Sara Hernandez

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Sara Hernandez

Nonpartisan

Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees Seat No. 4

Tenure

2022 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

2

Predecessor

Ernest Moreno

Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 8, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

Duke University, 2005

Graduate

Loyola Marymount University, 2007

Law

Loyola Law School, 2011

Contact

Campaign website

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Personal website

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Sara Hernandez is a member of the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees in California, representing Seat No. 4. She assumed office on December 9, 2022. Her current term ends on December 11, 2026.

Hernandez ran for election to the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees to represent Seat No. 4 in California. She won in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Hernandez completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Hernandez was a special election candidate who sought election to the U.S. House to represent the 34th Congressional District of California.

Biography

Sara Hernandez earned a bachelor's degree from Duke University in 2005, a graduate degree from Loyola Marymount University in 2007, and a law degree from Loyola Law School in 2011.

Elections

2022

See also: Municipal elections in Los Angeles County, California (2022)

General election

General election for Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees Seat No. 4

Sara Hernandez defeated incumbent Ernest Moreno and Christine Lamonica in the general election for Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees Seat No. 4 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Sara Hernandez (Nonpartisan)	54.1	524,690
	Submit photo	Ernest Moreno (Nonpartisan)	27.7	268,333
		Christine Lamonica (Nonpartisan)	18.2	176,595

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 969,618
= 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.
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2017

See also: California's 34th Congressional District special election, 2017

U.S. House, California District 34, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Jimmy Gomez	59.2%	25,569
	Democratic	Robert Lee Ahn	40.8%	17,610
Total Votes				43,179
Source: California Secretary of State

The election replaced Xavier Becerra (D), who was appointed as California's attorney general. Democrats Jimmy Gomez and Robert Lee Ahn were the top two vote-getters in a primary field of 23 candidates and advanced to the general election. Gomez and Ahn competed in the runoff election on June 6, 2017, when Gomez defeated Ahn by more than 20 percent, 60.1 percent to 30.9 percent. The previous two elections in the district have also featured a general election contest between two Democrats.

Ahn and Gomez participated in a candidate forum on May 25, 2017, where they discussed the Trump administration, infrastructure, job creation, healthcare, and local issues. During the forum, Ahn emphasized his legal and business background and knowledge of Korean relations, while Gomez highlighted his legislative experience in the California State Assembly and endorsements from progressive organizations like the Bernie Sanders-backed Our Revolution. For an overview of the forum and the candidates' responses, click here.

In the fundraising race, Ahn outpaced Gomez, raising $353,000 between April 1 and May 17. His campaign capital was boosted by an additional $195,000 personal loan. In the same time period, Gomez raised $327,000.

U.S. House, California District 34 Primary, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Jimmy Gomez	25.4%	10,728
	Democratic	Robert Lee Ahn	22.3%	9,415
	Democratic	Maria Cabildo	10.1%	4,259
	Democratic	Sara Hernandez	5.6%	2,358
	Democratic	Arturo Carmona	5.2%	2,205
	Democratic	Wendy Carrillo	5.2%	2,195
	Green	Kenneth Mejia	4.6%	1,964
	Republican	William Morrison	3.2%	1,360
	Democratic	Yolie Flores	3.2%	1,368
	Democratic	Alejandra Campoverdi	2.4%	1,001
	Democratic	Tracy Van Houten	2.5%	1,042
	Democratic	Vanessa Aramayo	2%	853
	Democratic	Sandra Mendoza	1.6%	674
	Democratic	Steven Mac	1.6%	663
	Democratic	Raymond Meza	1.2%	509
	Independent	Mark Edward Padilla	1%	427
	Libertarian	Angela McArdle	0.8%	319
	Democratic	Ricardo De La Fuente	0.8%	331
	Democratic	Adrienne Nicole Edwards	0.4%	182
	Democratic	Richard Joseph Sullivan	0.4%	155
	Democratic	Armando Sotomayor	0.3%	118
	Democratic	Tenaya Wallace	0.2%	103
	Democratic	Melissa "Sharkie" Garza	0.2%	79
Total Votes				42,308
Source: California Secretary of State

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Sara Hernandez completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hernandez'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.

I am a community college instructor, former LAUSD teacher, non-profit leader, attorney and mother.

I started my career as a public school teacher. As a teacher, I founded a non-profit that identifies low-income students and provides them with exceptional educational opportunity and resources throughout their high school years to get them “to and through college”.

