Jennifer Esteen

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Jennifer Esteen

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

March 5, 2024

Education

Bachelor's

Samuel Merritt University, 2009

Personal

Birthplace

New Orleans, La.

Religion

Jewish

Profession

Registered nurse

Contact

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

Jennifer Esteen ran for election to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to represent District 4 in California. She lost in the primary on March 5, 2024.

Biography

Jennifer Esteen was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Esteen earned a bachelor's degree from Loyola University in 2001 and a bachelor's degree from Samuel Merritt University in 2009. Her career experience includes working as a registered nurse with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Esteen has served as vice president of organizing with SEIU 1021.

Elections

2024

See also: Municipal elections in Alameda County, California (2024)

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 4

Incumbent Nate Miley won election outright against Jennifer Esteen in the primary for Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 4 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Nate Miley (Nonpartisan)	60.7	34,607
		Jennifer Esteen (Nonpartisan)	39.3	22,400

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 57,007
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Esteen in this election.

2022

See also: California State Assembly elections, 2022

General election

General election for California State Assembly District 20

Liz Ortega defeated Shawn Kumagai in the general election for California State Assembly District 20 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Liz Ortega (D)	62.2	68,853
		Shawn Kumagai (D)	37.8	41,917

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 110,770
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for California State Assembly District 20

Liz Ortega and Shawn Kumagai defeated Jennifer Esteen and Joseph Grcar in the primary for California State Assembly District 20 on June 7, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Liz Ortega (D)	32.2	23,503
✔		Shawn Kumagai (D)	23.9	17,481
		Jennifer Esteen (D)	22.2	16,211
		Joseph Grcar (R)	21.7	15,869

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 73,064
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view Esteen's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jennifer Esteen did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Video for Ballotpedia

Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released April 29, 2022

Jennifer Esteen completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Esteen's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

As a nurse, mother, and community leader, Jennifer knows firsthand the struggles that our communities face. Raised by a teacher and a nurse that worked two jobs to make ends meet, Jennifer learned the value of hard work at a young age. In 2007 during the collapse of the housing market, Jennifer found herself facing foreclosure as an unemployed realtor and single mother. She filed for bankruptcy, fought past her darkest days, and put herself through nursing school, becoming a nurse in the San Francisco General Hospital Psychiatric Emergency Room.

It was there that she saw firsthand the vicious cycle that patients experience from diminished funding for mental health care — patients who need psychiatric treatment and permanent housing are often incarcerated rather than provided with access to community-based care. After 5 years, Jennifer transferred to the hospital’s Behavioral Health Center where she fought alongside residents to prevent the closing of mental health beds in their Adult Residential Facility. Soon after, she was elected Vice President of Organizing for SEIU 1021, allowing her to broaden her reach and her impact.

Jennifer has lived in the East Bay for nearly 20 years and has lived in Ashland with her wife and children since 2015.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• As a psychiatric ER nurse, I’ve seen firsthand the unending cycle between the street, psych ward and jail. I’ve worked to help folks get off the street through legislation that saved permanent supportive housing from being shut down. As a mom, nurse and union leader, I made change happen. When elected, I’ll expand funding for mental health services, make sure schools support every child, create deeply affordable housing for all, ensure we can see a doctor and get meds without having a bill — and fight for a billionaire’s tax to pay for it. Change is in your hands. Elect a fearless psychiatric nurse to the State Assembly and I’ll take on our state’s greatest challenges.
• We are facing so many crises - housing, homelessness, healthcare, economic stability, climate change, education and more. The pandemic didn’t cause all of these issues - but it shined a bright light on the challenges our community has been facing for decades. Today we must have a champion and a leader who will always put our needs and priorities first, not someone who makes corporations and special interests the priority; our community can’t wait any longer.
• Given my broad range of experience, I bring a unique understanding about how the policies made in Sacramento are implemented and actually impact our communities. I will fight to ensure that wealthy special interests pay their fair share and redistribute those funds into housing, healthcare, and education so all Californians can have what we need to thrive. I’m willing to stand up to these special interest groups and lead the fight for big, bold progressive policies that will actually keep our communities safe and healthy. We live in the richest region of the richest state of the richest country in one of the richest moments of our history. Our community deserves better!

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

My background in nursing has given me a deep-seated passion for improving the quality, accessibility, and cost of health care, in particular mental health care. I’ve seen firsthand as a nurse how the lack of accessibility of community-based mental health care is directly tied to the issue of homelessness. I've also seen how it’s also critical to deal with the crisis of housing affordability, which squeezes way more families than just those that end up unhoused. As a mother I’m passionate about supporting teachers and getting schools what they need to succeed. As a woman I’m passionate about defending reproductive rights in this era where Roe is under attack. Lastly I’m passionate about seeing California push forward with strong environmental and climate policy to safeguard our future.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

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