* In early 2013, Alan Lowenthal and a number of fellow elected officials and activists—most of whom were aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America—drafted a proposal urging President Barack Obama to award a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to the late Fred Ross Sr., a radical who had been trained by Saul Alinsky and had served as a mentor to both Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
* In 2013 Lowenthal was a financial contributor to the Liberty Hill Foundation.
* In 2015, Lowenthal, characterizing “plastic pollution” as “one of the most visible environmental impacts of our consumer age,” co-sponsored legislation that would charge consumers 10 cents for each plastic bag they used when shopping.
* A key supporter of Lowenthal’s congressional campaigns has been J Street.