Gayle McLaughlin

Gayle McLaughlin
Mayor of Richmond, California
In office January 9, 2007 – January 13, 2015
Preceded by	Irma A. Anderson
Succeeded by	Tom Butt
City Council member of Richmond, California
In office January 13, 2015 – July 18, 2017
In office January 2005 – January 9, 2007
Personal details
Born	1952 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	No party preference
Profession	Educator and activist

Gayle McLaughlin (born 1952) is an American politician from Richmond, California. She was first elected to the Richmond City Council in 2004 when she was a member of the Green Party of California. She won two consecutive four-year terms as the city's mayor in 2006 and 2010. After reaching the mayoral term limit, she won re-election to the City Council in 2014. In June 2017, she announced her candidacy for Lieutenant Governor of California in the next year's election.

McLaughlin's election in 2006 made Richmond the largest U.S. city to be led by a Green Party member. She has led a spirited pursuit of progressive policies including a minimum wage increase and a widely reported plan to forcibly appropriate foreclosed home mortgages from banks. Most famously, she has led an ongoing effort to restrict the municipal influence of Richmond's largest employer, the Chevron Corporation, and to refashion its environmental obligations.

McLaughlin was born into a working class family in Chicago. The middle child of five daughters, her father was a union carpenter and her mother was a factory worker and housewife.

During the 1980s, McLaughlin was an activist with the Central American solidarity movement and a steering committee member of CISPES (Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). She also played an active role in the North Star Network, a national networking effort to unite progressives, and in coalition-building efforts with Rainbow/PUSH. She continues to work as a social activist in the peace, social justice, civil rights, and environmental movements.

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