Esmeralda Soria clings to ‘very thin’ lead over Mark Pazin in California Assembly race

After more ballots were counted in Fresno, Madera and Merced counties overnight, fewer than 300 votes separated Esmeralda Soria and Mark Pazin in their race for California’s newly drawn 27th Assembly District seat.

Soria, a Democrat, received 24,193 votes, or 50.3%. That’s only 287 more votes than Republican Pazin’s 23,906 or 49.7%.

Both candidates said they remained cautiously optimistic and they would help make sure every vote was counted.

“Just like everyone else, we’re going to wait and see,” Pazin said. “There’s not much else we can do.”

Pazin said despite the 13% party registration advantage Soria has as a Democrat, he and his team are hoping to close the gap as ballots are counted.

“We’re hoping that I’ll be on my way to Sacramento in the next few days,” Pazin said.

Despite the slim margin, Soria said she’s still excited by the support demonstrated by the number of people who showed up to her election night party.

“The vote count really is demonstrating how important our votes are,” she said. “It shows people that their vote can be the deciding vote. It may be a very thin margin, but at the end of the day, it demonstrates that every single vote does matter.”

District 27 covers western Fresno County, most of Madera County and all of Merced County. The largest number of voters are in Merced County. Each of those counties on Wednesday still had thousands of ballots to process.

Forty-three percent of voters in the 27th District are registered as Democrats, compared with the GOP’s 27% share. No-party preference is third with 22.5% of voters.

In the primary, Soria finished first with 40.1% of the votes, despite having another Democratic opponent. Pazin finished second, with 35%, and also faced a challenger from his party.

Soria, 40, is closing out her final term on the Fresno City Council. She was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to his state task force on homelessness. Soria raised nearly $2.9 million.

Pazin, 66, was the Merced County Sheriff until 2015 when then-California Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him head of the law enforcement branch of the Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento. He raised over $1.2 million for his campaign.