[4] Ellis was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and attended nine schools during her childhood as her father moved regularly in his career as a military officer.

[5] In 2009, the mayor of Richmond, California appointed Ellis to serve as a member of the Community Development Commission.

[5] Ellis has spoken in favor of progressive causes[2] and has stated that Democrats need to do more to address poverty as well as push harder to adopt single-payer healthcare.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Ellis and Bauman were aligned on most issues, including support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, abortion rights, single-payer healthcare, and stronger LGBTQ protections, and the contest was described as being between "old school" Democrats vs "new school" Democrats in the progressive spirit of Bernie Sanders.

"[4] Despite such a strong showing in 2017, she was defeated again in 2019 by Rusty Hicks after Eric Bauman resigned following sexual misconduct allegations.

CalNewsroom.com’s John Hirabe lauded Ellis as “where the rubber meets the road in electing Democratic women” in California.