They have the same goal \u2014 to make the future better for their children and the children and families they serve by fighting for more supportive services, championing mental health services for youth and taking a hard look at the inequalities and socioeconomic needs<\/a>\u00a0in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Margaret Abe-Koga<\/p>\n For Abe-Koga, 55, having a child was the final push to run for public office. As the daughter of immigrants who didn\u2019t speak English, seeing the challenges of people who didn\u2019t have a voice in their community motivated her to step up after her first daughter was born to help shape a brighter future for her child.<\/p>\n The experience was eye opening.<\/p>\n Her daughter was 10 days old when Abe-Koga attended an orientation for prospective candidates. She entered the room with her daughter in a stroller.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I walked into the room, everyone just looked at me and gasped,\u201d Abe-Koga told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThat reinforced why I needed to do this, to change that perspective \u2026 because that is a segment of our community that needs to be represented.\u201d<\/p>\n It would be years before she won her first race on the Mountain View City Council. By then, she had a second daughter and her children were ages 2 and 5. When her children were young, she often took them to City Hall if she had paperwork. But late night meetings keep her from tucking in her daughters at bedtime.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of why I ran for city council was being able to show my girls the importance of representation and making sure all voices are represented is something that I strive to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Although she tried to attend all of her children\u2019s school and sports events, Abe-Koga couldn\u2019t make them all. She and her husband traded off participating in their children\u2019s activities.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this push and pull,\u201d Abe-Koga said. \u201cThere have definitely been sacrifices by everyone. With my girls, not always being able to be there for them. I would take them to school Tuesday morning, and have a council meeting Tuesday night into the wee hours. So, I wouldn\u2019t see them for a full day until Wednesday morning.\u201d<\/p>\n Abe-Koga has served in office for more than two decades. She was a trustee on the Santa Clara County Board of Education, a councilmember, vice mayor and mayor in Mountain View and was elected in 2024 as the District 5 representative on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. But the early years were tough and having a support system made a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a real juggling act to be honest,\u201d Abe-Koga said. \u201cMy girls will tell me \u2026 if I\u2019m out every night, they\u2019ll say, \u2018Oh, mom, not again.\u2019 Then I\u2019d know to cut back.\u201d<\/p>\n Politically, being the only woman in the room can be daunting, she said, but also motivating. Today she is one of four women who sit on the board of supervisors. She wants her efforts to demonstrate it\u2019s possible to be a mom and still hold down a tough job, and she encourages other women to take the leap into politics.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes sacrifice,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to prioritize what\u2019s most important in your life. For me, it\u2019s been family. I just want to do some good for my girls. I hope that I\u2019ve been able to show that even a mom can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n Following federal cuts under H.R.1, the county had to make reductions to bridge a $270 million gap in the 2026-27 fiscal year budget<\/a>. Staff recommended cutting the allcove<\/a> program, which provides mental health services for youth in Palo Alto and Mountain View where youth suicides have escalated.<\/p>\n The request hit home when Abe-Koga\u2019s daughter revealed she had undergone a difficult time in middle school and entering high school. Abe-Koga, who serves as vice chair of the county Health & Hospitals Committee, moved to dedicate $1.75 million annually for the next three years to youth mental health services.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s what the community wants and needs.\u201d<\/p>\n Betty Duong<\/p>\n Before being elected District 2 supervisor, Betty Duong served as chief of staff for former Supervisor Cindy Chavez. Duong spent more than a decade working in multiple capacities for the county, including serving as manager of the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement and the Vietnamese American Service Center<\/a>. Like her colleagues, she too is no stranger to the life of a government official.\u00a0<\/p>\n Duong said working in politics is a window to teaching her children about democracy. She takes her daughter to debates and gubernatorial forums to teach her how to exercise her power.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m banking on it,\u201d she told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThat\u2019s why I ask my family to make sacrifices, why my team makes sacrifices. It\u2019s to make sure accessibility continues to broaden for women.\u201d<\/p>\n Duong, 45, has a 9-year-old daughter and 29-year-old stepson. She said it\u2019s a daily challenge to keep up with everything as well as manage a household. But her goal every single night is to make it home for bedtime.