3 Democrats vie for open Assembly District 50 seat

Robert Garcia, Dejonaé Shaw and Adam Perez seek to replace Eloise Gómez Reyes, now running for state Senate

There’s an open Assembly seat in the heart of San Bernardino County.

District boundaries were redrawn in late 2021. A year later, just after winning reelection, Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-san Bernardino, announced she would not seek a fifth and final term in the Assembly but instead would run for state Senate District 29 in the 2024 election.

And into that vacuum have stepped three Democrats, each seeking a chance to move from local politics to Sacramento.

Assembly District 50 includes the cities of Colton and Loma Linda, along with parts of Fontana, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Rialto and San Bernardino.

Candidates are listed in this article in the order in which they will appear on the March 5 ballot, as determined by the San Bernardino County registrar of voters. We asked all candidates the same questions. Below are their responses.

If elected, what would you do to respond to the housing crisis in the district?

“If the state and municipalities incentivize the development of housing, it should be to allow multilevel entry into housing. It is also possible to provide additional grant funding to nonprofit housing developers.

“We need to revisit zoning of neighborhoods and diversify the kinds of housing in all of our communities to make it affordable for all.”

What would you do, if elected, to improve the district's employment and job prospects?

“For the most part, our region continues to be a bedroom community where jobs require a commute. Our job prospects depend on educating our workforce and attracting quality employers who will provide livable wages.

Focusing on investment for public education, including