents, draws much attention for those keeping track. While her scores fluctuate year over year across all of the progressive scorecards, Senator Rubio has consistently scored among the very lowest of Democrats in the State Legislature on California Environmental Voters scorecard going back to when she was first elected. In addition, she has received failing grades from Courage California, Initiate Justice Alliance, California Environmental Justice Alliance, and the Sierra Club during her tenure in office.
A few of the lowlights of Senator Rubio’s time in office:
— Skipping the vote on a bill aimed at reducing pollution from oil drilling in neighborhoods, as well as a bill ensuring corporations pay to plug polluting idle wells instead of sticking taxpayers with the expense and a bill to add warning labels to appliances that have been documented to emit harmful air pollutants inside family homes
— Skipped votes to protect California’s public pension systems from the risks and consequences associated with investments in the fossil fuel industry
— Skipped the vote on a top labor priority bill to establish a council to determine minimum wages, working hours, and health and safety standards for fast food workers
— Skipped the vote on a humane amendment to the justice system aimed at limiting solitary confinement, especially in sensitive populations, as well as a voter transparency bill ensuring voters can see the list of supporters and opponents of ballot measure
Are you in Senator Rubio’s district? Demand that she do better by your community and take the no fossil fuel money pledge.
Assembly Member James Ramos chooses corporate money over progress we demand and deserve.
Representing the 45th District spanning portions of Southern California’s Inland Empire and San Bernardino, Assembly Member James Ramos has directly accepted more than $89K in oil and gas industry money since taking office in 2018 – $31K from Chevron alone.
Despite being the first Native American elected to the California State Legislator and representing a diverse, working class district with a significant Democratic voter advantage, Assembly Member Ramos has one of the worst records on environmental justice, workers rights, economic justice and other progressive priorities among the Democratic Caucus. Since taking office in 2018, he has received a failing grade every single year from California Environmental Voters and from the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA). In fact, in 2023, his score from CEJA was an atrocious 28%. Assembly Member Ramos has never received higher than a C grade from both the California Labor Federation and the Sierra Club. Courage California has him on their Dishonorable Mention list, having received an F every year he has been in office. Initiate Justice has also given him a failing F grade since their scorecard began in 2023.
A few of the lowlights of Assembly Member Ramos’ time in office:
— Voted no on a bill to lower pollution near homes in his district by requiring warehouse distribution centers to adhere to local measures to reduce health and safety impacts
— Skipped votes on a bill aimed at fenceline monitoring of noxious pollutants that have been linked to asthma and cancer, a bill focused on state agencies conducting a study on defunct well emissions, and a bill regarding contingency plans for oil transport accidents
— Voted with big corporations against a bill aimed at reducing single use plastic packaging, as well as a bill to reduce toxins in packaging
— Voted no on common sense reforms aimed at making children safer by requiring firearms be properly and safely stored, skipped an economic justice vote to limit the corporate control of available housing, and skipped voting to establish a council to determine minimum wages, working hours, and health and safety standards for fast food workers
Are you in Assembly Member Ramos’ district? Demand that he do better by your community and take the no fossil fuel money pledge.
Assembly Member Blanca Pacheco chooses corporate money over the prosperity of future generations.
Representing the 64th District spanning parts of both Los Angeles and Orange Counties, including the cities of Downey, Norwalk, and La Habra since 2022, Assembly Member Blanca Pacheco has directly accepted more than $48K in oil and gas industry money, including more than $34K in the last session alone. She has also accepted gifts from the California Independent Petroleum Association, a trade association representing fossil fuel producers in the state.
With just a few short years in office, Assembly Member Pacheco has already earned herself a reputation with failing grades across progressive scorecards and a record riddled with skipped votes. In her first full year in office, Assembly Member Pacheco earned an abysmal 20% on Sierra Club’s scorecard and every year since then, both Sierra Club and Courage California have given her F grades. California Environmental Voters, Initiate Justice Alliance, and the California Labor Federation also have her failing every year with nothing higher than a D grade.
A few of the lowlights of Assembly Member Pacheco’s time in office:
— Skipped votes on a bill aimed at reducing toxins in packaging and a bill reaffirming local jurisdictions environmental choice
— Skipped votes on a bill to mandate speeding up the plugging of the thousands of leaking idle wells throughout the state, a bill to improve groundwater data and permit monitoring, and a bill incentivizing the clean up of the low producing oil wells polluting the largest urban oil field in the country
— Skipped votes on a bill to prevent the corporate control of available housing, a bill to ensure firearms are properly and safely stored, as well as multiple bills focused on voting transparency and fairness, ensuring the clarification of confusing ballot measures and the disclosure of the funders of a referendum
— Skipped votes on bills focused on protections for grocery workers, on increasing the number of paid sick days, and on establishing more protections against workplace violence
Are you in Assembly Member Pacheco’s district? Demand that she do better by your community and take the no fossil fuel money pledge.
