Negrete McLeod, Gloria, 1941-

Gloria Negrete McLeod (born September 6, 1941) is an American educator and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the U.S. Representative for California's 35th congressional district from 2013 to 2015.

Born in Los Angeles, she married Gilbert McLeod and raised a large family before earning an associate’s degree in general education from Chaffey Community College in nearby Rancho Cucamonga in 1979. From 1986 to 1995 she was a college instructional aide at Chaffey. Negrete McLeod began her public career in 1995 as a member of the Chaffey Community College board, which she later chaired. She ran unsuccessfully for the state assembly in 1998, and in 1999 was a campaign aide for Joe Baca when he won a seat in the U.S. House. In 2000 Negrete McLeod won election to the California state assembly. Limited to three terms in the assembly, she successfully ran for the state senate in 2006 and became the head of the public employment and retirement committee where she concentrated on California’s public employees’ retirement system. More than 160 of her bills became law during her time in the state legislature. With term limits set to end Negrete McLeod’s state senate career in 2012, she decided to run for a new congressional district that had been created out of southwestern San Bernardino County. Coming second in the top-two primary, McLeod defeated fellow Democrat Joe Baca in the general election by a 12-point margin.

From her seat on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Negrete McLeod worked to open educational opportunities for servicemen and women, and sought to expedite public information on veterans’ compensation claims. She also spoke on the House Floor about improving the evaluation of disability compensation for veterans, taking action on the backlog of veterans’ disability claims, extending veterans assistance programs, and providing assistance to disabled veterans training for the Paralympic Team. In 2014 she worked to open access to mammograms at VA health facilities, and sought better funding for facilities caring for the dependents of homeless veterans. Using her seat on the Agriculture Committee, Negrete McLeod introduced an amendment to a larger food and nutrition bill requiring the government to study and improve how it managed food assistance programs among Native American communities.

In February 2014, Negrete McLeod announced that she would not run for re-election, but would instead run for the San Bernardino County board of supervisors. In the fall of 2014, Negrete McLeod lost to Republican assemblyman Curt Hagman for one of two open seats on the board of supervisors. In 2015 she was elected to the Chaffey Community College district governing board.