<\/p>\n \u201cI usually know in advance if there\u2019s going to be a significant event or meeting that\u2019s going to run late,\u201d she said. \u201cI make sure I communicate that to my daughter and my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n Duong said she couldn\u2019t do the job without her family and staff stepping up.<\/p>\n When Duong worked as a program manager and faced gaps in child care, she brought her daughter to the office. She views her county staff as extensions of her family. As a supervisor, she often brings her child to work, as does her staff, especially during school breaks or early release days. Duong described her office as kid-friendly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet she acknowledges that moms still have to meet a higher, if not impossible, standard.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a narrative out there that if you are a working mom, you better make sure that you excel at both jobs or else you failed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Duong is a collaborator who reached out to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan to find a way for the city and county to combine efforts<\/a> to get homeless residents in need of mental health treatment and supportive services off the streets. She said that\u2019s why having a voice at the table and a shared governance role is crucial. None of which would be possible if not for the women who laid the path and inspired others.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many women paved the way for me: My own mother, Blanca Alvarado, Zoe Lofgren, Cindy Chavez, the women of this county, the women of our communities, have made it possible for a kid from East Side to go from community college to the supervisor seat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Sylvia Arenas<\/p>\n Arenas, 52, has an 11-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son. She went into politics to invest in her community. Arenas served on the Evergreen Elementary School District board of trustees and San Jose City Council before winning her District 1 supervisor race in 2024.<\/p>\n Not long after her daughter was born, Arenas decided to run for the Evergreen school board after she saw her son not receiving the additional help he needed.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to step in for children just like my son,\u201d she told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cSchool districts overlook children of color and their needs and tell parents to wait until they grow out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Feeling the school board had a limited reach, she decided to run for city council to change outcomes for poor and struggling families.<\/p>\n \u201cThere comes a point where you are asking yourself about your legacy<\/a> and how you impacted this world,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is how we create systemic change and anti-racist policies.\u201d<\/p>\n Arenas pushed a stroller with her 7-year-old in tow when she knocked on doors while campaigning. After she won the council seat, she often took her daughter to the office. But when she asked a woman if it would be OK to take her daughter to a meeting she was told it would be unprofessional. During her city council reelection campaign, people discounted her, saying she was just a stay-at-home mom, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis field has given me a lot to be proud of, an opportunity to change systems. I certainly have had challenges, and my family and my children have been just very wonderful, although it is also a sacrifice for them,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n One issue Arenas has worked on extensively during her time in office has been on the mental and physical health of Santa Clara County\u2019s Latino community<\/a>. The high rates of rates of poverty, lower rates of high school graduation and more deaths from diabetes than other groups had the county declare a public health crisis for Latino residents following a yearslong county health assessment<\/a> released last May.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the safety net for all of our community,\u201d Arenas, who led the effort, previously told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cIf the majority of our community is dying from suicide or isn\u2019t graduating or isn\u2019t reading by third grade, it is our responsibility to do something about it.\u201d<\/p>\n She continues to make the work a priority<\/a>, but at the same time she hasn\u2019t lost sight of the need for women to be supported and not be viewed negatively for having their children at work, a meeting or event.<\/p>\n \u201cIf what I\u2019ve done allows for other women to be more free to incorporate their children into their careers and into their professional lives, then I\u2019ve done something right,\u201d Arenas said.<\/p>\n Susan Ellenberg<\/p>\n Ellenberg<\/a>, 59, has three children ages 27, 30 and 32. Previously a lawyer, she started working in politics when her youngest was a freshman in high school.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I started thinking about running for the school board in 2013, and learned how intense the campaigning would be, and how much of my time would be consumed, not being able to make dinner was my first huge source of stress,\u201d Ellenberg told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cMy 15-year-old essentially rolled her eyes and said, \u2018I will survive.\u2019 It was such a release.\u201d<\/p>\n When Ellenberg decided to run for the District 4 county supervisor seat in 2018, she did so after serving on the San Jose Unified School District board. This June she is running unopposed<\/a> for her third full term as supervisor, where she has served two years as board president.