Two years after arriving in Sacramento, Inland Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto wants a promotion.
The Murrieta Republican, first elected in 2020, has announced he’ll run for a newly drawn, Inland-centric state Senate district this year.
The California Citizens Redistricting Commission reshaped Seyarto’s Assembly district — Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, Murrieta, Menifee and part of Hemet — as part of the process that created new state legislative and congressional districts for the next decade.
As a result, “the new district boundaries created for my existing Assembly seat have carved out many of the communities that I have enjoyed representing and serving,” Seyarto said in a Thursday, Dec. 30, news release. “Those communities, along with some exciting new communities, are all drawn together in the new 32nd Senate District.”
The Senate district Seyarto wants to represent includes Canyon Lake, Chino Hills, Lake Elsinore, Murrieta, Norco, Temecula, Wildomar and parts of Brea, Corona, Menifee, Riverside and Yorba Linda. Many of those cities are currently represented by Sen. Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, who can’t run again due to term limits.
Seyarto, who succeeded Melendez in the Assembly after she won a special Senate election, said he has Melendez’s endorsement and that of Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk.
A former Murrieta mayor, Seyarto spent 35 years as a firefighter before retiring as a battalion chief in 2015. Both Seyarto’s Assembly district and the Senate district he’s seeking are friendly ground for Republicans, with large concentrations of GOP voters in Canyon Lake, Menifee, Murrieta, Norco, Temecula and Yorba Linda.
With district lines firmly in place, there could be a slew of candidate announcements in the coming days and weeks as incumbents figure out which district they’ll run in and non-incumbents see opportunities in the new maps.
At least one Inland lawmaker is retiring rather than run in a reshaped district. Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, announced in December that he wouldn’t seek re-election in 2022, saying “(redistricting) reinforces my decision that this is a good time to step down.”
Legislative candidates will compete in the June 7 primary, with the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advancing to the November general election. Assembly members serve two-year terms while Senate terms are for four years.
