Sandra Celedon, Candidate for California Assembly District 31

Sandra Celedon is the President and CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities and a lifelong resident of California Assembly District 31. The daughter of Mexican immigrants who began their lives in the U.S. as farm workers, she grew up in Calwa, graduated from Roosevelt High, and earned her public health degree at Fresno State. Over more than two decades in public health and community organizing, she has led the coalition behind Measure P, helped secure $70 million to build the first community college campus in West Fresno, served on the city's Commission on Police Reform, and worked on clinic construction, clean air, and transportation policy across the Central Valley.

In June 2026, Sandra is on the ballot for California State Assembly District 31.

In this episode, Jordan talks with Sandra about what moved her to run after more than twenty years outside electoral politics and how she thinks about coalition-building as a state-level skillset. From there, the conversation moves into policy: Fresno's 2014 General Plan and why she says the problem is enforcement, not the plan itself; the Valley Air District's gap between education and real accountability; the Better Roads Safe Streets Initiative that recently filed 32,000 signatures to succeed Measure C; her time on the Commission on Police Reform and the forty-one recommendations that were never implemented; and healthcare, where she makes a specific case for auditing the $5 billion that California's nonprofit hospitals self-report as "community benefit" every year.

Learn more about Sandra's campaign at sandraceledon.com. California primary: June 2, 2026.

Book Recommendations:

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning by Vanessa Priya Daniel