{"id":503763,"date":"2026-10-22T04:38:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/503763\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T04:38:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T04:38:42","slug":"mcfarland-mayor-saul-ayon-runs-for-assembly-cites-high-cost-of-living-in-kern-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/503763\/","title":{"rendered":"McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon runs for Assembly, cites high cost of living in Kern County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon, elected in 2022, is running as a Republican for the California Assembly, saying Kern County needs a representative in Sacramento who will address the high cost of living.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFamilies are being crushed with the high cost of living, the affordability crisis and we need a representative that\u2019s going to represent Kern County and bring down those costs,\u201d Ayon said.<\/p>\n<p>Ayon blamed higher costs in California on Democratic policies, arguing Democrats have led the state for years. <\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon runs for Assembly, cites high cost of living in Kern County (Photo by Arturo Holmes\/Getty Images for National Urban League)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/40a44a0e-7972-42a8-a249-699921f615ae-GettyImages2081676173.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon runs for Assembly, cites high cost of living in Kern County (Photo by Arturo Holmes\/Getty Images for National Urban League)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of humorous that Democrats are running their campaign on cost of living when they have been in charge of this state for sixteen years. And they\u2019ve caused all this crisis that spars affordability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>To address affordability, Ayon said he would support suspending the gas tax and reducing regulations. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuspend the gas tax,\u201d he said. \u201cYou got so many regulations like CARB and cap-and-invest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ayon also pointed to his experience working with Democrats while serving as McFarland\u2019s mayor. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the last six years I\u2019ve also worked with our democratically elected officials with Assembly Bill 133, we were able to get eight million dollars for Kern County,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon runs for Assembly, cites high cost of living in Kern County (KBAK\/KBFX)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"365\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/c274c784-7d82-4baa-96e5-f8b6a663f3a8-ayon.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon runs for Assembly, cites high cost of living in Kern County (KBAK\/KBFX)<\/p>\n<p>He said his nearly 25 years with the Kern County Department would translate to the state Legislature. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust having the front-line experience in dealing with not only the government in a different chapter but you know that accountability and responsibility of protecting our community,\u201d Ayon said.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon runs for Assembly, cites high cost of living in Kern County (Photo by Charlie Neibergall\/Getty Images)\" class=\"ImageEmbed_image__qZBo_\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"364\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ee272b37-328f-4d35-b0d2-e6d816216b56-GettyImages22996208992.jpg\" width=\"648\"\/><\/p>\n<p>McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon runs for Assembly, cites high cost of living in Kern County (Photo by Charlie Neibergall\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Asked what separates him from his opponent, Democratic candidate and Bakersfield City Councilman Andrae Gonzales, Ayon said, \u201cThe difference is I have proven results. I bring people to the table and we solve the problem and we bring measurable results.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) McFarland Mayor Saul Ayon, elected in 2022, is running as a Republican for the California&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-503763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503763","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=503763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}