Senator Dean Florez was born and raised in the Central Valley and has proudly represented the region in the State Legislature for nearly a decade. He was first elected to the State Assembly in 1998, serving two terms before being elected to the State Senate in 2002. Senator Florez was elevated to the position of Senate Majority Leader in November 2008, the Senate’s second most powerful position. As Senate Majority Leader Senator Florez is responsible for setting the Democratic agenda and the Senate’s Floor operations.

Florez has been an outspoken leader in the areas of clean air, equality in education, food safety, animal rights, high-speed rail, government accountability and infrastructure financing and development.

Florez is a Harvard-trained municipal finance professional, having received his MBA from Harvard in 1993.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from UCLA where he also served as student body president.  Florez has served on the State’s High Speed Rail Commission where he advocated for the environmentally advantageous infrastructure project.  Prior to business school he worked in the State Senate for long-serving Los Angeles-based Senator Art Torres.

Senator Florez has been a leading figure in curbing air pollution that has disproportionately affected the health of children in his district. Florez took on powerful industrial interests to pass five historic clean air laws which took dramatic steps toward cleaning the second dirtiest air in the nation by strengthening the implementation of the Clean Air Act.

Florez created and chairs the Senate Select Committee on Gender Discrimination and Title IX Implementation.   He has held numerous hearings to look into abuses by California's public universities of the decades' old federal legislation aimed at ensuring gender equity for all students in sports and in the classroom.

Florez also chairs the Senate Select Committee on Food Borne Illnesses and has written legislation to address contamination within our food supply.  Florez proudly co-sponsored Proposition 2 which ensures the humane treatment of farm animals.

As the chairman of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee while he was in the Assembly, Florez conducted more than 100 hours of hearings into the state's questionable $95 million software contract with Oracle Corporation.  Florez's investigation probed the highest levels of state government, leading to several high-level resignations, and resulted in the cancellation of the contract saving state taxpayers millions in unnecessary software.

Florez was also instrumental in passing legislation to reconfigure the tax rules allowing the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority to raise upwards of $40 billion dollars for transportation projects.  And he also took a leading role in developing a congestion mitigating strategy to increase funding for mass transit in Los Angeles County.

In his decade in the Legislature, Florez has served as chairman of numerous committees with jurisdiction over areas such as agriculture; water, parks and wildlife; banking, commerce and international trade; and he has spearheaded numerous investigative hearings focusing strongly on government oversight.

The grandson of farm laborers, Florez spent his early years in the Colonia outside of the city of Shafter, in Kern County.  He still lives in his hometown of Shafter with his wife, Elsa, their daughter Faith and son Sean. His mother, Fran, previously served as Shafter's mayor and currently serves as a Commissioner on the California High Speed Rail Authority.