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On Monday, Democrats elected Sen. Monique Limón as the next leader of the California Senate, the first woman of color to hold the position.

A progressive whose major donors are California unions, Limón, from Santa Barbara, is known for pursuing pay transparency legislation, consumer protections such as shielding medical debt from credit reports and efforts to regulate the oil industry. She authored a 2022 law that requires setbacks around new oil and gas wells and steps to protect residents at old wells, and pushed for an unsuccessful 2021 bill to ban oil fracking. Gov. Gavin Newsom later ordered the ban.

Limón, 45, noted that she’s a daughter of immigrants and pointed to her election at a time when California is wrestling with an escalating showdown with the Trump administration over protests against deportations in Los Angeles.

“On the day where we are witnessing our California values being under attack, we are electing the first woman of color ever in history to serve in this role,” she said. “This is significant, it matters and we will move forward together.”

The Democratic lawmakers voted privately to elect her after weeks of murmurs about a challenge to Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire’s leadership that culminated over the weekend within Limón, the current caucus chair, securing a majority of supporters.

She will take over from McGuire next year, he told reporters in the Capitol with Limón and a majority of their Democratic colleagues standing beside him. They did not announce a formal transition date.

Notably absent was Sen. Lena Gonzalez, the Long Beach Democrat and Senate majority leader who was also reportedly bidding for the leadership position.

Generally, lawmakers can make a bid for leadership whenever they have enough support within the party. McGuire, who is termed out after 2026, had tried to head off the internal jockeying for his seat, telling Politico in late May that he intended to stay as leader through the end of his term.

State Sen. President Pro Tem Mike McGuire during a floor session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on April 24, 2025. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters

The handoff was ultimately announced with copious amounts of mutual praise.

McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat, said Limón’s experience representing a district affected by wildfires would serve the Senate well on fire safety and insurance issues. He also emphasized the historic nature of her election.

Unexpected timing amid Los Angeles protests

Limón acknowledged the timing of her bid was “not expected;” it came not only during the federal showdown in Los Angeles but also during a week when lawmakers face a deadline to pass a budget. She said the decision was “a matter of the caucus.”

Limón was elected to the Assembly in 2016 and the Senate in 2020. Like McGuire, she’ll serve a relatively short term as leader because she’s scheduled to leave office at the end of 2028.

Her district includes Santa Barbara County and the western, heavily agricultural portion of Ventura County. Like many California Democrats she’s backed heavily by unions, which are among her top campaign contributors. She voted in alignment with the Service Employees International Union’s positions on bills 93% of the time, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database. She took the position of the California Chamber of Commerce only about a quarter of the time.

Her leadership could also lead to further questions about bills designed to cut red tape and speed up housing construction. While the Assembly and Newsom have embraced those proposals, the Senate has been sharply divided on them this year.

Limón’s voting record indicates some opposition. She has declined to support some of the state’s most high-profile pro-development bills, SB 9, which allows single-family homeowners to turn their houses into duplexes, SB 423, which allows certain apartment buildings to avoid environmental review and this year’s SB 79, which is aimed at allowing denser development along major public transit corridors.

Prior to her election to the Legislature, Limón served six years on the Santa Barbara Unified School Board, was assistant director for the McNair Scholars Program at UC Santa Barbara and was a member of the Santa Barbara County Commission for Women.

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CalMatters reporters Ryan Sabalow and Ben Christopher contributed to this story.