Steve Cohen has spent fifty years doing one thing: telling San Diegans the truth.
As a television news executive and journalist, Steve built his career on accountability. He served for twenty years as News Director of KUSI-TV, San Diego's independent television station, where he led a newsroom committed to covering the stories that mattered to working families — not the stories that made politicians comfortable.
Before joining KUSI, Steve spent over a decade covering California politics from Los Angeles, beginning in 1982. He reported on governors and legislators, city councils and school boards, learning firsthand how decisions made in back rooms affected the people waiting outside them. Over five decades in broadcasting, Steve received every major award for journalistic excellence, including recognition from the San Diego Press Club and the San Diego County Republican Party for Excellence in Journalism — a testament to his commitment to fairness and facts over ideology.
But awards aren't why Steve did this work. He did it because he believes people deserve to know what their government is doing with their money, their trust, and their future.
Steve is running for California's 50th Congressional District because he's spent a career watching politicians make promises and break them while San Diego families fall further behind. Housing costs are out of control. Groceries eat up more of every paycheck. Healthcare premiums keep climbing. And our current congressman — a career politician worth over $100 million — has been in Washington for over a decade while these problems have only gotten worse.
Steve decided that watching from behind the anchor desk wasn't enough anymore. The same instinct that drove him to ask tough questions on camera now drives him to seek real answers in Congress.
On the issues, Steve brings an independent perspective shaped by decades of listening to San Diegans across the political spectrum. He believes in making San Diego affordable for the families who live here, not just the developers who profit from it. He believes seniors who built this community deserve to retire with dignity. He believes healthcare should work for patients, not insurance company shareholders. And he believes the federal budget should be scrutinized with the same rigor he brought to every story he ever reported.
Steve Cohen isn't a politician. He's a journalist, a San Diegan, and a neighbor who has spent his life making sure the powerful couldn't hide. He's not stopping now.