
A special election to fill the vacant 36th California State Senate seat will have four candidates on the ballot.
The election, set for Tuesday, Feb. 25, is being held in the wake of Janet Nguyen resigning her post after winning election to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
Like some districts drawn after the 2020 Census, the 36th combines communities in Los Angeles and Orange County. It sprawls from Artesia to Garden Grove to Huntington Beach down the Pacific Coast all the way to San Clemente.
Most recently, in 2022, Nguyen, a Republican, defeated Democratic challenger Kim Carr (mayor of Huntington Beach) 56.9 percent to 43.1 percent, according to the Orange County Registrar of Voters.
Republicans have 36.48 percent of registered voters, with Democrats at 33.74 percent.
The lineup of candidates is:
• John Briscoe (Republican), former member of the Ocean View School District Board of Trustees;
• Julie Diep (Democrat), recently elected to the Anaheim Elementary School District school board in 2024;
• Jimmy Pham (Democrat), serves on the Westminster traffic commission;
• Tony Strickland (Republican), serves on the Huntington Beach City Council. He was a member of the State Assembly from 1998 to 2004 and the State Senate from 2008 to 2012.
This is a primary election. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two meet in the general election. The state Senate term is for four years and pays $128,215 annually.
Originally Published January 7, 2025
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