Hilda Solis

Early life and education

Solis was born in Los Angeles, California, as the daughter of immigrant parents who had met in citizenship class and married in 1953: Juana Sequeira (b. 1926, from Nicaragua) and Raúl Solís (from Mexico). Her father was a Teamsters shop steward in Mexico and, after coming to the United States, worked at the Quemetco battery recycling plant in the City of Industry in the San Gabriel Valley. There he again organized for the Teamsters, to gain better health care benefits for workers, but also contracted lead poisoning. Her mother worked for over 20 years on the assembly line of Mattel once her children were all of school age, belonged to the United Rubber Workers, and was outspoken about working conditions. She stressed the importance of education and was a devout Roman Catholic. Her Catholic faith, she said, "is a part of my life. My faith is what motivates me."

Hilda Solis is the third oldest of seven siblings (four sisters, two brothers) and grew up in a tract home in La Puente, California. She had to help raise her youngest siblings, and later said of her childhood: "It wasn't what you would call the all-American life for a young girl growing up. We had to mature very quickly." She graduated from La Puente High School, where she saw a lack of support for those wishing to continue their education, including a guidance counselor who told her mother that "Your daughter is not college material. Maybe she should follow the career of her older sister and become a secretary." However, another counselor did encourage her to attend college, and even went to her house to help her fill out an application. She took her younger sisters to the library to get them to follow her lead.

She was the first of her family to go to college, being accepted into the Educational Opportunity Program (which assists low-income, first-generation college students) at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) and paying for it with the help of government grants and part-time jobs. She graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. She then earned a Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Southern California in 1981.

Early career

Solis served near the end of the Carter Administration in the White House Office of Hispanic Affairs, where she was editor-in-chief of a newsletter during a 1980–1981 Washington semester internship as part of her master's program. At the start of the Reagan Administration in 1981, she became a management analyst at the civil rights division of the Office of Management and Budget, but her dislike for Ronald Reagan's policies motivated her to leave later that year.

In Washington, she met Sam H. Sayyad, whom she subsequently married. He owns an automobile repair center in Irwindale, California. The couple lives in a modest house in El Monte, California, not far from where she grew up.

Returning to California, Solis became director of the California Student Opportunity and Access Program in 1982, to help disadvantaged youth gain necessary preparation for college. In particular, she worked with the Whittier Union High School District. Friends urged her to try for elective office, and so in 1985, she ran for the board of trustees of the Rio Hondo Community College District. She campaigned hard and overtook an incumbent and one other better established candidate to become the top placer. She was reelected in 1989. During her time on the board, she worked towards improved vocational job training at the college and sought to increase the number of tenured faculty positions held by minorities and women. She joined several California chambers of commerce, women's organizations, and Latino organizations. She gained added political visibility in 1991 when she was named to the Los Angeles County Commission on Insurance by Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, a political mentor. Solis also served as chief of staff for State Senator Art Torres.

California State Legislature

State Assembly

Solis had the opportunity to run for the California State Assembly when, after California's 1991 redistricting, the incumbent Dave Elder in Solis's 57th State Assembly district was shifted into another district, while her new representative retired. In the June 1992 Democratic primary to fill the open seat, Solis's opponents had the endorsement of powerful State Assemblyman Richard Polanco and the former incumbent. Solis had the support of Molina and U.S. Representative Barbara Boxer, in an effort that focused on door-to-door campaigning and featured Solis's mother making burritos for campaign volunteers. Solis came out on top of a three-way Democratic race, receiving 49 percent of the vote and besting her nearest competitor, future State Assemblyman Ed Chavez, who received 31 percent. In the general election, Solis garnered 61 percent of the vote against Republican Gary Woods's 34 percent, and gained election to the State Assembly. She was one of seven Latinos who won election to the State Assembly in the wake of the redistricting and became collectively known as Los Siete. Solis was among the most liberal of this ideologically diverse group.

In her one term in the State Assembly, Solis was prominent in the debate on illegal immigration to the United States, backing a bill to allow immigrants in the United States illegally to attend California colleges as long as they were residing in the state. She backed labor unions and opposed the tobacco industry in supporting a bill that banned smoking in all workplaces. She served on committees dealing with education, labor, and environmental issues, including a new committee that dealt with groundwater contamination and landfill leakage. She was not known as a strong orator.

State Senate

The Democratic incumbent in Solis's 24th State Senate district, Art Torres, gave up his office when he received the 1994 Democratic nomination for the statewide office of California Insurance Commissioner. Solis ran for the seat, won the Democratic primary with 63 percent of the vote against two opponents, and then won the 1994 general election with 63 percent of the vote against Republican Dave Boyer's 33 percent. She became the first Hispanic woman to ever serve in the State Senate and the first woman ever to represent the San Gabriel Valley; she was also the Senate's youngest member at that time. She was reelected in 1998 with 74 percent of the vote.

