Susan Sheu – candidate for LACDP CC AD 50

Hi all – Here is my candidate bio for the March 3, 2020, election for the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee, to represent the Democratic voters in my assembly district – which consists of the communities of Agoura Hills, Topanga, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Bel Air, Santa Monica, parts of West LA, Beverly Hills, Mid-Wilshire, West Hollywood, and Hollywood. Please vote and tell all of your friends to vote in 2020, and if you’re in one of these neighborhoods or have friends in these neighborhoods, please vote for me and my colleagues on the Grassroots Slate. We promise to undertake our work with transparency and do our best to invigorate the Los Angeles County Democratic Party with activist energy, progressive values, and a commitment to building strong local Democratic coalitions as part of a lasting, national Democratic majority.

Let’s do this!

My name is Susan Sheu, and I would like to represent the Democratic voters on the Los Angeles County Democratic Party Central Committee. I am a native of Wisconsin and spent my childhood in the Midwest and Taiwan and attended college in New York, before moving to Los Angeles, my home for the last 25 years. Although I am a lifelong Democratic voter, my natal family was conservative, and it was in my young adulthood when I first began to understand that, as a woman of color from a family living below the federal poverty line, I was a part of an unequal system that required structural change in order to make the American Dream possible for everyone. I attended college on a full scholarship, worked administrative jobs in the nonprofit arts and higher education sectors, and earned a public health graduate degree at UCLA. While raising my three children, I have worked as a medical writer and editor and have published literary and political essays and Susan Sheu’s Cleaver reviews.

My activism prior to 2016 consisted primarily of donating to Democratic presidential candidates and to pro-choice and environmental organizations, as well as having marched in rallies for reproductive rights. Since then, I have spent most of my time doing grassroots political work and assisting California and national candidates and progressive organizations build electoral power through advocacy and raising money. I have been fortunate to have excellent Los Angeles-based mentors with deep histories in LQBTQ, feminist, labor, and community organizing. In addition, I have had the honor of assisting national campaigns through Swing Left and Postcards to Voters, text banking through Open Progress, and organizing events to build a Democratic majority and support US Senate and House members/candidates as well as critical state legislatures such as the Virginia House of Delegates. I continue to devote myself to learning how to build a post-Trumpian “beloved community” in Los Angeles, in California, and beyond.

I am a founding member of Code Blue, founding member of Grassroots Democrats HQ, active member of Indivisible CA-33 and Heart of LA Democratic Club, Miracle Mile Democratic Club, Santa Monica Democratic Club, Stonewall Democratic Club, Voices for Progress, West LA Democratic Club, and the Women’s Political Committee of Los Angeles.