\u00a0<\/p>\n Like her colleagues, Ellenberg has missed family events and celebrations due to government commitments, which can be hard at times, and is grateful for her family\u2019s understanding,\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s disappointing, but I fully understand what I signed up for,\u201d she said. \u201cAs it\u2019s a public office, I feel very committed to being present. But there have definitely been family things that I have missed because of this job.\u201d<\/p>\n Ellenberg said having her husband and children\u2019s support and knowing they\u2019re proud of what she does gives her the strength to keep doing the work.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout that, it would be too much to bear, because it really is all-consuming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ellenberg supports women who want to move into careers in public service, whatever stage they\u2019re in \u2014 but for her, waiting until her children were older worked best. Ellenberg said some of the most powerful advice she ever received was from former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cShe came to my house to meet my son, who was maybe a week old. She asked me how I was doing, and I started to say, \u2018Fine,\u2019 and then I entirely broke down. I was working as a lawyer,\u201d Ellenberg said. \u201cI really wanted to be home with my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n Ellenberg had barely started her career in law and achieving it had been an expensive endeavor, she told Hammer. She felt a sense of obligation and didn\u2019t want to let others down.<\/p>\n \u201c(Hammer) explained that perhaps this was my time to be with my baby. That I could do so many things over the course of my life, and I didn\u2019t need to do them all at once,\u201d Ellenberg said. \u201cHaving such an impressive woman \u2026 tell me that it was OK to stay home with my baby was as transformative as it was when my daughter said, \u2018We\u2019ll survive if you don\u2019t make dinner.\u2019 It\u2019s other women that have to give us permission sometimes to not try to carry everything.\u201d \u201cI intentionally moved from a school board to county government because I saw that so many of the challenges that keep children from succeeding in school are not academic, but really related to socioeconomics and structural inequities,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to be at the county to improve circumstances for young children and their families. Homelessness prevention, mental health services and criminal legal system reform \u2014 it\u2019s always about what can we do to better support children.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MAK-KCon-LA-2024-w-daughters-IMG_5999-1024x768.jpeg\")
District 5 Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga with her daughters Aili and Aina at Crypto.com Arena in 2024 at KCON LA. KCON is an annual convention held in cities across the world to foster interest in K-pop music and K-cultural trends. Photo courtesy of Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga.<\/p>\n![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_9068-2-1024x768.jpg\")
Margaret Abe-Koga worked with Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (second from left) before becoming a Mountain View councilmember. Photo courtesy of Margaret Abe-Koga.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Betty-Duong-party-2-1024x769.jpg\")
Betty Duong gathered at an election night party in downtown San Jose with her daughter with supporters. Photo by Annalise Freimarck.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_3882-1-1024x797.jpeg\")
District 2 Supervisor Betty Duong speaks at a memorial service for homeless residents at the end of 2025. Photo by Joyce Chu.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/arenas-768x1024.jpeg\")
District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas and her children in 2025. Photo courtesy of Supervisor Syvlia Arenas.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_1630-scaled-e1758067929689-1024x630.jpg\")
District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas (center) led the efforts to declare a public health crisis for Latino residents. File photo.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/484034408_10236030666523933_635691264802995941_n-1024x714.jpg\")
District 4 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg appreciates family time. (From left) Husband Steve Ellenberg, daughter Molly Ellenberg, Susan Ellenberg, daughter-in-law Ruth Ferguson, son Zach Ellenberg and daughter Naava Ellenberg. Photo courtesy of Supervisor Susan Ellenberg.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/546860921_1187036579905600_6254962059284498592_n.jpg\")
Supervisor Susan Ellenberg spoke out in support of Measure A, a sales tax increase expected to generate about $330 million annually to offset federal Medicaid funding cuts. Photo courtesy of Supervisor Susan Ellenberg.<\/p>\n![\"Santa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BOS-4-1024x638.jpg\")
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors: President Otto Lee, Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, Supervisor Betty Duong and Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga. File photo.<\/p>\n![\"In-line](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/interactive-321838904008.png\")
<\/a>Ellenberg has consistently pushed to expand child care while in office.<\/p>\n