25 Facts About Lesley Lopez

Lesley Jeanne Lopez was born on November 28,1983 and is an American politician who is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 39.

The oldest of three siblings, Lopez was born in Paget Parish, Bermuda, while her mother Patricia was serving on active duty in the US Navy.

Lesley Lopez grew up in Southern California in a blended family.

Lesley Lopez worked as an adjunct professor of communications at George Washington University, where she became a member of Service Employees International Union Local 500.

Lesley Lopez first became involved with politics while working with immigrant families.

Lesley Lopez served as the press secretary for US Representative Henry Cuellar from 2008 to 2011, afterwards serving as the communications director for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus until 2013.

Lesley Lopez later worked as the communications director for various other organizations, including the National Immigration Forum, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, and the US-China Business Council, from 2014 to 2017.

In 2017, after state delegate Charles E Barkley announced that he would run for the Montgomery County Council at-large district in 2018, Lopez filed to run for state delegate in District 39.

Lesley Lopez ran on a slate with state senator Nancy J King and state delegates Kirill Reznik and Shane Robinson.

Lesley Lopez won the Democratic primary election on June 27,2018, placing first with 21.3 percent of the vote.

Lesley Lopez was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 9,2019.

Lesley Lopez was a member of the Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2022, afterwards serving on the Health and Government Operations Committee.

Lesley Lopez ran for re-election in 2022, during which she formed a slate with union activist Clint Sobratti, who sought to unseat incumbent delegate Gabriel Acevero.

Lesley Lopez defended her election, saying in an interview with Maryland Matters that she "had some plans of what I wanted to do [as caucus president] when I moved up so I accelerated the timeline" and had approached state senator Adelaide Eckardt, a Republican, about joining her leadership team, but she declined.

Lesley Lopez had sent handwritten notes to each of the members who had left the caucus.

Lesley Lopez was unable to put together a robust campaign and was defeated by former National Telecommunications and Information Administration deputy administrator April McClain Delaney in the Democratic primary election on May 14,2024, placing fifth with 4.6 percent of the vote.

In September 2019, Lesley Lopez joined Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and 43 other members of the Maryland General Assembly in co-signing a letter to US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos asking for information about her implementation of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Lesley Lopez supported increasing funding for local school districts and teachers, and hiring more support personnel in schools.

In 2020, Lesley Lopez introduced a bill requiring firearms to be stored in an area where a minor could not gain access to it.

Lesley Lopez reintroduced the bill in 2022, during which it passed and became law without Governor Hogan's signature.

In October 2023, amid the Gaza war, Lesley Lopez said she supported Israel's right to defend itself and called for humanitarian aid to Palestine.

In June 2020, Lesley Lopez pledged to stop taking campaign contributions from the Fraternal Order of Police.

In 2019, Lesley Lopez introduced a bill to expand the state's child pornography laws to include lascivious behavior and computer-generated images.

In May 2022, following the leak of a draft majority opinion for the US Supreme Court case Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, Lopez sent a letter on the behalf of the Women's Legislative Caucus of Maryland to Governor Larry Hogan, asking that he release the $3.5 million in funds to train abortion care providers as part of the Abortion Care Access Act.

Lesley Lopez is married to her husband Richard Kelly, an app developer at Capital One.