Assemblymember Ward was elected in 2020 to serve the 78th Assembly District. Before his service in the Assembly, he served on the San Diego City Council, focusing his efforts on housing, homelessness, economic development and the environment, and authored San Diego’s landmark Equal Pay Ordinance, as well as enacted a local ordinance to make San Diego the largest city in California to ban Styrofoam and reduce single-use plastics. Assemblymember Ward also chaired the San Diego County Regional Task Force on the Homeless, transforming outdated strategies to align with national best practices while making meaningful gains to address and respond to homelessness; chaired the Land Use and Housing Committee, updating restrictive housing codes and incentivizing affordable development; and chaired the Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, supporting local business.

Before becoming an elected official, Assemblymember Ward was the Chief of Staff to Senator Marty Block, coordinating constituent services, engaging public participation in the legislative process and addressing the needs of schools and neighborhoods, and an environmental planner at the firm EDAW, working with local government to update land-use policies and law, and conduct CEQA environmental reviews.

Assemblymember Ward has long been a community volunteer, serving on the San Diego Community College District’s Citizens Oversight Committee, serving as a board member of the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation and San Diego LGBT Center, and serving as a member of the Truman National Security Project

Assemblymember Ward earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in Public Policy and Urban Planning at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He and his partner, Thom, reside in University Heights with their two children and their cairn terrier.