Lesley Lopez:
A Real Record That Matters

Meet Lesley Lopez

When she’s not busy being a mom to her two toddlers, Lesley Lopez serves the people of Maryland as a Delegate from District 39 in the Maryland General Assembly. Since she was first elected in 2018, Lesley rapidly has become an effective legislator and leader, spearheading efforts to alleviate student debt, improve the delivery and efficiency of health care, and protect the limited financial resources of economically vulnerable Marylanders.

In 2022, she successfully stood up to powerful special interests and corporate gun lobbyists to pass one of the nation’s first bans of unserialized handguns or “ghost guns.” In 2023, she served as president of the Maryland Women’s Legislative Caucus and garnered support for a package of laws that guarantees reproductive rights for all women in the state. She is an adjunct professor at George Washington University and a proud union member of SEIU Local 500.

Before she went to Annapolis, Lesley served as communications director for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and worked as a staffer on Capitol Hill. Trained as a journalist, she also worked for several news organizations, including “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” CNN and the BBC. 

"From my mom working as a single mother, to my dad building a middle-class life as a first-generation American — and my Grandpa Lopez who came to this country and worked like hell to become a U.S. citizen and contribute as a New American — I know that I’m only here because those before me were willing to work hard and stand up to challenges. As a part of this legacy, I have a responsibility to fight for those who have the same struggles today."
- Lesley Lopez

Legislator

Lesley is serving her second term in the Maryland General Assembly, representing Montgomery County’s District 39 since 2018. Most recently, she served as the Maryland Legislative Women’s Caucus President where she spearheaded efforts to protect women and our reproductive rights, and she was Chairwoman of the Montgomery County Delegation Metro Washington Area Committee, working with residents of the area and agency officials. 

During her five years in the state legislature, she has accomplished many of the goals she set out to tackle at the onset of her political career. She has spearheaded efforts to alleviate the burden of student debt; passed legislation that combats Maryland’s healthcare worker shortage, strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of our healthcare system; eliminated co-pays for diagnostic cancer screenings; passed legislation to train police on how to recognize and record hate crimes; and protected our most economically vulnerable citizens by prohibiting credit collectors from garnishing their bank accounts. After four years of hard work and collaboration, in 2021, she successfully passed legislation that banned the sale, transfer, and possession of unserialized illegal handguns, “ghost guns.”

Family Life

Lesley Lopez was born abroad while her mother, Patricia, served on active duty in the U.S. Navy. Growing up in a military family in Southern California, she learned the value of hard work as she watched her mom juggle the responsibilities of being a single mother and finding success in her field. Besides her mom, who later became a public school teacher and reservist, she also learned the importance of staying true to yourself from her supportive grandparents, Bob and Jeanne.

Her grandfather retired from the Air Force and worked as a janitor at an underserved public school in San Bernardino. Lesley was very close to her grandmother, Jeanne, who also served in the Air Force and was the youngest of nine born to sharecroppers in Dust Bowl-era Oklahoma. From Grandma, Lesley learned some of life’s most important lessons: how to make the best pumpkin bread, to be authentically yourself, and to never be afraid to stand up for what’s right.

It was her grandmother’s passing from lung cancer that helped Lesley find her voice as an advocate for social justice and work to pass a municipal code to get her local outdoor amphitheater smoke-free when she was 16 years old. To pay tribute to her grandmother, Lesley often wears her favorite nail color Revlon’s Cherries in the Snow, which is the same shade of red in her logo.

Though he arrived a few years into her life, Lesley’s stepdad, Emsley, adopted her and has been a guiding force as her “real dad” every day since. He taught her how to ride a bike and gave her the pep talk she needed to jump off the high dive at the town pool when she was in fourth grade and still shares his wisdom with her today, even in her adult life.

Emsley is the first person in the Lopez family born in America and the first to attend college. Emsley was also an officer in the U.S. Navy and went on to work on transportation issues in the private sector.

Lesley is proud of her big modern family and being a big sister to her siblings Samantha and Cole. As a member of Congress, she will fight for every family in every region of Maryland’s 6th district.