Fresno Councilmember Esmeralda Soria running for seat representing new Assembly district
Fresno City Councilmember Esmeralda Soria on Friday launched her bid for California’s new 27th Assembly District, which includes portions of Fresno, Madera, and Merced counties.
Soria made the announcement with a list of more than 50 endorsements from elected officials and community members across the state and San Joaquin Valley, spanning from Kern County to Merced County. She said she hopes that list will double in the 24-48 hours after her announcement.
In an exclusive interview with The Bee, she called the step a “natural progression” in her political career. If she wins, it will be a full-circle move that brings her back to Sacramento, where she worked years ago as a policy advocate.
Running for Assembly will give Soria the chance to focus on issues such as housing and education equity — not only in the urban Valley cities but also in rural communities, she said.
“I’ve been a lifelong advocate. I was born and raised here in this Valley. I know these communities extremely well,” she said. “I have experience growing up in a rural city in a family with farmworkers, a poor working-class family.
“I have that experience that is a very common experience throughout our Central Valley. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Merced, it doesn’t matter if you’re in Madera or Fresno. I think that I’m going to be the best advocate for this area,” she said.
Soria is termed out of her Fresno City Council seat representing District 1, which stretches from Shaw Avenue south to the Tower District and west past Highway 99. The new Assembly district includes some parts of her council district, and Soria said in the coming days she will finalize a move “a few neighborhoods over” in Fresno to establish residency in the new Assembly district.
In the last few weeks, rumors swirled over what Soria’s next political move would be. Soria said that once Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, announced his congressional bid, people from Fresno, Merced and Madera encouraged her to run for the new assembly district.
The new district is majority Latino and Democrat, two demographics that bode well for Soria. The unincorporated areas of Madera and Merced counties lean Republican.
This isn’t Soria’s first bid for higher office. In 2019, Soria challenged fellow Democrat Rep. Jim Costa for his congressional seat in the 16th District. While she lost that race, she touted blocking the Fresno Democratic Party’s endorsement of Costa, a political veteran and powerhouse.
In that race, Soria rejected corporate donations and raised $400,000. This time around, she hopes to raise more, and enough to win, regardless of where the money comes from, she said.
While political pundits likened Soria to millennial Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or “AOC,” others criticized her for not being progressive enough. Soria said she tries to avoid political labels and prefers to be known as a problem solver.
“People don’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican,” she said. “They care if you do the work that is going to benefit our community and that is going to uplift our families. That’s what I care about.”
Soria, 39, was born and raised in Lindsay and is the first-generation American daughter to Mexican farmworkers. She worked alongside her parents in the fields and packinghouses as a child before earning her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and her law degree from UC Davis.
Soria works as an adjunct professor at Fresno City College and serves as president of the California League of Cities Latino Caucus. She was part of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s transition team and worked on his homeless task force.
