With state Sen. María Elena Durazo not seeking reelection, Los Angeles Community College District Trustee Sara Hernandez on Monday, March 10, became the first person formally to announce plans to run for the 26th State Senate District in 2026.

Elected to the L.A. Community College District board in 2022, Hernandez is also a housing and land use attorney who said that advocating for community colleges and affordable housing would be among her top priorities if elected to the Senate.

“As a (college district) trustee, we rely so much on our champions up in Sacramento to carry the mantle of what we’re trying to do on the ground. There’s a real need for people who understand the community college system to be up there” in the legislature, Hernandez said in an interview.

She similarly said that Sacramento needs people who understand housing issues “to move the needle” on the state’s affordable housing crisis.

Senate District 26 represents a part of L.A. that stretches from Eagle Rock and Highland Park in the north, toward Los Feliz and Koreatown in the west, and Boyle Heights, East L.A. and Vernon in the southeastern part of the district.

Durazo, the current officeholder, recently formed a committee to run for L.A. County Board of Supervisors and released a campaign video last week announcing her plans for 2026. She is seeking to replace current county Supervisor Hilda Solis, who will be termed out next year.

Durazo’s decision not to seek reelection to the state legislature could widen the field of candidates for her Senate seat.

Former Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, who lost her bid for a seat on the L.A. City Council last year, also plans to run for Durazo’s seat.

“An avalanche of community and state leaders have approached former Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo about the state Senate seat, and she will be announcing she’s in the race later this week,” Mike Trujillo, a political consultant for Carrillo, said early Monday evening.

Both Hernandez and Carrillo are Democrats.

Hernandez’s campaign, meanwhile, said that she had raised over $200,000.

Before becoming an attorney, Hernandez was a middle school English and social studies teacher for L.A. Unified. Around that time, she also started a nonprofit to help get low-income students to and through college.

“A lot of the barriers that my students had had to do with a lot of local issues like food desert, lack of affordable housing or green space. So that got me interested in local government,” said Hernandez, who then went to law school at Loyola Marymount University and later worked for then-L.A. City Councilmember José Huizar.

During her time in Huizar’s office, from 2012 to 2016, Hernandez worked on issues related to homelessness, housing, green space and major transportation projects, she said.

Besides access to higher education and housing, Hernandez said she wants to address California’s overall affordability crisis and advocate for reliable transit systems and “a safe community for families” if elected to the legislature.

According to her campaign website, Hernandez was named the 2015 “Democrat of the Year” for the 53rd Assembly District by then-Assemblymember Miguel Santiago. She is currently an elected delegate to the L.A. County Democratic Party’s Central Committee.

Hernandez has been a resident of 26th State Senate District for over 20 years. She said she recently moved from Boyle Heights to Highland Park, where she lives with her husband and their 5-year-old son.