After teaching, I earned a law degree and worked at Los Angeles City Hall, where I worked on issues of housing, homelessness, transportation, infrastructure and green space.

Currently I am a land use and environmental attorney, as well as a community college instructor teaching Constitutional Law at Valley College. As an attorney I works on some of the most pressing environmental, land use and housing issues in the region. I also do extensive pro-bono work representing indigent immigrants in asylum proceedings due to the devastating violence in the Northern Triangle and government oppression in Nicaragua.

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?

• 1 in 5 LACCD students are homeless and over half are housing insecure. Homelessness is the most urgent crisis this City is facing and we must address it at the Community College level as well.
• High-quality free college options are essential to an equitable society. The LA College Promise, which offers two free years of community college is a good start but we also need to provide more wraparound services to ensure students succeed
• We need to meet students where they are by utilizing both cutting edge technology as well as personal step-by-step guidance to up the District's enrollment, completion and transfer numbers.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

As a community college instructor, former middle school teacher, non-profit founder, attorney, active community member, and mother, I am passionate about contributing to the larger conversation on education. However, there are two specific issues within my overall platform that I care deeply about and are personal to me that have inspired me to run for the LA Community College Board:

1. 1 in 8 LACCD students are homeless and over half are housing insecure. Homelessness is the most urgent crisis this City is facing and we must address it from every angle. It’s an issue I care deeply about and an area in which I have experience both as an educator and policy maker. I am running to tackle this issue at the community college level.

2. I believe that high-quality free college options are essential to an equitable society. The Los Angeles College Promise, which offers two free years of community college is a good start but as an educator I know we need to do more, and provide more wrap around services, to ensure that students succeed.

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.

2017

The following issues were listed on Hernandez's campaign website. For a full list of campaign themes, click here.

“	Income Inequality: Los Angeles is a city of tremendous wealth and tremendous poverty. Wealth has been concentrated in the hands of the few, while many hard-working members of our community struggle to pay for basic necessities for their families. I believe that no one who works 40 hours a week should be forgoing food to pay their rent or making the impossible choices that those living in poverty face. That’s why I’ve worked my entire career to level the economic playing field and redistribute opportunities and resources from the privileged to the most vulnerable. Health Care: ​Health care is a basic human right. I believe the best way to ensure this right for all Americans is to create a single-payer universal health care system. The Affordable Care Act was a critical step towards the goal of universal health care and I am determined to move forward, not backward, in ensuring that every American has affordable, quality, health care coverage. I support the reintroduction of The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, H.R. 676. I will fight to preserve health care for the 20 million Americans who gained coverage under the ACA and Medicaid expansion. I will fight to preserve comprehensive coverage that covers mental health services and addiction treatment for our most vulnerable populations and prenatal and maternity care for women. I will fight to protect Planned Parenthood and to abolish the Hyde Amendment. Protecting Social Security and Medicare: ​Social Security and Medicare are part of a fundamental social contract committing that every American should be able to live with dignity as he or she grows into old age. We need to strengthen, not privatize or diminish Social Security and Medicare. I support eliminating the cap on taxable earnings for the Social Security payroll tax. Eliminating this cap would reduce the long-term Social Security shortfall by 71% and expand the social safety net for America’s senior citizens. Education: Education can and should be a pathway out of poverty and the realization of every child’s unique potential. Yet for too many children, this goal is far from their reality. Every child deserves an excellent education at their neighborhood public school. In order to achieve this, I will defend public education from attacks from the Trump administration and for-profit forces. As a former LAUSD middle school teacher, I am adamantly against vouchers and for-profit charter schools that take money out of our public school system and turn education into a for-profit business. I will fight to protect Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that provides resources and opportunities to those who need it the most: low-income students and students with special needs. Public Transportation: I believe that public transportation is a civil right. Access to efficient and safe public transportation provides mobility to those that need it the most and is a path to economic opportunity and upward social mobility. A robust public transportation system allows for the free movement of all people from different backgrounds. It promotes the exchange of ideas, culture, commerce, exploration and learning. Working in City Hall, I helped usher in major public transportation projects such as Metro’s Regional Connector. I worked to expand our bicycle infrastructure around the 34th district and to create more walkable, pedestrian-oriented, public transit-oriented streets.	”
—Sara Hernandez's campaign website

Campaign finance summary

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See also

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Candidate

Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees Seat No. 4

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Footnotes

[[Category:Current community college, {{{Los Angeles Community College}}}]]