Perea leads Assembly District 31 race, heads to November runoff
Annalisa Perea’s Assembly District 31 lead puts Fresno’s next Sacramento voice into a November runoff, with education, housing and public safety leverage still in play.
Annalisa Perea emerged as the early frontrunner in the race for Assembly District 31, but not by enough to close out a seat that could shape Fresno’s influence in Sacramento for years. With all 99 precincts partially reporting, Perea held 43.7% of the vote, Republican Jim Polsgrove had 38.4%, and Democrat Sandra Celedon finished third with 17.9%, sending the contest to November because no candidate cleared a majority.
The result turns what was shaping up as a crowded local race into a broader test of who gets to speak for Fresno, from education funding to housing and public safety. The district is heavily Democratic on paper, with 226,680 registered voters, but the split among Democratic voters gave Polsgrove room to stay competitive. Perea’s lead was solid enough to keep her in first place, yet not large enough to end the contest in June.
The open seat itself added urgency. Joaquin Arambula has represented Assembly District 31 since April 14, 2016, and his decision to run for Fresno City Council instead of seeking another Assembly term left the seat up for grabs. That created an opening for Perea, a Fresno City Councilmember who already has name recognition in city politics and who now must turn that local base into a districtwide coalition.
Perea also entered the runoff with a financial and political head start. Her campaign said she raised more than $425,000 in her first 2026 fundraising report and had about a 3-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage over her closest opponent. Her support included labor, local officials and statewide Democratic figures, a show of backing that could help in a general election where turnout, organization and partisan unity often matter more than primary-day enthusiasm.
Celedon, meanwhile, brought a different kind of appeal to the race. She is the president and CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities, and her background materials describe her as a lifelong resident of the district who grew up in Calwa and graduated from Fresno State. That gave her a rooted Fresno profile even as negative advertising targeted her past positions, including her support for defunding police. Polsgrove ran a comparatively bare-bones campaign and benefited from the fractured Democratic vote, turning the contest into an early warning for Fresno Democrats who now have to rally behind one nominee.
The runoff now becomes a clearer choice over what kind of representation Fresno sends to Sacramento. Fresno County election officials had counted about 101,000 ballots when the first results came in, with roughly 70,000 still to go, underscoring how much the county’s slow count and low turnout can still shift the mood of a race. Countywide, turnout finished at 112,407 ballots cast out of 527,431 registered voters, or 21.31%, and the Secretary of State said final county results are due by July 3, with certification set for July 10.
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