Esmeralda Z. Soria, a Democrat, represents the 27th Assembly District. Born in Visalia to immigrant parents from Michoacán, Mexico, she holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a law degree from UC Davis, and worked as a California Capitol policy aide and a project director for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation before entering elected office. She served on the Fresno City Council representing District 1 from 2015 to 2022, becoming the first woman to hold that seat and, in 2018, the first Latina to serve as Fresno City Council President. She ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Jim Costa in the 2020 congressional primary before winning her Assembly seat in 2022 and being re-elected in 2024.
While on the Fresno City Council, Soria was one of four members accused in 2022 by colleague Garry Bredefeld of misusing district operational budgets, in her case including several thousand dollars spent on restaurants, flowers, and a pumpkin giveaway; Soria and her colleagues said the spending followed the normal, lawful city budget process and had been reviewed by the city attorney’s office without a finding of misuse. She was later sued for defamation by Fresno Council President Mike Karbassi; a judge dismissed the suit after granting her motion to strike it as an improper attempt to suppress protected speech.
