Minnie Santillan

For more than two decades, Minnie Santillan has been a top advisor to many of California’s most powerful lawmakers. In fact, Santillan’s counsel has helped steer her clients into positions of power, helping to create some of California’s most consequential laws, including closing a loophole that was denying justice for victims of rape and sexual assault, a water bond that helped secure a sustainable future for water, a law protecting low-income families’ access to electricity and a commonsense system promoting alternative energy.

Santillan is currently chief of staff to Los Angeles Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, the chair of the influential and informal moderate caucus the New Democrats, a group of center-left, pro-job Democrats. Concurrently, Santillan owns her own political and policy consulting firms, Santillan Devlin, LLC, and Santillan Strategies, where she specializes in electing business-friendly Democrats in traditionally Republican districts to reshape local policies.

Santillan has been recognized numerous times for both her professional and philanthropic work, including being listed on Capitol Weekly’s Top 100 List, a who’s who of California government. She helped transform the Fresno City Council by installing a Latino Democrat majority and is an active member of the Association of American Political Consultants (AAPC) and the USA Southwest Latino Leader for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). She has served on the Fresno Downtown Association and the Hispanic Commission, Fresno Women’s Network and the Fresno Metropolitan Museum and was recognized by H.O.P.E as a “H.O.P.E. Treasure” for her mentorship, advocacy and leadership.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminology from California State University, Fresno and is pursuing a master’s in Legal Studies at Cornell Law School.