{"id":344510,"date":"2026-06-03T10:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/344510\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T10:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:08:18","slug":"likely-runoff-between-fresno-democrat-annalisa-perea-republican-opponent-for-assembly-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/344510\/","title":{"rendered":"Likely runoff between Fresno Democrat Annalisa Perea, Republican opponent for assembly seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea will likely face her Republican opponent in a November runoff to replace Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula in the state legislature.<\/p>\n

As of 9:40 p.m. Tuesday, Perea, a Democrat, maintained her lead against opponents \u2014 Democrat Sandra Celedon and Republican James Polsgrove \u2014 with about 30,074 votes counted.<\/p>\n

Perea had secured roughly 44.47% of the vote, while Polsgrove, a retired engineering technician, captured 37.6%, according to the Fresno County registrar of voters.<\/p>\n

Nonprofit director Celedon, a progressive Democrat, captured 17.7% of total votes.<\/p>\n

In a written statement to The Bee, Perea said she was \u201cfilled with immense gratitude and optimism for the tremendous momentum behind this campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one, our goal was to build a broad coalition of neighbors, community leaders, and families who would work towards bringing a real voice for the Valley to Sacramento. So far, tonight\u2019s showing that we were successful in that effort. We will patiently wait as election officials finish their important work, but we are confident that our message of real results is prevailing,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Polsgrove, meanwhile, commented on the likelihood of facing off Perea in the run-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not quite sure that she\u2019s as moderate as a lot of people make her out to be, or she makes herself out to be. It\u2019s going to be a rough race. I mean, they\u2019ve got the name recognition, they\u2019ve got the money behind them. I\u2019ve got the outreach to the people, and the support of the people that I talk to,\u201d he said Tuesday night at a party at the Elbow Room.<\/p>\n

\"Assembly<\/p>\n

Assembly candidate James Polsgrove, R-Fresno, right, is in good position to make the November election.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Bee, Celedon said she looked forward to the final count.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud of the community-driven campaign we ran, and I\u2019m deeply grateful to every volunteer, first-time voter and first-time donor who stepped up to reclaim a democratic process that too often is driven by corporate interests. We\u2019ll give the elections office the space to finish counting, and in the meantime, we\u2019ll keep fighting for Fresno\u2019s working families and holding our leaders accountable. Our campaign was built on integrity, real results, and a clear record \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly what Fresno County families deserve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

\"31st<\/p>\n

31st Assembly candidate Sandra Celedon is seen during a campaign gathering Tuesday night, June 2, 2026 in Fresno.<\/p>\n

Arambula, an emergency room physician and Democrat from Fresno, has represented Assembly District 31 seat since 2016. He\u2019s currently seeking a seat on Fresno City Council to represent District 3<\/a>, which includes downtown, Chinatown, the Tower District and most of the city\u2019s industrial parks in south Fresno.<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 including those funded by Facebook owner Meta and McDonald\u2019s franchise owners \u2014 have spent at least $2 million dollars in support of Perea.<\/p>\n

The spending is what experts call a \u201conce-in-a-decade\u201d chance to influence who is in the seat<\/a>, especially in the Central Valley, where Democrats are more likely to be business-friendly, said political strategist Mike Madrid.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

District 31 is a majority Latino district<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\"Annalisa<\/p>\n

Annalisa Perea, right, thanks supporters with Esmeralda Soria to the left during a campaign gathering Tuesday night, June 2, 2026 in Fresno.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. Another 23.7%, or 53,590, have no party preference.<\/p>\n

Fresno Bee Reporter David Taub contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea will likely face her Republican opponent in a November runoff to replace Assemblymember…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,8019,622,114,113,141550,96032,136657,141549,141551,141552],"class_list":["post-344510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-city-council","tag-fresno-county","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-james-polsgrove","tag-joaquin-arambula","tag-perea","tag-progressive-democrat","tag-real-results","tag-republican-opponent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}