Anna Caballero, a Democrat often described as a political moderate, represents the 14th State Senate District, covering Merced, Madera, and part of Fresno counties. Born to a copper-mining family in Arizona, she holds a bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego and a law degree from UCLA, and worked as a legal aid attorney for farmworkers in Salinas before founding a youth violence-prevention nonprofit. She served on the Salinas City Council and became the city’s first female mayor in 1998, was appointed Secretary of California’s Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency under Governor Jerry Brown, and served two stints in the State Assembly before winning her current Senate seat in 2018, flipping a previously Republican-leaning district by about eight points.
Caballero’s moderate voting record has drawn criticism from progressive advocacy groups: she has received low marks from organizations tracking votes on health-insurance rate review, expedited public access to police misconduct records, and various environmental and gun-safety bills, and has been included on at least one progressive “hall of shame” list. She is a 2026 candidate for State Treasurer, running against fellow Democrat and current Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis.
