Political Notebook: New mom Perea seeks Fresno Assembly seat

Having just welcomed the birth of her twin children, lesbian Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea is juggling motherhood with being a candidate for an open state legislative seat. Should she be elected to the Assembly District 31 seat next year, Perea would be the first LGBTQ member of the Legislature from that part of the Central Valley.

She and her wife, Gabriela Gonzalez-Perea, have a newborn daughter, Luciana, and son, Julian, who were just shy of being five weeks old when Perea spoke to the Bay Area Reporter on August 19. Having parents seek and hold elected office is needed right now, contended Perea.

“I think a really important part of this campaign is the fact that I personally feel we need more mothers running for office,” said Perea, 38, who married her spouse last October two years into their relationship. “I know, historically, women were expected to stay at home and be the homemaker and raise the kids, which is why being elected, historically, always has been dominated by men.”

Rather than postpone her running for higher office until her children are older, Perea is aiming to serve as a role model for other parents, especially moms, who may also have political ambitions of their own. She acknowledged it will bring added obstacles to her candidacy, making her bid for the Assembly seat a unique one to observe over the coming months.

“It is really important to see if I can do this and win, then nobody should shy away from running for office, whether an expectant mom, a new mom, or a soon-to-be mom,” said Perea. “Running for state office is challenging. Having babies is challenging. And so, the fact that I am taking both on at the same time is going to be a unique challenge.”

And via her own story, Perea hopes other parents will think, “I can do this too,” and become political candidates as well.

“My goal is to prove you can do just about anything you put your mind to if you are willing to put in the work,” said Perea, a Fresno native who graduated in 2009 from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a degree in city and regional planning.

Perea wouldn’t be the first parent among the members of the Legislative LGBTQ Caucus in Sacramento, as several current and former out legislators have children. Lesbian state Senator Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), who will become the affinity group’s vice chair on September 15, gave birth in 2019 to triplets, two boys and a girl, while serving in the Assembly at the time.

In doing so, she became the first out member of the Legislature to give birth while in office, as the Political Notebook reported at the time. The LGBTQ caucus in April early endorsed Perea in her Assembly race.

“Being a new mom, it has taught me the importance of one, why we need more women in public service,” Perea told the B.A.R. “But I firmly believe if we had more moms in elected offices that all of our communities would be better places to live and work.”

The sister of Democratic former assemblymember Henry T. Perea, who left his Fresno council seat for the Legislature in 2010, Annalisa Perea became the first out member of their city’s governing body with her election in 2022. She had been sworn in a few weeks early due to her Democratic predecessor, Esmeralda Soria, winning a state Assembly seat that year and taking her oath in early December.

Soria endorsed Perea’s Assembly bid back in May, stating that, “from day one, Annalisa has been focused on solutions for the Central Valley. She has a proven ability to bring opposing sides together to deliver real results, and she will bring that same effective leadership to Sacramento.”

Perea is vying to succeed termed out Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), who had won a special election to serve out the remainder of Henry Perea’s third term after he resigned from the Legislature in late 2015 for a private sector job. Arambula is now running for a Fresno City Council seat next year.

As the B.A.R.’s online Political Notes column recently reported, during the first half of 2025 Annalisa Perea raised the most money of the nine known out Democratic legislative newcomers who filed campaign fundraising reports in June. Perea netted nearly $300,815 for her coffers, with $256,666 to spend as of July 1 on her race.

“I was really blown away with the amount of support I got early on. I would say about 90% of this money is just local dollars,” said Perea. “These are just average day people willing to invest in me. The fact that it amounted to over $300,000 is overwhelming. I don’t take that for granted.”

She is expected to face a competitive contest to survive the June 2 primary. Under the state’s open primary system, only the top two vote-getters regardless of party affiliation in the legislative races will advance to the fall ballot.

