Fresno assembly candidate holds strong lead for 31st district seat
Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea emerged Tuesday night with a solid lead in the race to replace Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula in the state legislature.
As of 8:05 p.m. Tuesday, Perea led her opponents — Democrat Sandra Celedon and Republican James Polsgrove — with about 26,733 votes counted.
Perea had secured roughly 46% of the vote, while Polsgrove, a retired engineering technician, captured 36.8%, according to the Fresno County registrar of voters.
Nonprofit director Celedon, a progressive Democrat, captured 17% of total votes.
Perea, 38, is all but certain to advance to the November general election. The top two candidates will face a runoff in the general elections on Nov. 3.
Arambula, an emergency room physician and Democrat from Fresno, has represented Assembly District 31 seat since 2016. He’s currently seeking a seat on Fresno City Council to represent District 3, which includes downtown, Chinatown, the Tower District and most of the city’s industrial parks in south Fresno.
Perea is endorsed by the California Democratic Party, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several assemblymembers including Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas. Political spending groups — including those funded by Facebook owner Meta and McDonald’s franchise owners — have spent at least $2 million dollars in support of Perea.
The spending is what experts call a “once-in-a-decade” chance to influence who is in the seat, especially in the Central Valley, where Democrats are more likely to be business-friendly, said political strategist Mike Madrid.
Celedon, 41, is the progressive in the race. She runs the nonprofit organization Fresno Building Healthy Communities, and is endorsed by the California Working Families Party and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
District 31 is a majority Latino district within Fresno County that includes most of the city of Fresno, western Fresno County rural communities, as well as the cities of Fowler, Orange Cove, Parlier, Sanger, Selma and a small piece of Clovis.
Of the 225,729 registered voters in the district, 98,228, or 43.52%, are registered Democrats and 54,077, or 24%, are registered Republicans, according to state data. Another 23.7%, or 53,590, have no party preference.
