Esmeralda Soria, a Democrat who is seeking reelection to the District 27 seat in the State Assembly, was in the lead after Election Night on Tuesday.
As of Wednesday morning, Soria was ahead with 52.3 percent of the vote, or 37,627 votes, compared to her Republican opponent Joanna Garcia Rose with 47.7 percent of the vote, or 34,356 votes.
Assembly District 27 includes most of Merced County and all of its cities except Gustine, plus parts of Madera and Fresno counties.
While Garcia Rose, an auditor from Atwater, was expected to attend an Election Night party at the Ten Pin Fun Center in Turlock, Soria made her way to the Tioga-Sequoia Taproom in downtown Merced where she met up with a Times reporter.
“My team has been working really hard to make sure that the community and voters know what we’ve accomplished in our first term, and so I’m excited for the future of our Valley and what we can continue to do if the results stay consistent with what they are tonight,” she said. “Obviously we are not taking anything for granted. We’re going to see the votes continue to come in, and we’ll continue to monitor them, but the first results are really promising.
“I think that what we heard consistently was about the economy, and that people are hurting. It has been a consistent theme.
“I will continue to work on some of these same issues I’ve been working on. Healthcare is a big issue here in the valley. The medical school is very critical. We have the reopening of the hospital in Madera which is another issue that for me has been a No. 1 priority. I’m grateful that we were able to secure the $57 million that it needed to make sure that it will reopen, and that is slated for January.
“I am also a chairwomen for Ag, and we need to figure out more resources to make sure that Ag is sustainable here in our valley because it is a large part of our economy and people depend on it for jobs. Water is a big issue tied to agriculture and we will be working on those issues. Continuing to advocate and make sure that we are getting our fair share of resources. Our communities have been significantly under-invested and ignored for many many years and so getting resources to our small rural communities is extremely critical.”