Chino legislator will not seek re-election to state senate in 2022 – San Bernardino Sun

After seven years in Sacramento, State Senator Connie Leyva, D-Chino, will not run for re-election.

“We’ve done so many landmark legislation on Team Leyva that I feel like I’m going to get to the top of the game,” she said on Tuesday, January 4.

Leyva, a former labor leader, was elected to represent District 20 of the state Senate in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018. She won both times – receiving 62.4% of the vote on 2014 and 69.5% in 2018. But she was against California’s term limit in 2022, meaning a potential third term in Sacramento would be her last. And in March, Leyva announces she plans to run for state Director of Public Education in 2026, when current Director Tony Thurmond will be ineligible for re-election due to term limits.

And, perhaps most importantly, according to the state Senate’s new redistricting map, the current district of Leyva is split in two. The new Senate District 29 includes much of her current district but does not include the Chino campus, Leyva’s hometown, which is now part of the new Senate 22nd District, which includes Ontario, Pomona, West Covina and Azusa , all currently represented by Senator Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park.

But according to Leyva, the decision to leave the state Senate actually stemmed from spending more time at home, not in Sacramento, due to constant pandemic caused by corona virus.

“With COVID, I stayed at home more and spent more time with my family, and that made me realize how much I missed them. I always knew, when I ran for this job, it was going to be a job I didn’t like,” Leyva said Tuesday. “And seven years later, things are still not getting better.”

As for her plans to run for Director of Public Instruction, those plans are still in the works.

“I’m not shutting down that committee,” she said Tuesday. “I will need to find something to do for the next four years. I don’t know what it looks like, but I do know one thing: It’ll be close to home. “

Since New maps of the state and congressional district completed December 20, other San Bernardino County lawmakers have announced that they will seek re-election in their revised districts, including Representative Thurston “Smitty” Smith, R-Apple Valley, and the House of Representatives. Jay Obernolte, R-Big Bear.

On December 21, Smith announced that he would seek re-election in the newly created 34th Assembly, which includes the urbanized portions of his old 33rd District, along with the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale of Los Angeles County.

And on December 27, Obernolte announced he would seek re-election in the new 23rd Constituency, comprising 85% of his current voters, plus Loma Linda, Yucaipa, Calimesa and the southern half of the Redlands.