And the field of fellow Democratic candidates for the Fresno-based Assembly seat is beginning to expand. Sanger City Councilmember Esmeralda Hurtado, the sister of state Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), recently pulled papers to run for the seat, while Fresno Building Healthy Communities President and CEO Sandra Celedon reported raising $108,736 in the first half of the year for her bid.

Pointing to her 2022 city council race, where she secured more than 50% in a crowded field on the June ballot to avoid a runoff election in the fall, Perea told the B.A.R. she is undaunted by the prospect of another hard-fought primary election.

“My family has always taught me to work hard and stay true to my cause. It is something I have carried with me not just in my professional career but my public service career as well,” said Perea, whose parents and grandparents were Mexican American farmworkers in the Central Valley. “During my council campaign I outworked my competition. It is what led me to actually win my city council race in the primary.”

She credited her victory, becoming the first out person elected to the Fresno City Council, to staying true to her values and having a message that resonated with the voters of her council district. She is now bringing that playbook to her Assembly race and hopes to break through another pink political glass ceiling.

“It has been an honor to just be able to represent a segment of our population that has historically gone under-represented,” said Perea, whose city has long had an active and vibrant LGBTQ community call it home, with an annual Pride parade and LGBTQ film festival.

 
Trump administration cuts
During her time on the council, she has supported the creation of Fresno’s first LGBTQ community liaison and the setting aside of $300,000 in grants for LGBTQ nonprofits in the city’s budget.

“It is sort of the first of its kind not just in Fresno but really the whole Central Valley. The city stepped up and committed to make historical investments in our community in a way we haven’t before,” she said, pointing out that many local service providers have been subjected to federal funding cuts under the Trump administration. “So, I have been working with several of them to get creative in how we are helping them find funding.”

It is a fiscal and policy matter she pledged to lead on in the Legislature.

“Right now, a lot of our state legislators are doing what they can to safeguard the LGBTQ community. And so, I see my role when I am up in Sacramento as joining the LGBTQ caucus to make sure we are prioritizing legislation focused on protecting our most vulnerable populations, whether it be the trans community or our youth community,” said Perea. “Right now, just about everyone is at risk of some kind of funding cuts. It is up to folks like myself to make sure we are not just putting forth good bills but really fighting to prioritize these issues.”

Another matter that has come under attack by the Trump administration and seen its federal funding clawed back is California’s high speed rail project. The Central Valley segment, which cuts through downtown Fresno, is currently under construction and already bringing benefits to the city, with one project that rebuilt a major downtown artery under the existing train tracks to provide a safe connection to the city’s Chinatown just opened to vehicles and pedestrians this month.

“I am a big supporter of the California high speed rail project,” said Perea, who was impressed by such a line she took five years ago during a vacation in Italy.

It puts her in line with a majority of the state’s residents, based on a recently released poll from Politico and the Citrin Center-Possibility Lab. It found 62% of registered voters back the long-delayed and criticized project, even though 54% agreed there is a "low likelihood" of seeing it ever connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles.

“California has always led the way in innovation and technology, and transportation is one sector where we need to see innovative advancements,” argued Perea, adding that she “personally would love to see high speed rail be quicker. There are a number of roadblocks that have popped up along the way and that has delayed the project. Now, more than ever, it is important to ensure we do have leaders who are innovative in their way of thinking and not afraid to invest in needed things for our state.”

Come next December, Perea hopes to be sworn into her Assembly seat and provide such leadership in the Legislature. And to do so as the mother of young children.

“This campaign is going to be a unique one to watch this election cycle,” noted Perea. “We are hoping for the best and for a win. When that does happen, knock on wood it does happen, I am hoping I can inspire other soon-to-be parents or young parents to also put their hat in the ring to run for state office too.”

Web Extra: For more queer political news, be sure to check http://www.ebar.com Monday mornings for Political Notes, the notebook's online companion. This week's column reported on how the redistricting ballot measure Proposition 50 could upend the race to represent Palm Springs in the U.S. House.

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Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or email [email protected].