Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín is moving on to Sacramento.
The Associated Press on Friday called the race for the state Senate seat representing Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland and other communities along the East Bay shoreline.
Arreguín led AC Transit Director Jovanka Beckles 57.3% to 42.8% in the latest results in the race to succeed termed-out Sen. Nancy Skinner. The AP estimates 96% of votes from Senate District 7 have been counted.
“I’m very honored and grateful for the strong support from voters in Alameda and Contra Costa [counties],” Arreguín said in an interview. “I look forward to bringing all that I’ve learned and all that we’ve done in Berkeley to make a bigger impact for our region.”
Beckles, one of several Richmond Progressive Alliance-supported candidates and measures that appear to have lost their races, could not be reached for comment late Friday. She appears to be leaving her Senate-bid oriented Twitter channel behind and moving to Bluesky, posting Friday that she’s happy to be away from that “toxic, racist platform.”
According to her website, as a Richmond City Council member in 2010 her accomplishments included “collecting $100 million in new taxes from Chevron, instituting a $15 minimum wage and creating the first California rent control in thirty years.”
Arreguín submitted a resignation letter to the city clerk’s office last week, stating his last day as Berkeley mayor will be Nov. 30. He and other state legislators will be sworn in Dec. 2.
Win ends two-decade career in city politics
Arreguín’s ascent to the state Senate completes a two-decade rise through the ranks of Berkeley politics.
First elected to the Rent Stabilization Board in 2004, Arreguín would go on to represent downtown Berkeley for eight years as a council member, then became the city’s first Latino mayor when he was elected in 2016. His victory in that race, during which he championed an endorsement from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, capped a triumphant election for the progressive wing of Berkeley politics.
But over his two terms as mayor, Arreguín executed a political pivot, most noticeable in what he describes as an “evolution” in his thinking about how to address the housing crisis.
As a council member and in his first mayoral term, Arreguín pushed for development regulations that critics said would kill efforts to build housing downtown, fought a losing legal battle against “Yes In My Backyard” activists over a South Berkeley development and blasted a housing bill Skinner co-authored as “a declaration of war against our neighborhoods.”
Over time, though, Arreguín came to embrace the view that cities need to build substantially more homes, even if they aren’t dedicated as affordable, to ease the Bay Area’s spiraling affordability crisis.
In this year’s state Senate race, he touted endorsements from YIMBY groups and data showing a surge of housing construction in Berkeley during his administration, while criticizing Beckles’ position — which he once shared — that market-rate construction won’t improve affordability. California’s establishment Democrats, including Skinner and Gov. Gavin Newsom, backed Arreguín in the race, as did big businesses and unions in the construction trades, while progressive groups sided with Beckles. That support helped Arreguín out-fundraise Beckles by a more than 5-to-1 margin.
A raft of state legislation over the past decade that curbed California cities’ power to block or delay housing has meant Arreguín and other local elected officials have less say over what can be built in their communities. But Berkeley’s housing politics appeared to shift with Arreguín, as YIMBY-backed candidates won seats on the City Council and developments that would have caused an uproar in years past, such as high-rise apartments soaring more than 20 stories above downtown, are approved with little controversy.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done these last 20 years, and particularly these eight years that I’ve been mayor,” Arreguín said. “I think Berkeley has grown and changed in a way that is positive.”
What will a Trump era mean for Legislature?
During the campaign, Arreguín laid out a long list of legislative priorities for his time in Sacramento that included bringing back the state’s pandemic-era emergency rental assistance program and changing insurance regulations in an effort to help homeowners in fire-prone areas like the East Bay Hills find affordable coverage.
But it’s unclear how much Arreguín and other lawmakers will be able to focus on their personal priorities as California confronts budget deficits and Donald Trump’s return to the White House, which is already shaping the state’s legislative priorities.
Newsom has called the Legislature back to work on Dec. 2 for a special session to take up bills the governor says will “protect California values” ahead of Trump’s return to office.
“Now more than ever, California is going to have to lead this country, and stand for our democracy and our progressive values, and not just resist but show the kind of transformational leadership this country needs,” Arreguín said during an interview at his Election Night watch party, as the results of the presidential race were becoming clear. “I’m ready to step up and help lead that effort.”
