By Los Angeles County Politics (LACP)
Terri Rivers has never run for office before. But the 21-year childcare provider and District 6 homeowner says that’s exactly the point.
“I’m new to this,” Rivers told LACP in a recent interview. “And I welcome every citizen in Long Beach to become new to this with me.”
Rivers is among a small field of challengers taking on incumbent Mayor Rex Richardson in the June 2 primary. Richardson, who in 2022 became the first African American mayor in Long Beach history, is seeking a second term, touting more than 4,000 new jobs, what he says is the city’s first decline in homelessness in a decade, and its lowest overall crime rate in 20 years.
The other declared candidates as of late January include Lee Goldin and Rogelio Martinez, according to city records. Rivers qualified last, filing her Form 410 on January 23. The filing period remains open through March 6. Unless a candidate clears 50 percent of the vote outright, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff.
Rivers’ central issue is children — and she frames virtually every policy question through that lens. On homelessness: “Who’s really being affected? Our children.” On rent control and housing costs: “These are our children out on the street before they’ve even been given a chance.” On the Port of Long Beach and economic development: “Have these kids start businesses. Let’s take advantage of the resources around us.”
Her political background is unconventional. For 19 years, Rivers organized with SEIU Local 99’s childcare providers’ union, lobbying in Sacramento and at city hearings on behalf of in-home childcare workers. She says that experience — including a trip to a White House care summit — has prepared her for the mechanics of governance, even if the mechanics of campaigning came as a crash course.
“You have to get a campaign manager, a treasurer, a team for grassroots work,” she said, describing the 30-day gauntlet of FPPC filings, campaign bank accounts, and ActBlue setup that preceded her ballot paperwork. “With the little information you know about politics before you can actually start doing grassroots work — it’s a lot.”
Rivers, a head-of-household mother raising six children in the 90813 zip code, says her experience with domestic budgets is directly relevant to the city’s fiscal challenges. She pointed to a $373,000 balance she spotted in a community fund video from January 6, arguing that targeted, smaller distributions could stretch public dollars further than lump-sum grants to single organizations.
“You could spread that out to 30 organizations and take care of 500 people on the same amount,” she said. “I know how to stretch a dollar.”
