Robert Rivas

YIMBY Action supports Speaker Robert Rivas because under his leadership, the Assembly has made housing a top priority and delivered historic results. In 2025, Speaker Rivas helped pass the biggest overhaul of CEQA in more than 50 years, exempting most urban infill housing from environmental review. That reform is already making it faster and cheaper to build homes across California. He has also given pro-housing leaders like Buffy Wicks the platform to move bold reforms, from permitting to new construction methods. Rivas represents the Salinas Valley and the Central Coast, where farmworkers and working families face some of the worst overcrowding in the state, and he understands that building more homes is central to making California affordable.

Robert Rivas is the Speaker of the California State Assembly, a post he has held since June 2023, and represents Assembly District 29. First elected to the Assembly in 2018, he previously chaired the Assembly Agriculture Committee and served two terms on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors. Raised in farmworker housing in Paicines, he holds a bachelor's degree in government from CSU Sacramento and a master's in public administration from San Jose State University, and is running for re-election to the Assembly in 2026.