Brian Goldsmith

Brian Goldsmith earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 2005 and a law degree from the Stanford in 2012. Goldsmith's career experience includes working as a small business owner.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Brian Goldsmith is a small business owner, Democratic strategist, and award-winning journalist.

Through his firm, Brian has advised candidates, nonprofits, and companies, and helped elect several Democratic members of Congress. Brian also founded two startups in California: Scriber, a text-based subscription service, and Junction, an online investment platform that aimed to democratize access to private investments (and was acquired in 2014).

A regular columnist and commentator, Brian helped lead political coverage at Yahoo News, contributed to The Atlantic, and was co-host of the Katie Couric podcast. He served in a variety of roles at CBS News, including as political producer at the Evening News.

While at CBS, Brian shared in an Alfred I. duPont Award for political reporting for his team’s coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign and Couric’s interview with Sarah Palin, which Brian produced.

Brian was a founding Board Member of the American EV Jobs Alliance and also serves on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Karsh Center, and he and his family are active volunteers with Baby2Baby and Our Big Kitchen LA.

He is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School and was a member of the inaugural class of Presidential Leadership Scholars, a program co-founded by former Presidents Clinton and Bush. An LA native, Brian and his wife Claire, an educator, live in Senate District 24 with their two young children, Eliza and Teddy.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

We need to make it easier and more affordable to live here. Easier to find an affordable place to live, easier to operate a small business, easier to build the clean energy infrastructure we need, and easier to get access to high quality health care.We must take on crime and homelessness. We can’t go back to mass incarceration…but we shouldn’t tolerate smash and grabs, property crime, and violent assaults. And let’s redouble our support for effective nonprofits that have been on the ground for years, delivering results with transparency and accountability.We have to focus on the future. We’re living in a new world: accelerating climate dangers, transformative technologies, creeping authoritarianism. We need to pull together and make sure our kids live in a safe, free, and prosperous California and can get a quality education. We have to tackle the climate crisis. And as we rebuild places like the Palisades and Malibu, we must make them more resilient–and make sure insurance is available, affordable, and actually covers the costs of the insured.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am extremely passionate about fighting hate and division, particularly antisemitism. I have spent years taking on the scourge of antisemitism in California, around the country and in our politics–and I will help lead that fight in the Legislature...safeguarding religious places of worship, protecting Jewish students in K-12 schools and on college campuses, and ensuring that all Jewish Californians are protected. And I will also stand up against Asian Hate and against racism. Against what our Latino brothers and sisters are facing right now with unconstitutional ICE raids. I will stand up for the diversity that actually makes California great.