Sara Hernandez
Candidate for State Senate District 26
Sara Hernandez is a Democratic candidate. She is running for California State Senate District 26. This is an open seat. It covers central and eastside Los Angeles neighborhoods. These include Boyle Heights, Echo Park, and Koreatown. The seat is being vacated by incumbent Maria Elena Durazo. Hernandez holds a bachelor's degree in public policy. That degree is from Duke University. She holds a master's in education. That degree is from Loyola Marymount University. She holds a law degree from Loyola Law School. She began her career as a middle school teacher. She taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District. There she founded a nonprofit. It is called HYPE, for Helping Young People Excel. It supports low-income students. She later worked on policy at Los Angeles City Hall. That work covered housing, homelessness, transportation, and infrastructure. She also taught Constitutional Law at Valley College. She has practiced as a housing and environmental attorney. This has included pro bono work for asylum seekers. She now serves as a trustee. That is on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees. She holds Seat 4. She was elected to that seat in 2022. She is described as the first Latina to serve on that board in over ten years. She has lived in the Senate district for more than 20 years. Her family's history in the area goes back further still. It reaches her great-grandfather's immigration from Mexico, in the 1920s. She placed first in the June 2, 2026 primary, with 31.2% of the vote (54,799 votes). She advanced to a general-election runoff. Her opponent is fellow Democrat Sarah Rascon. Home: Los Angeles, California. Occupation: Housing and environmental attorney. She also serves on the Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees, in Seat 4. Prior office: She currently serves as an LA Community College District Trustee. That is Seat 4, and she was elected in 2022. She has not previously held state legislative office. She is running for an open State Senate seat. There is no incumbent, since Sen. Maria Elena Durazo is not seeking re-election.
On the issues
- Economy & Jobs
Supports expanding California's film and TV production tax credits and creating a dedicated fund to keep entertainment-industry production and jobs in the state.
Source → - Housing & Homelessness
Supports building more multifamily housing near transit with streamlined permitting, pairing that with tenant protections (just-cause eviction, anti-rent-gouging), and addressing homelessness through proactive housing, addiction treatment, and mental health care, including Care Court referrals, with stricter oversight of public homelessness funding.
Source → - Health & Health Care
Supports expanding access to mental health and addiction treatment, framed primarily as part of her homelessness response (including Care Court referrals for people with mental illness).
Source → - Reproductive & Social Issues
Supports protecting reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy, including access to abortion care, birth control, and gender-affirming health care, and supports protections for transgender and nonbinary Californians.
Source → - Education & Schools
Supports debt-free access to higher education and expanding community college pathways into bachelor's degree programs in fields like nursing, cybersecurity, biomedical manufacturing, and cloud computing for lower-income students.
Source → - Family & Social Services
Supports establishing universal, free, high-quality childcare for children ages 6 weeks to 5 years as a public good, and raising childcare worker pay to parity with public school teachers.
Source → - Environment, Energy & Climate
Supports zero-emission freight infrastructure in dense residential areas and expanding park/green space access so more residents live within a short walk of a park.
Source →
Profiles are compiled from the candidate’s own statements and public records. We never tell you how to vote.