Kevin McCarty

Kevin McCarty (born 1972) is an American politician currently serving in the California State Assembly. He is a Democrat representing the 7th Assembly District, which encompasses a portion of the Sacramento metropolitan area.
McCarty is a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus. Prior to being elected to the Assembly in 2014, he was an Sacramento City Councilmember representing the 6th district, which includes part of the eastern and southeastern parts of the city.

McCarty was born and raised in the Sacramento area. He graduated with a degree in political science from CSU Long Beach and is working on a master's degree in public policy and administration from Sacramento State. Before his service as an elected official, McCarty served as policy director to former California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, and as an Assembly Budget Committee consultant to former Assemblymember Denise Moreno Ducheny. He is a resident of the Elmhurst neighborhood. While on the City Council, McCarty worked as a legislative advocate for Preschool California.

Representing many of Sacramento's older neighborhoods, McCarty has been a big advocate for safe housing and for inspections of Sacramento's numerous rental housing units. He is also known as a big advocate of gun control. He also works with creating after school programs for District 6 schools. Council member McCarty along with Darrell Fong voted against a $257 million subsidy to develop a downtown entertainment and sports complex for the Sacramento Kings.

The 6th district includes the suburban College Greens and Glenbrook neighborhoods which are located in the eastern edges of Sacramento. He also represents the Tahoe Park area and the surrounding neighborhoods that make up southeast Sacramento.

In the 2004 election, McCarty faced John Boyd, the director of Shriners Hospital for Children. McCarty defeated him by a 62% to 38% margin.

McCarty did not face any opposition in his 2008 reelection bid. He did gain notoriety as the lone city councilman who declined to take sides in the mayoral primary between Heather Fargo and Kevin Johnson. However, by the general election, he decided to support Fargo's unsuccessful reelection bid.

In 2010, Assembly Member Dave Jones was term limited. McCarty lost a close primary election to Roger Dickinson, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors member from District 1.

In 2012, McCarty was challenged by information technology manager Mitch Netto. He easily won in the primary election by a 3 to 1 margin.

In 2014, McCarty was elected to represent California's 7th Assembly District, defeating fellow Sacramento City Councilmember Steve Cohn.