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Tracy Hernandez

New California Coalition Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Los Angeles County Business Federation "BizFed" Founding Chief Executive Officer

Tracy Hernandez is a dynamic leader and strategist dedicated to amplifying the voice of businesses across California.

As the Co-Founder and CEO of the New California Coalition (NCC), Tracy leads a non-partisan organization that unites 900 diverse business groups throughout the state and represents over 9 million centrist voters. NCC organizes and advocates for pragmatic solutions to California's challenges and drives sensible governance to advance economic opportunity for all.

As the Founding CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation (BizFed), she leads a unique network of networks with greater economic impact at all levels of government. Representing over 250 business groups, 420,000 businesses, and 5 million employees, Tracy’s leadership has driven impactful policy advocacy, economic growth, and collaboration between employers and policymakers.

Tracy also founded BizFed Central Valley, bringing together 80 additional business groups to ensure a unified voice in regional and state-level policy discussions. She established the BizFed Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to research and civic and policy education, and the BizFed PAC, which focuses on local elections in all 88 cities of L.A. County.

In addition to advocacy, Tracy is President of IMPOWER Group, Inc., a business advisory firm specializing in startups and strategic transitions. With two decades of experience in media, Tracy made history as the first female CEO and Publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News and was Publisher of many award winning newspapers across the country at a time of major disruption in this sector. She led several mergers and acquisitions and participated in a successful news group IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

A sought-after speaker and lecturer, Tracy shares her expertise at graduate programs and institutions like USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and CalPoly Pomona. She is also a frequent keynote speaker at industry, civic, and political forums both stateside and internationally.

Tracy has received numerous accolades, including being named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s 500 Most Influential Leaders list and earning awards such as the CORO Crystal Eagle Award, Star of the Valley Award, and the Mujer del Año Award. Her board service includes: Think Together, USC Crosstown, Woodbury University, MEND Anti-Poverty Agency, Valley Presbyterian Hospital, Long Beach Symphony and the LA Police Department Foundation.

A native of Twin Falls, Idaho, Tracy is a graduate of the College of Southern Idaho and enjoys life and outdoor adventures with her husband, Randal Hernandez, and their family.

Back to leadership

Change Is Possible

The New California Coalition is the non-partisan political home and voice for over 6.5 million “Common Sense” voters across California

We want results, and we are mobilizing to achieve them. The New California Coalition is organizing everyday voters, business leaders, and community organizations from across the state into a movement to demand change and action.

We want a massive amount of housing built to make homes accessible to buyers, renters, and the unhoused alike, not more excuses, red tape, and NIMBYism.

We want safe streets and communities instead of finger pointing, victim blaming, or hiding inaction behind empty and dangerous slogans.

We want clean and healthy public spaces that we can pass down to the next generation rather than complaining about or denying the damage being done. We want to build financial security through good paying jobs rather than blocking the industries that can transform our society and balloon the middle class.

We can have all of this and more if we organize for it now.

We are Californians from all different backgrounds – from business to workers, from disenchanted political organizers to unaffiliated and disaffected voters. We are ready to solve the most pressing challenges facing our state, but our first step is to create a political voice for this army of Common Sense Californians.

Common-sense

California's biggest challenges

Housing

Since 1980, housing construction has stalled in California but our population has exploded. Home buying is out of reach and rents are going up every year. We must ramp up home building to meet the needs of residents and bring down the cost of living.

200,000 built
2.5 million homes

Homelessness

California accounts for 28% of the country’s entire homeless population and more than 50% of the unsheltered homeless individuals. The homeless population in the Bay Area has grown four times faster than the overall regional population since 2010.

200,000 built
2.5 million homes

Crime

The homicide rate rate for some of California’s largest cities – Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco – increased by about 17% in 2021; and none of these even approach the overall per capita crime rates of places like Stockton, San Bernardino, Compton, and Richmond. Californians across the state report feeling unsafe as one of their biggest concerns and reasons why the Golden State is becoming increasingly unlivable.

Drought

Every year we see fires spread larger and watering restrictions become more severe, but the response to address climate change and resource consumption remains single minded and half hearted: consume less gas and use less water. California cannot survive without better water management and climate mitigation. From desalination to clean energy sources like solar, wind, green hydrogen, biomass, or geothermal – there are common sense solutions that already exist if our leaders invested in building rather than political jockeying and finger pointing.

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News

Bear Essentials March 28th: What happened to California's students?
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Bear Essentials March 21st: Bright Flowers, Bleak Budgets
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Bear Essentials March 14th: Rich Get Richer, Wind Gets Weaker, Asparagus Gets Weird
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From the valleys to the coasts, we're all trying to do our best and build stable lives for our families. What issues do you think must be fixed in your communities? Share your story.

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