Tuolumne County Supervisor Jaron Brandon has become the first Democrat to enter the race for Senate District 4.
Brandon hopes to unseat party-switching Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil (R–Jackson), who joined the GOP after winning the heavily-conservative district in an all-Democratic election in 2022.
The big picture: Brandon is currently in his second term on the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors, having been reelected last year.
- While Brandon is the only Democrat to target the District 4 seat so far, Alvarado-Gil already has a challenger from the right: former Hughson Mayor and current Livermore Police Chief Jeramy Young.
- Alvarado-Gil was a member of Brandon’s party when she joined the Legislature in 2022 but switched over to the Republican Party last year.
Zoom in: District 4 is the largest district in the California Senate, spanning from Lake Tahoe in the north all the way through Inyo County in the south. It also includes parts of Madera and Merced Counties and all of Stanislaus County.
- Republicans hold a 6.6% advantage in voter registration, according to data provided by the California Target Book. Republicans have over 40,000 more registered voters than Democrats do.
Flashback: Alvarado-Gil won the election as a Democrat in 2022 after a crowded field of Republicans split the vote in the primary, leaving the GOP on the outside looking in.
- But Alvarado-Gil changed her political allegiances last year, saying at the time that the status quo of the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature is simply not working for California.
