Malia M. Cohen (born December 16, 1977) is an American politician serving as the 33rd Controller of California since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Cohen previously served as Chair of the California State Board of Equalization from the 2nd district from 2019 to 2023 and as President of the

San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California. Government and polit ...

from District 10 from 2011 to 2019. She is the seventh African American to hold statewide office following Wilson Riles, Mervyn Dymally,

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

, Tony Thurmond, Shirley Weber and

Laphonza Butler Laphonza Romanique Butler ( ; born May 11, 1979) is an American labor union official and former politician who served as an interim United States Senate, United States senator from California from 2023 to 2024. Butler began her career as a union ...

Early life and education

Cohen was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

on December 16, 1977. The eldest of five girls, she grew up in the Richmond District in San Francisco and graduated from Lowell High School. Her mother was a social worker and her father a telecommunication worker. Cohen earned a bachelor's degree in political science from

Fisk University Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...

and a graduate degree in political science from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

Career

Cohen worked as a field organizer for

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

in the

2003 San Francisco mayoral election 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

and as his confidential secretary for two years when he was mayor. After leaving Newsom's office, Cohen worked as a legislative aide for

San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwood City is th ...

supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors

In the 2010 election for District 10 of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, she was third in receiving first place votes out of a field of 22, but eventually won the election based on ranked choice voting. In October 2013, Cohen introduced legislation that expanded an existing San Francisco law making it illegal to sell firearms with magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. The gun-control legislation passed unanimously. In 2013, Cohen and Jane Kim authored the Fair Chance ordinance, a " ban the box" legislation barring employers and landlords from asking applicants to state their criminal history on applications, which passed the Board of Supervisors unanimously. In 2014, Cohen was re-elected for a second term to represent District 10 after being challenged by Marlene Tran and Tony Kelly. In 2015, Cohen publicly defended San Francisco's

sanctuary city A sanctuary city is a municipality that limits or denies its cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law. Proponents of sanctuary cities cite motives such as reducing the fear of persons which illegally immigrated fr ...

laws, which drew the attention of

Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...

Host Bill O'Reilly.

California State Board of Equalization

Cohen succeeded

London Breed London Nicole Breed (born August 11, 1974) is an American politician who served as the 45th mayor of San Francisco from 2018 to 2025. She was supervisor for District 5 and was president of the Board of Supervisors from 2015 to 2018. Raised in t ...

as president of the Board of Supervisors on June 26, 2018, following Breed's election as

mayor of San Francisco The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the Government of San Francisco, San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either appro ...

. Later that year, she was elected to represent District 2 on the California State Board of Equalization.

Controller of California

Cohen ran in the 2022 election for

California State Controller The state controller of California is a constitutional office in the executive branch of the Government of California, government of the U.S. state of California. Thirty-three individuals have held the office of state controller since statehood. T ...

against Republican Lanhee Chen winning the race with 55% of the vote, the lowest margin of victory for any statewide candidate that election cycle. In September 2024, Cohen announced new recommendations aimed at preventing and detecting charter school fraud. After the death of Senator

Dianne Feinstein Dianne Emiel Feinstein (; June 22, 1933 – September 29, 2023) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1992 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 38th ...

in September 2023, Cohen was discussed as one of several possible people to serve the remainder of Feinstein’s term.

Personal life

She married workers' compensation attorney Warren Pulley in May 2016.

Electoral history

2018

2022

References

External links

California State Controller Official Website

Campaign website
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Malia 1977 births 20th-century African-American women politicians 20th-century American women politicians 20th-century African-American politicians 21st-century African-American women politicians 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century California politicians 21st-century American women politicians African-American city council members in California Carnegie Mellon University alumni Democratic Party state constitutional officers of California Fisk University alumni Living people San Francisco Board of Supervisors members California state controllers Women city councillors in California