The Honorable Sydney Kai Kamlager-Dove, a Freshman Democrat Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and an advocate for racial equity, access, and social justice, was born in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, on July 20, 1972, to Cheryl Lynn Bruce, an award-winning actor.
Kamlager graduated from Saint Ignatius College Preparatory School in Chicago, Illinois. While there during her senior year, she took courses in liberation theology and social justice and did missionary work in West Virginia. Afterward, she enrolled in Compton College, Compton, California. However, she transferred, thus received a Bachelor of Arts in political science with a minor in Fine Arts from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1994, and pledged to the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Kamlager-Dove earned a Master of Arts degree in arts management from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1996.
On March 25, 1997, Sydney Kamlager married Austin R. Dove, a Criminal Trial Lawyer.
Kamlager-Dove was appointed to the Los Angeles County Commission on Children and Families in 2013. Two years later, in 2015, she became a member of the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Directors, winning over 52% of the vote among four candidates and later becoming its president. She then served as representative of the 54th Assembly District in the California State Assembly in 2018, where she was elected by a special election, winning the seat in the primary by receiving a majority of the votes. Her district included communities west of downtown Los Angeles, from Crenshaw to Culver City and up to Westwood and Inglewood.
In 2019, Kamlager-Dove co-authored SB 188, the CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair), a California law prohibiting hairstyle and hair texture discrimination.
In 2021 Kamlager-Dove became a member of the California State Senate in a special election. The following year she sponsored several bills, including CA SB882 Advisory Council on Improving Interactions between People with Intellectual and Development Disabilities and Law Enforcement, CA AB1655 that included Juneteenth with State holidays, and CA SB1245 Los Angeles County Abortion Access Safe Haven Pilot Program.
On January 3, 2023, Sydney Kai Kamlager-Dove was elected to the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress representing California’s 37th Congressional District. Her campaign focused on the expansion of voting rights, inclusive health care, Innovative investment in housing, employment creation, and economic development, Investments in education and the arts until 2025.
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Brian W. Carter, “Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager-Dove Sails to Victory in 30th Senate District Race,” https://lasentinel.net/assemblymember-sydney-kamlager-dove-sails-to-victory-30th-senate-district-race.html;
“Sydney Kai Kamlager-Dove,” https://kamlager-dove.house.gov/about;
“Sydney Kamlager-Dove,” https://clerk.house.gov/members/K000400.
