Milpitas’ Vice Mayor Karina Dominguez has officially dropped out of the race for State Assembly.
On Facebook, in the early morning hours of Saturday, September 21, she released a statement to the public, writing: “While an Assembly seat provides the opportunity to create great change for our families, after deep reflection and very thoughtful consideration, I have decided to withdraw and end my candidacy for Assembly District 25 ahead of the March 2020 Primary.”
Dominguez, who jumped into the race this past June, announced her bid for the Assembly District 25 seat just weeks after Assemblymember Kansen Chu said he’d be vacating the post to run for District 3’s Santa Clara County Board of Supervisor seat.
Last November, after running a well-executed and impassioned first campaign for elected office, Dominguez beat out a slew of candidates for Milpitas City Council. She was appointed Vice Mayor minutes after being sworn in to her post. Since then, she has been engaged and activated in the community.
“As many of you have heard before, I speak about our community as a village, and the importance of taking care of one another,” wrote Dominguez in her statement. “My village is formed by family, friends, colleagues, and my service to the people of Milpitas. Right now my village is in need of my support, and I must take priority in my village so that I may help them thrive, and so that I am strong enough to be their champion.”
 As she continues to serve on Milpitas’ City Council, Vice Mayor Dominguez looks forward to focusing on a number of projects that she believes will deeply benefit the community. Among the things she’s most passionate about diving into in the coming months: working on transforming Main Street by implementing creative placemaking and programming, upgrading playgrounds in Milpitas’ public parks, and even organizing a community shuttle program.
When asked what she’s proudest of having accomplished during her time as Vice Mayor, Dominguez mentioned that the updating of sexual harassment policies at City Hall was something that was very important to her…Â
“The policies had not been updated since the 1950s, and we have spent millions of dollars in litigation and settling in court cases,” shared Dominguez. “That is wasted tax dollars that could have been dedicated to programs and city services. These policies remind staff and City Council that harassment and bullying have no place in city hall and nobody has to tolerate it.”
She also spoke of her work in helping to initiate a traffic study for the city.
“We have never had a comprehensive traffic study, and I am so happy we will finally be able to have this, because it will help us bring relief to the traffic issues in our community,” mentioned Dominguez.
In July, Mayor Rich Tran, who had also been running for the State Assembly seat, announced that he would be dropping out of the race. He instead decided that he would run for a third Mayoral term.
That leaves Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Anna Song, Santa Clara Unified School District Trustee Jim Canova, Political Advisor Alex Lee, former Ohlone College Trustee Bob Brunton, and newcomer Natasha Gupta in the State Assembly race.
“As Vice Mayor of the great City of Milpitas, we will move Milpitas forward by building and strengthening our momentum,” Dominguez wrote, drawing her announcement to a close. “Our fight is not over.”
In the end, she wrapped up with some words of wisdom from Maya Angelou:
“A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself.”