Mia Bonta has won her bid to take over her husband’s vacant state Assembly seat, based on semi-official results of a special runoff election for the East Bay district.
The District 18 seat in the Assembly opened up when Rob Bonta resigned after Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him earlier this year to be California’s new attorney general.
Mia Bonta, currently president of the Alameda Unified School District Board of Education, and Janani Ramachandran, an attorney who has served on the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, made it to the runoff election that had polls close Tuesday night.
“I am honored and grateful that you have put your trust in me to represent our community in Sacramento,” Mia Bonta said in a series of Twitter posts. “@RobBonta and I chose to build our life here in the East Bay because we knew this community was special.”
“Together, we will build more affordable housing so folks can afford to live here. We will invest in our public schools so our students and teachers can reach their full potential. We will invest in clean energy and environmental justice initiatives to protect our health and ensure our future. We will reform our criminal justice system so that folks are not treated differently based on the color of their skin or the dollar amount in their bank account.”
According to results updated Friday and posted by the Alameda County registrar’s office, Bonta had 43,460 votes compared to 33,012 for Ramachandran, a 56.8 percent-43.2 percent split.
The final tally in the vote-by-mail election will be certified Sept. 10.