In the State Senate, Solis authored 17 bills to prevent domestic violence and championed labor, education, and health care issues. She described herself as "a big believer that government, if done right, can do a lot to improve the quality of people's lives". In 1995, she sponsored a bill to raise the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.75; it was strongly opposed by business organizations and the restaurant industry. When Governor Pete Wilson vetoed it, she organized a successful drive to make the issue into a ballot initiative the next year, using $50,000 of her own campaign funds and rallying union support. The initiative's passing garnered her a statewide reputation and other states followed with similar initiatives. She chaired the labor committee and established herself as loyal to labor interests, but made a point of establishing working relationships with Republicans on the committee. Solis held high-profile hearings on labor law enforcement following a summer 1995 sweatshop raid in El Monte that discovered more than 70 Thai workers existing in slave-like conditions. She called garment manufacturers to explain themselves and pushed for tougher enforcement of anti-sweatshop laws. Republican state senator Ray Haynes later said that Solis was "a committed liberal in the pockets of labor", but Republican State Senate Leader Rob Hurtt said of her, "We obviously didn't see eye to eye. But she was respectful. I'll give her credit; she was a very hard worker and she knew her stuff."

Solis was an environmental activist in the State Senate, due to concerns that stemmed from a childhood spent within smelling distance of the Puente Hills Landfill and making frequent visits to the San Gabriel Mountains. In 1997, she worked to pass environmental justice legislation with a law to protect low-income and minority communities from newly located landfills, pollution sources, and other environmental hazards in neighborhoods that already had such sites. She got the bill, SB 1113, approved over the strong opposition of various business interests, water contractors, and some state government agencies, but Wilson vetoed it. She returned in 1999 with a compromise measure, which was signed by Governor Gray Davis. Calling for "the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws", it represented the first legislation of its kind in the nation and is considered a landmark.

U.S. House of Representatives

Term limits would have prevented Solis from seeking reelection to the State Senate. After months of deliberation, she decided to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000 against 18-year incumbent Matthew G. Martínez in the 31st congressional district, which consisted largely of working class Hispanics and Asians. This action was criticized by Hispanics and others, and only two members of Congress, Barbara Boxer and Loretta Sanchez, supported her. Martínez was more moderate than many of his constituents, as he had supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), opposed gun control, and supported bans on specific abortion procedures. He was also criticized for lacking effort and neglecting his district. Solis was able to obtain the support of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (which called her a "warrior for working families"), Emily's List, Handgun Control Incorporation, the Sierra Club and the California League of Conservation Voters. With their help, Solis outspent Martínez by a 4-to-1 margin and had hundreds of volunteers working for her.

Solis defeated Martínez in the March 2000 Democratic primary by a 69 percent to 31 percent margin. On primary night, Martínez called Solis "obnoxious" and accused her of untruthful advertising. He subsequently switched to the Republican Party, and urged Latinos to vote against her, to no great effect. Without a Republican opponent in the general election, Solis beat three little-known challengers from minor parties and won 79 percent of the vote.

Upon arriving in the House of Representatives, Solis was named freshman class whip, making her responsible for collecting votes from first-term Democrats. National Journal magazine named her one of its "Ten Freshmen to Watch", and said that her election "is a sign of things to come in California and a generational changing of the guard in the Hispanic Caucus". Solis commissioned for her new office a painting of the United States Capitol with the San Gabriel Mountains behind it, so that she would not forget her roots. Her Washington apartment was tiny.

As congresswoman, Solis was most known for her work on environmental issues as a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the Committee on Natural Resources, and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. She made the promotion of green-collar jobs a priority and sponsored the Southern California portion of the California Wild Heritage Act, which would create or enlarge many wilderness areas. In 2003, she sponsored legislation that funded a National Park Service study to designate a large swath of the Angeles National Forest, the Puente and Chino Hills, and the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel River, a National Recreation Area. (In 2013, after Solis had left the Obama administration, the Park Service recommended proceeding with a greatly reduced version of the original proposal; while other advocates evinced disappointment, Solis said it was still a positive step and that Congress could expand the area in whatever legislation it undertook.)

U.S. Secretary of Labor

On December 18, 2008, sources close to the Obama transition team identified Solis as the President-elect's choice for Secretary of Labor, the last cabinet position yet to be filled. The selection earned praise from the AFL-CIO and other labor organizations, but was not well received by business groups and the anti-union group Center for Union Facts. The official announcement was made by Obama on December 19. Solis's successor was chosen in a special election in California's 32nd congressional district; she declined to endorse a candidate in the primary (from which her past mentee Judy Chu emerged on top and eventually won the general election).

