Alberto Torrico embodies the life experiences of the emerging California majority. Torrico is the son of immigrant parents – his father from Boliva and mother’s family from Japan – who worked as janitors to provide a better life for him and his three brothers. He grew up in a neighborhood where too many kids didn’t get the help they needed to succeed in school or beyond. He worked alongside his parents as a janitor in high school, helping to pay his way through Santa Clara University – becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college. And with the support of his family, he
went on to earn a J.D. at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

For Torrico, whose brother Fabian is a veteran San Jose Police Officer, the law is about transforming lives for the better.

As a workers’ rights attorney, Torrico applied the power of the law to help transform lives. He specialized in labor law, teaching labor and employment law at San Jose City College and served as Senior Assistant Counsel at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. In 2001, Torrico opened a private law practice in Fremont where he worked with unions to protect the rights of working families who – much like his parents – had no one else to fight for them.

Since his election to the California State Assembly in 2004, Torrico has earned a reputation for hard work, earning the respect of his colleagues and a top leadership position as the Assembly Majority Leader.

As a member of the Assembly, Torrico made history as the first legislator to sit in both Latino and Asian Pacific Islander caucus. He has held a number of leadership posts, including chair of the Governmental Organization Committee, Director of Majority Affairs, chair of the Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security (PERSS) and most recently the Special Committee on Prison Reform.

Torrico’s ability to build successful coalitions has led to the passage of 38 the legislative measures he’s authored, with 27 of them being signed into law by the state’s Republican governor, including:
- Requiring 60 day notice for no-fault evictions of renters;
- Removing barriers to the development of affordable housing for working families;
- Maintaining health care benefits for foster children;
- Protecting the assets of public, community hospitals;
- Preserving $50 to $100 million in funding for local transportation projects;
- Restricting the use of pesticides in day care centers.

Representing Assembly District 20 (Newark and Fremont), Torrico is the current Assembly majority Leader and Chair of the Select Committee on Prison Reform. He and his wife, Raquel, have two children, son Mateo and daughter Amy-Elyzabeth.

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