The Abridged version:
- Democratic state Sen. Angelique Ashby said she is considering whether to run for Congress or stay in the state Legislature.
- A local Planned Parenthood executive, Lauren Babb Tomlinson, announced on Monday that she is running for Congress.
- Former state Sen. Richard Pan is also running for the 6th Congressional District seat.
The race for California’s 6th Congressional District seat is heating up, with a new candidate entering the ring Monday and another prominent local leader, Democratic state Sen. Angelique Ashby, considering a run from the sidelines.
Under the newly drawn congressional maps approved with Proposition 50 and favoring Democrats, the 6th Congressional District includes portions of North Sacramento, West Sacramento, Citrus Heights, Roseville and Rocklin.
The redistricting effort has paved the way for one of the widest reshufflings of local representation in Congress the region has seen in years. The district was most recently represented by Democratic Rep. Ami Bera, who is now running in the 3rd Congressional District, representing suburbs east of Sacramento.
Ashby has gotten ‘a ton of encouragement’
Ashby is still weighing whether to run for Congress, she told PBS KVIE’s Studio Sacramento. The full Studio Sacramento episode will air at 7:30 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 21.
“I do not know,” Ashby replied, when asked by Studio Sacramento host Scott Syphax if she was considering running for Congress.
Ashby, a former Sacramento City Council member, lives in Natomas, which would fall within the 6th District boundaries.
“Yes, there’s a ton of encouragement out there for me to do it, but I don’t know the answer,” Ashby said.
Ashby added that if she stays in the Legislature, she hopes to be on the leadership team of Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón, the first Latina to lead the state Senate.
“Should I stay in the Senate and choose not to run for something else, either way, my cup runneth over,” Ashby said.
Planned Parenthood leader joins the race
Two other local leaders have already announced runs for the 6th District seat.
Lauren Babb Tomlinson, chief public affairs officer at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, announced Monday that she is running. Tomlinson has worked in public affairs with the Planned Parenthood division since 2021. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte oversees clinics across Central California and Nevada.
Tomlinson’s campaign is centered on fighting against Trump administration policies around reproductive health care and lower costs for food and education.
“Throughout my career, I’ve taken on the tough fights to protect reproductive healthcare access in California, expand access to affordable healthcare, and ensure that people are treated fairly in the workplace,” her campaign website states.
Thien Ho, Sacramento County’s District Attorney, entered the race as well on Tuesday.
In a campaign launch video, Ho decried the Trump administration’s recent deployments of the National Guard to large cities. The video shows images of National Guard deployments and immigration enforcement raids side-by-side with historic videos from Vietnam War. Ho’s family escaped the country during the fall of Saigon, according to his campaign website.
“While Congress does nothing to address families struggling with rising costs and threats to their rights, I’m running to restore the rule of law, stand up to extremism, and deliver real results for our community,” Ho said, in a press release.
Former state Sen. Richard Pan is also campaigning for the 6th District Seat. Pan previously represented the Sacramento region in the Legislature before term limits ended his tenure in 2022.
Pan’s campaign centers on his background as a pediatrician and his ambitions to fight federal policies that have loosened vaccine requirements. He originally announced his intention to run for the 3rd District seat but shifted his campaign toward the 6th District seat following the passage of Proposition 50.
Update: This article was updated at 10:26 a.m. on Nov. 18 to note that Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho entered the race for the District 6 seat.
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She’s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, health care and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.