Solis's confirmation hearings were held on January 9, 2009, before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Committee chair Ted Kennedy repeatedly praised her, while, despite examination by Republican members, Solis declined to discuss specific policy issues, including the Employee Free Choice Act. Several days later, Senate Republicans said they might try to put a procedural hold on her nomination because of her unwillingness to answer questions in detail in the hearings. By January 23, a secret hold was placed on the nomination by an anonymous Republican. A series of written questions and responses between Republican members and Solis followed, during which she was more forthcoming. Republican Mike Enzi pressed her on whether her unpaid high-level positions at American Rights at Work constituted prohibited lobbying activity; Solis denied violation of rules of conduct and stated she had not helped lobbying. Solis did acknowledge that she had failed to report those positions on her annual House financial disclosure forms at the time, which a White House spokesperson argued was an unintentional oversight. On February 2, Obama appointed veteran Labor Department official Edward C. Hugler as Acting Secretary. The prolonged process was considered by some Republican aides to be a preview of future battles on labor issues between the Obama administration and Republicans in Congress.

A vote on Solis's committee confirmation was set on February 5, but postponed after news that Solis's husband Sam Sayyad had just paid $6,400 in outstanding state and local tax liens dating back to 1993 for his auto repair business. Sayyad had filed a separate tax return from Solis, and intended to contest the lien as they were for business taxes he believed to have already paid. A White House spokesperson stated Solis should not be penalized for any mistakes that her husband may have made. The revelations came in the wake of several other Obama nominations troubled or derailed due to tax issues. Committee Republicans subsequently indicated they would not blame Solis, but were still concerned about her ties to American Rights at Work. On February 11, 2009, the committee approved her nomination by voice vote with two votes opposed. After still further delays, Republicans agreed not to subject her nomination to a filibuster and on February 24, 2009, Solis was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 80–17. She resigned from the House and was sworn into her new position that evening. (A ceremonial swearing in featuring Vice President Joe Biden was later held on March 13.)

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

Solis's departure from the Labor Department was speculated as a preparation for a run for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2014, to replace the term-limited incumbent, 1st District supervisor Gloria Molina. Officially, Solis only said that she wanted to rest, reconnect with her local community after twelve years in Washington, and spend time with her mother, who was 87 years old at the time.

Later during January 2013, Solis confirmed her interest in the County Board of Supervisors race, saying "I'm going to take a look at it." In explaining why a former U.S. Representative and Cabinet member would be interested in a county-level body, analysts stated that the board is the most powerful county-level legislative body in the United States, and exercises some executive and quasi-judicial powers as well. It controls a workforce larger than the Labor Department's and its $26 billion budget is equivalent to that of an average U.S. state. Each member presiding over some two million constituents, three times that of Solis' old congressional district, and that it is quite possibly the fourth most powerful position in California politics, after governor, U.S. Senator, and mayor of Los Angeles. The supervisors have long been nicknamed "the five little kings".

In November 2013, Solis became a scholar-in-residence at her alma mater of Cal Poly Pomona. Her duties were to include guest lecturing in classes, mentoring students, and assisting in curriculum development, with a focus in political science.

On April 5, 2014, Solis formally announced the start of her campaign for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors seat, with the election to be held on June 3. By this time she had raised over $600,000 for her effort and was considered the favorite to win the contest. News of the federal investigation had little effect on her campaign. Solis won the seat on June 4, 2014, garnering 70 percent of the vote against two other opponents. The margin meant she won the seat outright and would not need to run in a runoff election.

As Supervisor for District 1, she was at the forefront of the response to the Exide lead contamination issue, which affected Vernon and several other communities within her purview and which touched upon her past concerns with environmental justice. The Supervisors allocated some county money for cleanup, with Solis saying, "the state continues to drag its feet". Going to the state capitol and asking for additional funds to remedy the situation, she said, "This has gone on too long." In February 2016 she praised Governor Jerry Brown for finally increasing state funds for the cleanup, saying "Our voices were heard. For too long we have seen two Americas: one in which affluent neighborhoods get immediate help and relief. The other America is made up of poor working-class families who silently suffer. Today's announcement from the governor reconciles these two Americas."

Awards and honors

As mentioned, in 2000, Solis was given the Profile in Courage Award by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

In 2010, Solis received the inaugural Robert P. Biller Award for Exemplary Public Service from the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning, and Development. The Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities named Solis as the recipient of its 2011 President's Award for Excellence. In 2012, Solis received the Champion for the Futures of Farmworker Children Award from the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs. That same year, Solis was given a President's Award from an organization associated with California State University, Los Angeles. The Imagen Foundation honored Solis with its President's Award in 2016, with the presentation being done by the actress America Ferrera. In 2019, Solis received the Leadership Award at the annual American Latino Influencer Awards.

Solis gave the commencement address at Rio Hondo College in 2014, where she had once been on the board of trustees. In recognition of her long career in public service, she was in 2023 awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Several entities have been named after Solis. Beginning in the 1990s, the Hilda L. Solis Scholarship Dinner & Reception has been given annually by her alma mater, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, with a large number of students having benefitted from receiving scholarships.

The Hilda L. Solis Care First Village is a set of housing units intended for the homeless that are put together using modular building techniques and located in Downtown Los Angeles. The Hilda L. Solis Learning Academy School of Technology, Business and Education is located in the general East Los Angeles area and is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In 2022, the White House appointed Solis to the Board of Trustees for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.