Fresno City Councilmember Annalisa Perea, who was backed by establishment Democrats, will face Republican Jim Polsgrove for the State Assembly District 31 seat in November.

With all 99 precincts partially reporting Wednesday morning after Tuesday’s primary, Perea had captured 43.7% of the vote compared to Polsgrove’s 38.4% in the heavily Democratic district.

Fresno County election officials have tabulated about 101,000 ballots from Tuesday’s election. That leaves roughly 70,000 ballots to count, a number that could increase as additional vote-by-mail ballots arrive.

Three Candidates Battle for Votes

The relative closeness of Perea’s lead reflects the presence of a second well-financed Democratic challenger, nonprofit executive Sandra Celedon, in the race.

Celedon had the backing of District 31 Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula and his political organization, as well as strong support from the California Working Families Party. She garnered 17.9% of the vote.

The seat opened up when Arambula announced his plans to run for the Fresno City Council rather than mount a legal effort against a strict interpretation of term limits governing the state Legislature.

PAC Focused Negative Ads on Celedon

While Polsgrove ran a bare-bones campaign, he appeared to benefit from a political action committee that relentlessly attacked Celedon, a progressive with more than 20 years of experience as a community organizer and public health advocate.

The attacks were the work of political action committee calling itself Fresno Healthy Communities, No on Celedon for State Assembly and Arambula for City Council 2026 and Yes on Polsgrove for Assembly 2026. Solomon Verduzco, a Republican who lost to Arambula in 2024, headed up the PAC.

That name is illustrative of the rough and tumble nature of politics, as it borrowed closely from the name of the nonprofit headed by Celedon. 

The group’s mailers and television ads publicized Celedon’s past calls to defund police.

The latest state registration by party data shows that District 31 is 45.42% Democratic, 22.79% Republican, and 22.76% no party preference.