Norma Torres

Who is Norma Torres?

Norma J. Torres is an American politician. She is currently a member of the California State Senate representing the 32nd district. She is a Democrat.

Torres was born in Guatemala. When she was five, her mother died, and she, her father, and her two brothers relocated to Los Angeles. She worked as a 9-1-1 dispatcher, where in 1994 she led a campaign to require the hiring of bilingual 911 operators. She was an active member of AFSCME, serving as local 3090's shop steward. She served on the Pomona city council prior to being elected the city's mayor in 2006. In 2008, she endorsed then-presidential candidate Barack Obama before Hillary Clinton withdrew from the race, and was a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention She was elected to the state assembly in November 2008, filling the vacancy left by former legislator Nell Soto, who retired.

She was 2008/09 Treasurer for the National Conference of Democratic Mayors.

On 21 November 2007 she appeared on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, with Lela's restaurant.