Candidate for
Council Member; City of Fresno; Council District 1

Esmeralda Soria was born and raised in the Central Valley. She is the daughter of Mexican Immigrant farmworkers who sacrificed a lot and worked hard to ensure all of their five children obtained a great education.

Esmeralda is a law professor and policy advisor to Assemblymember Henry T. Perea. Through her work experience she has brought people together to find solutions to the many challenges that affect our communities in the Central Valley. She has effectively worked on water, public safety, public transportation, local government and education policy.

The drive and passion behind her track record of public service comes from her desire to ensure everyone gets to share in the opportunities and prosperity of Fresno. Esmeralda believes the City of Fresno deserves a fresh and strong voice with the right values to make sure the challenges in District 1 are addressed in an effective and constructive manner. We must work together to move the City of Fresno forward and make it a great place to raise our families.

Esmeralda's passion has always been to give back to the community that shaped who she is today. After law school, she became the Sustainable Rural Communities Project Director for California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation where she continued to work on issues impacting the Central Valley, including the City of Fresno. Esmeralda's advocacy work in front of city councils and county boards provided her a key understanding of how local government works. She learned how to build coalitions and work together with government to ensure working families were benefitting from their budgetary and policy decisions. She was instrumental in ensuring that our communities had equal access to Safe Routes to School Program (AB 561) and Unmet Needs Transportation funding. Esmeralda has fought hard so that the Valley gets its fair share of resources.

Her continued commitment to public service brought her to work as District Director to Senator Michael J. Rubio. As District Director, Esmeralda built partnerships with community leaders to address unemployment rates in the Central Valley, workforce development, and education among others. She also worked with community leaders to ensure that Fresno received its fair share of public safety dollars to keep criminals off our street and ensure our neighborhoods are safer. She brought local government agencies together to fight against the elimination of redevelopment funds, which the City of Fresno relied on. Esmeralda championed water quality issues and helped secure safe drinking water emergency funding for disadvantaged communities throughout the Central Valley.

Today, Esmeralda continues to serve our community by sitting on the boards of Hands On Central California, Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, Fresno Barrios Unidos and UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic Council. She is also involved with National Women's Political Caucus and provides pro bono immigration legal services. Esmeralda is committed to work hard to make District 1 in the City of Fresno a safer and stronger community for everyone.