Medina was the Chair of the Higher Education Committee[2] and a member of the California Latino Legislative Caucus and the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. Prior to being elected to the Assembly in 2012, he was a teacher at Riverside Poly High School and a Riverside Community College District Trustee.
In 2018, Jose Medina secured $9.7 million in state funds[3] through a budget allocation in the 2019 State Budget, signed by then California GovernorJerry Brown[4] to support the development of the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture and Industry of the Riverside Art Museum, also known as "The Cheech." The Cheech will reside in the City of Riverside and be a permanent home for Cheech Marin's collection of Chicano art, making it the most prominent collection of its kind in the United States.[5]