ceremony Cohen worked as a field organizer for
Gavin Newsom in the
2003 San Francisco mayoral election and as his confidential secretary for two years when he was mayor. In 2013, Cohen and
Jane Kim authored the Fair Chance ordinance, a "
ban the box" legislation barring employers and landlords from asking applicants to state their criminal history on applications, which passed the Board of Supervisors unanimously. In 2014, Cohen was re-elected for a second term to represent District 10 after being challenged by Marlene Tran and Tony Kelly. In 2015, Cohen publicly defended San Francisco's
sanctuary city laws, which drew the attention of
Fox News Host
Bill O'Reilly.
California State Board of Equalization Cohen succeeded
London Breed as president of the Board of Supervisors on June 26, 2018, following Breed's election as
mayor of San Francisco. Later that year, she was elected to represent District 2 on the California State Board of Equalization.
Controller of California Cohen ran in the
2022 election for
California State Controller against Republican
Lanhee Chen winning the race with 55% of the vote, the lowest margin of victory for any statewide candidate that election cycle. In September 2024, Cohen announced new recommendations aimed at preventing and detecting charter school fraud. After the death of Senator
Dianne Feinstein in September 2023, Cohen was discussed as one of several possible people to serve the remainder of Feinstein’s term. == Personal life ==