Ashby Makes Bid for State Senate Seat Official

BY ROBYN EIFERTSEN
THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz
Updated May 6, 2022*

As a result of redistricting, the State Senate seat being sought by Angelique Ashby is now District 8 and she is running against Dave Jones and Rafa Garcia.

Mayor Pro Tem Angelique Ashby / Courtesy Photo

Natomas resident and Sacramento Councilmember Angelique Ashby officially announced today she will run for a seat in the state senate in 2022.

Ashby made official her bid for the seat currently held by state Sen. Richard Pan this morning on social media and via an email message sent to political supporters.

“After over a decade of service on the Sacramento City Council, I’m ready to take my fight for families to the state capitol to represent Senate District 6,” reads the email message.

A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon in Natomas.

California Senate District 6 seat encompasses the core Sacramento metropolitan area and surrounding suburbs as well as West Sacramento and Elk Grove.

Ashby hinted at launching a campaign for the state senate when she filed a statement of intent to run in March 2020. At press time, the Ashby campaign has raised nearly $145,000, according to Jenna Dresner, a spokesperson for the California Secretary of State’s office.

Due to term limits, Sen. Pan is not eligible to run for reelection in 2022. Pan, also a Natomas resident, is a longtime supporter of Ashby and has endorsed her for State Senate.

Ashby looks to be the lone woman candidate in the 2022 District 6 Senate race. According to public records, she faces at least six other Democrats, three of whom have announced their candidacy.

In February, Sacramento Councilmember Eric Guerra announced he was running for State Senate. He has represented the Campus Commons, Sierra Oaks Tahoe Park and Little Saigon neighborhoods since 2015.

Dave Jones recently announced his bid for the State Senate seat. The former Sacramento city councilmember has also served as the state’s District 9 assemblyman and as California’s insurance commissioner.

In January, pastor and Sacramento civil rights activist Tecoy Porter, announced his candidacy. Porter founded the National Action Network’s Sacramento chapter in response to the police shooting death of Stephon Clark.

Former District 7 State Assemblymember and Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson, has filed intent to run paperwork in what would be his second run for the seat, according to public records. Dickinson lost to Pan by 6% in 2014.

Derek Cressman, a former Secretary of State candidate, and Khaim Morton, a former Gov. Jerry Brown appointee, also intend to run, according to public records.

Filing an intent to run with the California Secretary of State’s office is the first step in entering a state-level race for public office, but it is not an official declaration of candidacy.

Additional candidates may still declare their intent to run and only those who submit nomination papers and a declaration of candidacy between Feb. 14 and March 11, 2022 will appear on the June 7, 2022 primary election ballot. The top two vote-getters will advance to the Nov. 8, 2022 general election.

Ashby rose to leadership first as president of the Creekside Neighborhood Association in Natomas. She co-founded the North Natomas Crime & Safety Leadership Team which opened the Natomas Police & Community Resource Center. Ashby was also among a group of community leaders who advocated an update to the North Natomas Finance Plan which funded Fire Station No. 43 west of Interstate 5.

In 2010, Ashby defeated three-term incumbent Ray Tretheway with 50% of the vote to win her seat representing District 1 — which included both north and south Natomas at the time — on the Sacramento City Council. (City council district lines were redrawn as a result of the 2010 census and redistricting.)

In 2014, Ashby ran unopposed for her second term. In 2016, she ran for mayor in the primary election and lost to Darrell Steinberg.

In 2018, Ashby faced three opponents in her campaign for a third term on the city council, but won with an overwhelming 73% of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.

Ashby’s colleagues on the Sacramento City Council have selected her to serve as either Vice Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem of the city for seven years collectively. Ashby is the longest-standing member of the council and has served more than half of her time in office as the only woman representing the City of Sacramento.

In addition to her current position as Mayor Pro Tem, Ashby serves on many boards and committees. Currently she’s on the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission board and Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency board, the Sacramento Personnel & Public Employee Committee, and Sacramento Public Library Authority board.

In this morning’s email message, Ashby shared what she described as her “roadmap for progress in the State Senate:”

“Our community needs more — and better — jobs. We must address the crisis of unhoused individuals and ensure all families can afford their rent or mortgage,” she wrote. “We need to expand health care, make college and vocational training attainable goals for all Californians, fight a changing climate, invest in youth, and repair a broken criminal justice system.

“We must do all that while ensuring that today’s little girls will become women paid equal wages to their male counterparts when they enter the workforce of tomorrow,” adds the message.

Ashby is a graduate of Sacramento High School, University of California at Davis and University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. She owns a consulting firm she started with her father.

She has three children and is married to nurse Zachary Rucker-Christopher.

Brandy Tuzon Boyd contributed to this report.