Mother Lode native Schiavo declares victory in south state Assembly race
A Tuolumne County native who was born in a cabin in Strawberry and raised in Sonora declared victory Monday in her race for the California State Assembly in the Los Angeles area.
Pilar Schiavo, a Democrat, who has been running on a platform of securing guaranteed health care for all, was the only candidate endorsed by the California Democratic Party in the District 40 race.
Schiavo’s campaign stated Monday that she is the only Democratic legislative candidate in California to flip a seat from a Republican incumbent.
“I am so proud of the campaign we ran, and I am so honored to be entrusted by the voters of Assembly District 40 to represent them in Sacramento,” Schiavo said. “As a single mom, it was terrifying to quit my job to run for Assembly. But from day one, we focused on the issues that matter most to our community, which are also the very reason I ran for office — to fight for good jobs, guaranteed health care, housing we can afford, real solutions to homelessness, and an economy that works for everyone.”
Schiavo is currently in the lead over incumbent Suzette Valladares Martinez by 511 votes, coming back from a nearly 8,000-vote deficit on election night, according to election data, Politico, and her campaign.
Martinez’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment before the deadline for this report Monday.
Schiavo’s campaign said Martinez ran as a Trump Republican opponent, with “millions of dollars in special interest money focused on egregious and unacceptable campaign tactics, throwing every lie they could at Schiavo.”
The news release from Schiavo’s campaign on Monday stated that she was outspent more than two-to-one, with $2.7 million spent against her from a total of 13 special-interest-funded independent expenditures, likely the highest number of independent expenditures opposing any legislative candidate in the state.
Independent expenditures opposing Schiavo’s campaign included oil and gas, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, Amazon and Uber, the Building Industry Association, the California Dental and Medical associations, Realtors, charter schools, the NRA, and more, Schiavo’s campaign staff said Monday.
“It meant so much to get support from the people back home,” Schiavo said Monday in a phone interview. “And it really made a difference. So much was riding on this. You can imagine, I’m a single mom, I had to quit my job and have gone through my savings — so getting love and support from folks at home helped keep me going. It was great having my
parents here with me and my daughter from Halloween through election week. Mom was baking homemade cookies for my volunteers canvassing in the rain on Election Day.”
Schiavo said growing up in Tuolumne County helped prepare for a combative race, a tough competition to get elected.
“I am a Democrat, but grew up in Tuolumne County with a lot of Republicans,” Schiavo said. “I talked to over 1,000 voters, and there are a lot of issues we share in common, regardless of party. We all want to solve homelessness and make sure hard-working folks can afford housing. Having those conversations with people growing up, knowing good people with good hearts, helped me see through divisions to connect on the many important issues we agree on.”
It was clear to Schiavo that what her district
wanted was a Democratic, pro-choice assemblymember to fight for them, she said.
In an interview earlier
this year at Sonora High School, Schiavo said she’s spent her adult life advocating for workers and guaranteed health care.
She’s a small-business owner and nurse advocate who has spent her career working to uplift working families.
Schiavo, a graduate of Sonora High who attended kindergarten through eighth grade at Columbia Elementary, explained how her upbringing and the challenges her working parents faced in Tuolumne County and rural California helped to shape her outlook as an adult and as a candidate for elected office.
“My dad was a logger and my mom waited tables at the old Wagon Wheel,” next to Sonora Creek in downtown Sonora, Schiavo said in April. “My dad was in Vietnam with the Air Force, and he patched bullet holes on planes that sprayed Agent Orange. He got cancer twice. He’s officially disabled due to Agent Orange exposure, recognized by the Veterans Administration.”
In addition to her state Democratic Party endorsement, Schiavo was the only District 40 candidate endorsed by the California Nurses Association, California Teachers Association, and California Environmental Voters.