Two things strike you pretty quickly when you meet Zennon Ulyate-Crow. The first is the name — it means son of Zeus in Greek, and he’ll tell you himself it’s a lot to live up to. The second is that he’s sharp. Really sharp. The kind of sharp that makes you recalibrate whatever assumptions you might have about a 23-year-old still living at home who decided to run for State Senate.
Zennon is running to be the first Gen Z member of the California Legislature. Win in November and he’d be the youngest State Senator in California history. He grew up in Topanga, played youth soccer in Malibu, did children’s choir out in Westlake, and went to Palisades Charter High School, yes that one. The one that burned to the ground in the January wildfires. Today he still lives at home, not because he wants to, but because he can’t afford not to. It’s hard to think of a candidate in this race whose biography makes a more direct argument for why he’s running.
In fact, he’s been “running” for a while when you stop to think about it. The service bug bit back in the eighth grade. Ulyate-Crow launched a campaign to get a safe walking path built between his Topanga neighborhood and the local library, just a third of a mile away but along a highway with no shoulder or sidewalk. He knocked on neighbors’ doors, gathered support, and took it to Caltrans. They said no. The liability wasn’t worth it. “That was a really defining moment for me,” he told the Santa Cruz-based Lookout newsroom. “The way our systems are set up, we’d rather have kids walking on the dirt shoulder between a highway and a mountain than we would put up a guardrail.”
“I’ve always had this philosophy that I am not allowed to complain unless I’m doing something about it,” he told WEHOonline. For Ulyate-Crow, that’s not a campaign slogan. It’s a track record.
The seat he’s after is the SD-24 district being vacated by term-limited Senator Ben Allen, a Santa Monica Democrat who’s held it since 2014. The district takes in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, and a stretch of South Bay communities. It’s a big, expensive, complicated district and the field chasing it reflects that. Beverly Hills entrepreneur and former journalist Brian Goldsmith has raised over $2 million. Cardiologist and Santa Monica College trustee Dr. Sion Roy has pulled in roughly $465,000. West Hollywood City Councilmember John Erickson has name recognition that the others are still working for. Ulyate-Crow has raised $30,332 total. He’s running with less money than all of them and more personal history with the issues than most.
Four Bills Before He Could Afford Rent
While he was still a student at UC Santa Cruz, Ulyate-Crow was already working in Sacramento. He co-authored SB 886, the Student and Faculty Housing Act — which passed and was signed into law by Governor Newsom — helped pass four housing and tenant protection bills total, founded the Student HOMES Coalition, now the leading national student housing nonprofit, and became the youngest commissioner in Santa Cruz history. He was doing all of this before most people his age had a real job.
The story of how one of his student housing bills almost died tells you a lot about Sacramento, and about him. The bill was straightforward: make it easier to build affordable student housing near college campuses. At UC Santa Cruz, 9% of students were experiencing homelessness. Across California’s community colleges, 22% of students face homelessness in a given year. The bill had early support. Then a committee consultant recommended killing it.
The reason? It would build too much affordable student housing.
“We were told that our bill would build too much affordable student housing,” Ulyate-Crow said. The consultant’s concern was that housing built for students might come at the expense of housing for veterans, seniors, or youth. Zero-sum logic applied to a problem that was actively putting students on the streets.
“That is the exact problem with Sacramento right now,” he said. “When we come forward with a pragmatic, realistic solution to solve a problem, we are told there’s this whole structure of a house of cards behind you.”
He didn’t accept it. His team used social media to build enough public pressure to get the bill back through committee. It passed. It got signed into law. It’s building affordable student housing across the state today. That’s the version of the story he wants Sacramento to get used to.
His work in Santa Cruz has drawn two notable backers. Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley, a former California Assembly Speaker pro Tempore, backed Ulyate-Crow and put it plainly. “He founded the Student HOMES Coalition, now the leading national student housing nonprofit, co-authored and secured the passage of four bills in Sacramento focused on student housing and tenant protections, all while serving as the youngest Commissioner in the history of Santa Cruz,” Keeley said. “Zennon represents the future of the Democratic Party.”
Michael Tubbs, special adviser to Governor Gavin Newsom and former mayor of Stockton, has also endorsed him. Tubbs said Ulyate-Crow combines “lived experience with a record of real policy results” and that he “demonstrates discipline, strategic thinking, empathy and persistence.” More endorsements are expected to follow.
His work didn’t go unnoticed in Washington either. Ulyate-Crow went on to work in D.C. on the progressive outreach team for the Biden for President campaign — an unusual landing spot for someone from Topanga who was still in college. It’s the kind of trajectory that makes the State Senate race feel less like a long shot and more like the next logical step.
On SB 79, the state housing bill that’s drawn strong opinions across the district, Ulyate-Crow said he supported it but thinks it’s got real problems. “The way the bill is written right now, it’s more about creating warehouses for humans than communities for people.” Build 12-story apartment buildings without parks, small businesses, transit connections, or walkable street grids, he argued, and you haven’t solved anything. “We will just be building vertical sprawl with this bill, not actual walkable and community-oriented neighborhoods.”
What West Hollywood Needs to Know
Ulyate-Crow identifies as straight. “I am a proud ally of the LGBT community.” In a city with a finely tuned radar for performative allyship, he comes across as the real thing.
His campaign reflects it too. Salvatore Vitali Palma, his Communications Director, is a queer New Yorker who’s been traveling back and forth to work the race. “He’s organizing a very gay-friendly campaign and it’s an honor to represent him in this election,” Palma said.
