[4] Enrolling as a founding pupil at the Center for Enriched Studies, the first magnet school in Los Angeles and the centerpiece of the district's voluntary integration program instituted following a court finding of racial segregation,[5][6] Christopher Cabaldon first became involved in politics as a seventh-grader, speaking at conferences and in media interviews on the subject of desegregation.

He earned a Masters in Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Sacramento in its founding class, where he later taught as an adjunct faculty member, received the institution's "Distinguished Service Award," and later was appointed as a tenured faculty member to one of the university's first endowed chairs[7] Cabaldon began in government as Chief Consultant and Staff Director at the age of 24 to the California State Assembly Higher Education Committee and then Chief of Staff to the chair of Appropriations Committee.

[8] California Governor Jerry Brown appointed Cabaldon as the state's representative on the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, with unanimous Senate confirmation, in 2011 and again in 2014 and 2018.

[9] In 2019, Cabaldon was appointed to the tenured faculty of California State University, Sacramento as the Hazel Cramer Endowed Chair and Professor of Public Policy and Administration.

[11] In 2015, President Obama appointed Cabaldon to the National Advisory Board, chaired by Dr. Jill Biden, for America's College Promise.

"[13] Cabaldon was Chair of the Jobs, Education & the Workforce Committee at the United States Conference of Mayors, where he was elected to the board in June 2011 and then as a trustee in 2019.

[14] He joined a network of a dozen cities in digital badge initiative launched at South by Southwest's education festival to support out-of-classroom learning, skills, and microcredentials for local teens; this work became a national model.

In 2020, he made West Sacramento the first city in the nation to send a letter of college admission and a scholarship offer to every graduating high school senior.

[20][21] The West Sacramento Home Run has been widely recognized as one of the nation's most innovative and comprehensive initiatives to improve educational attainment and economic opportunity.

As chair of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments Cabaldon led the region's historic "Blueprint for the Future", which under his leadership won prestigious awards from the US Environmental Protection Agency, two Governors, and a diverse array of national, state, regional, civic, business, and environmental organizations for land-use planning and smart growth strategies.

[32][33][34][35] He was a candidate for the 8th district in the California State Assembly in 2008, losing the primary by three percentage points to Yolo County Supervisor Mariko Yamada.

The Logo network featured Cabaldon in a 2006 episode of the series Coming Out Stories,[40][41] when he came out publicly in his annual State of the City address.