By Joe W. Bowers Jr, California Black Media  

 As the Nov. 5, 2024 General Election approaches, a number of Black candidates from Northern California are running for positions in the United States Congress, the State Senate, and the State Assembly. If elected, they would collectively represent a larger proportion of elected officials at the state level than California’s Black population of about 6.5%.

Of the state’s 52 U.S. House of Representatives seats, three are currently held by Black representatives. In the State Senate, which comprises 40 seats and elects half of its members every two years, there are currently two Black Senators. In the Assembly, which has 80 seats up for election every two years, 10 Black Assembly members currently serve.

In this election, five Black candidates are running for Congress, four for State Senate, and 13 for Assembly.

Below are the Black candidates (in bold letters) running for Congress and the State Legislature in the Bay Area and other parts of Northern California.

Congressional Races 

In Congressional District 9 (Stockton), Kevin Lincoln (R), Mayor of Stockton, is challenging incumbent Josh Harder (D). Lincoln, a former Marine, is running on a platform focused on economic development, public safety, and government accountability. Harder, meanwhile, has focused on issues like healthcare access and immigration reform.

In Congressional District 12 (Oakland), Lateefah Simon (D), a nonprofit foundation president and civil rights advocate, is running to succeed Rep. Barbara Lee. Simon’s platform emphasizes civil rights, affordable housing, and economic reform. Her opponent, Jennifer Tran (D), a professor and chamber president, is focused on economic development, public safety and leveraging technology for government transparency​.

California State Senate Races 

In State Senate District 7 (Oakland and Berkeley), Jovanka Beckles (D), an Alameda-Contra Costa (AC) Transit Director, is running on a platform centered on environmental justice, affordable housing, and public transportation reform. Her opponent, Jesse Arreguín (D), the Mayor of Berkeley, is focused on housing and economic development​.

California State Assembly Races

  In Assembly District 7 (Citrus Heights), Porsche Middleton (D), a city councilmember, is challenging incumbent Josh Hoover (R) on housing reform and local governance​.

In Assembly District 11 (Suisun City), incumbent Lori Wilson (D) is focused on healthcare access, economic development, and education. She is facing Dave Ennis (R), a civil engineer who emphasizes infrastructure improvement and reduced government regulation​.

In Assembly District 13 (Stockton), business owner Rhodesia Ransom (D) is campaigning on small business growth, educational reform, and economic justice. She faces Denise Aguilar Mendez (R), a non-profit director focused on conservative family values and reducing the size of government​. Aguilar Mendez has faced controversy including a guilty plea for welfare fraud.

In Assembly District 18 (Oakland), incumbent Mia Bonta (D) is running on housing reform and education. Her opponent, Andre Sandford, American Independent Party (AIP), advocates for fiscal responsibility and housing cost management​.

These Black candidates are running to address key issues such as housing, healthcare, public safety, reparations, and economic reform. The diversity of their platforms reflects California’s broad political spectrum, with some focusing on progressive reforms, while others advocate for a shift to more conservative policies.

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By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media 

With the general elections just a few days away, Black organizations and leaders, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA-43), are sounding the alarm about Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s controversial “policy bible.”

The four-pillar initiative includes a detailed blueprint for the next conservative presidential administration – making way for a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch.

Waters has been outspoken in her opposition of the 900-page policy.

Recently, she shared “The People’s Guide to Project 2025” with the Inglewood Area Ministers Association, an organization of predominantly Black pastors, to inform them about the proposal’s impact, emphasizing that its influence would reach beyond the traditional spheres of presidential power. The 15-term politician from Los Angeles shared her sentiments with the House Financial Services Committee in July.

“Project 2025 promotes radical ideals to materially undermine the Federal Reserve, if not effectively abolish it,” Waters said.

Written by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 was developed with the input of a broad coalition of conservative organizations and is organized around four pillars: Policy, Personnel, Training, and the 180-Day Playbook. The proposals in the document aim to revamp every aspect of the U.S. government.

Waters is not the only person sounding the alarm about Project 2025’s agenda. Grassroot organizations in California and across the nation are preparing to combat the initiative despite who wins the election between Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants (NAASD), members of advocacy groups in California, and other Black political organizations across the nation are drawing up policy documents to counter the conservative Project 2025 initiative.

On Aug. 2, NAASD hosted a nationwide ZOOM conference call to discuss policies that concern Black communities.  Nocola Hemphill, the president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Black Women’s Chamber, and grassroots organizations on the call are promoting what they call, #Reparations2025.

“I just want us to think about bringing all policies (ideas) together when we think about Project 2025,” said Hemphill, who lives in South Carolina. “I am excited about the possibility of us forming our own version of Project 2025 and having it published by the November election.”

NAASD is a nonprofit association of community activists from across the country that formed around May 2019.

Los Angeles resident Khansa “Friday” Jones Muhammad is the president of NAASD.

“The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants (NAASD) envisions a nation where African American descendants of US slavery can fully exercise their constitutional citizenship rights and have economic agency for generations,” Muhammad told California Black Media (CBM).

While forming an agenda for #Reparation2025, NAASD has created a survey to determine how systemic racism and discrimination in the United States have affected Black American lives and single out options to repair harms through public policy. Participants in the survey would help the organization shape a national blueprint.

“During this election cycle, it is imperative that national Black organizations come together for collective success,” Muhammad shared with CBM. “While the vote for President of the United States is important, we need to also focus on other active projects such as ‘Project 2025,’ Supreme Court rulings around race and more.”

Muhammad added, “NAASD’s Black experience survey allows for individuals, Black organizations, and their allies to forge a pathway to reparations by utilizing community-building and policy.”

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By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

On Oct. 23, President Joe Biden nominated two judges to vacant federal judgeships in Southern California: Judge Serena Murillo and Judge Benjamin Cheeks.

Both appointments are subject to U.S. Senate confirmation next month.

If confirmed, Cheeks, who is African American and a criminal defense attorney, will replace U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel. Before his appointment, Cheeks was in private practice at the Law Offices of Benjamin J. Cheeks, A.P.C. in San Diego from 2013 to 2024. From 2010 to 2013, Cheeks served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.

The same day of the White House announcement, California’s U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, both Democrats, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, congratulated Murillo and Cheeks and commended Biden on his decision.

“I applaud President Biden for his continued commitment to nominating highly qualified, diverse judges to serve California,” said Padilla in a statement.

“Judge Cheeks has earned immense respect from his colleagues in the Southern District and has fought to protect vulnerable immigrants against fraud,” Padilla added.

Butler said, “Californians deserve a federal bench that reflects the diversity of the Golden State.

“I applaud the President’s nomination of Judge Serena Murillo and Judge Ben Cheeks to the United States District Courts for the Central District and Southern District of California, respectively. These two incredibly qualified candidates bring a breadth of both judicial and lived experienced to the federal bench, and I look forward to supporting their paths to confirmation,” she continued.

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Murillo, who has been a judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court since 2015. She also served by appointment of the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court as an Associate Justice pro tem on the California Court of Appeal from 2018 to 2019. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Murillo served as a Deputy District Attorney in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office from 1997 to 2014. She received her J.D. from Loyola Law School in 1996 and her B.A. from the University of California, San Diego in 1993.

Cheeks earned his J.D. from the American University, Washington College of Law in 2003 and his B.A. from the University of Miami in Florida in 2000.

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