On policy, Ulyate-Crow tied the social and economic together in a way that West Hollywood residents are likely to recognize. “It’s no good to say that we want our state to be the most inclusive state in the country if only the richest people can afford to live here,” he said. California has done a lot right on social inclusion, he argued. It hasn’t done enough on economic justice. You can’t separate those two things.
West Hollywood’s older residents, the ones who built this city from an unincorporated county pocket into what it is today, aren’t his obvious base. He knows that. “Just because Gen Z is acutely facing certain issues doesn’t mean everybody else isn’t feeling them,” he said. He made the case that the demand for new leadership isn’t a rejection of what that generation built. It’s a recognition that the tools and methods that worked then aren’t necessarily the ones needed now. “Let someone else try something different, because it’s clear that the way we have been doing politics has not been working.”
On gender-affirming care he was direct. It’s a public health issue, he said, not just a values question. With suicide rates as high as they are in the queer community, making sure people can be who they are isn’t optional. On the federal assault on LGBTQ+ rights he was equally direct. “I really see California as the sanctuary state of this entire country.”
The Billionaire Tax
He’s the only candidate in this field fully backing a billionaire tax. That’s worth noting for a district that includes Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, Malibu, and some of the most expensive zip codes in the country. His argument isn’t complicated. Post-pandemic wealth at the very top has grown at rates this country hasn’t seen before. At the same time, Medi-Cal faces cuts. Food stamps face cuts. “That wealth is being created off the backs of the very people that are struggling,” he said. On the bottom line: “In a time of unprecedented wealth, I believe that every Californian should have the resources they need to have healthcare and food on their table.” It’s a moral case more than a detailed policy proposal, and he’d be the first to tell you there’s more to build out.
Shot Between the Eyes
Last summer, in the early days of the ICE raids, Ulyate-Crow joined protesters outside the federal building in downtown Los Angeles.
“We were standing there doing nothing, and then all of a sudden we got charged by the security forces,” he said. “They came out in riot gear, with rubber bullets, with tear gas, as people were peacefully protesting.” He was near the front when it happened. “A rubber bullet was shot at me after I made eye contact with one of the officers, and it ricocheted off the ground and hit me square between the eyes.”
“I am so fortunate that I have my vision today,” he said. “There are numerous people that have lost their eyesight as a result of using these so-called less-than-lethal weapons.”
He’s clear about what it meant to him. “The people that were supposed to protect me ended up turning on me to back up a Gestapo. That is a radicalizing experience.”
Ask him what he’d do as a State Senator if ICE showed up in West Hollywood tomorrow and he doesn’t hedge. Families left behind when a breadwinner gets pulled off the street need immediate state resources, he said. And California should be using every permitting and regulatory tool it has to block new ICE facilities from opening. “If we can block housing projects with permits,” he said, “why the hell can’t we do it for ICE facilities?”
On Flock Cameras
I mentioned West Hollywood was having the Flock Safety camera debate and asked him what he thought. He said he fully gets why communities want them for crime prevention. He’s also concerned about the data getting into the wrong hands for the wrong reasons. In a moment when the federal government is willing to violate court orders and push into spaces it hasn’t gone before, the idea that surveillance data stays protected seems naive to him. “We need to be serious and realistic about the times we are in. The data from Flock cameras is not safe and secure from the federal government.”
Does He Plan on Winning?
Yes, he said. No hesitation.
“I think everybody knows that we need to do things differently. This is the era, and this is the time, and this is the moment where we have the opportunity to make that change.”
The math is real. His fundraising gap against the field’s top candidates isn’t small, and the district stretches nearly a million people from Malibu to Torrance. He’s got serious backers in his corner — Santa Cruz Mayor and former Assembly Speaker pro Tempore Fred Keeley and Newsom adviser Michael Tubbs — with more endorsements expected to follow. But he’s not running to make a statement. He’s running to win.
Spend an hour with Zennon Ulyate-Crow and one thought stays with you: if this is what’s next, California’s in good hands.
For more information: www.zennonforsenate.com
Nope. Just more of the same in a younger package. I mean, come on, seriously(!) it’s the same policies. Vote differently people or expect the same bad results. The state has been ruled by one party for far too long and look where it’s gotten us. California is that a Third World state. Trying to say this candidate is different than any other Democratic, progressive candidate is splitting hairs. Bad policies are bad policies regardless of how young the person is that’s pushing them.
He’s a very impressive candidate.
Really appreciate this interview.
“California has done a lot right on social inclusion, he argued. It hasn’t done enough on economic justice. You can’t separate those two things.”
And several other statements.
Thank you.
We ready need economic justice. You know, where the government goes to a billionaire’s house and appraises their art and other assets so they can impose a “one-time” tax. Then the government wastes the money on solving the homeless crises or whatever. Government never solves the problem. Meanwhile the billionaires all move to Texas. Then the government imposes a one-time tax on millionaires. When was a tax ever one-time.
How many billionaires have moved out of state? OpenAI is expanding their leased space in SF to over 1,000,000 sq ft.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/sf-openai-office-lease-22073593.php
I thought that, too, re one-time tax.
They have more money than they’ll ever need or spend.
More of the same.
Brian- Thank you for this interview. Viable options to the self-serving, shape-shifting John Erickson are most welcome. Zennon has certainly accomplished a lot at a young age, and whether or not he achieves his immediate goal, he likely has a bright political future that I will be watching. Re his support for the billionaire tax, if it should pass I find it unlikely to have the hoped for fiscal benefit, and its mere existence as a concept may have already had a net-negative impact on State coffers. I would first question the legality of retroactively determining residency for tax purposes… Read more »