The State Senate race for District 21 will come down to incumbent Monique Limón and challenger Elijah Mack.

Limón was born and raised in Santa Barbara. She spent 14 years as an educator preparing students for college and serving on nonprofit boards. She also served on the board of the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

She describes herself as an “accidental politician.”

Her work stoked her interest in helping her community and introduced her to the different issues faced by residents.  

“I did not grow up thinking … that this is what I would do,” Limón said. “I came into the work of public policy and public service through the lens of education and working with students and families in our community.”

Limón was elected to the California State Assembly in 2016 and was elected to the State Senate in 2020. She has served as chair of the Banking and Finance Committee and chair of the Committee on the Nonprofit Sector.

She was also elected as vice chair of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus. 

Looking ahead, Limón believes that the major issues facing the state are the cost of living, natural disasters, housing and education.

She said she has worked across the aisle to address those issues and has already worked on legislation for the state to address them.

“The policies that I bring forward do have pretty wide bipartisan support, and there are policies that focus on health, on natural disasters, on women’s issues, education, and consumer protections,” she said.

She authored a bill to prevent medical debt from impacting consumer credit scores, which was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September.

She also worked on legislation to cap the price of cancer medication and expand access to health care.

Additionally, Limón has worked to allocate funds for disaster relief and acquire aid for first responders.

Limón believes she is the most qualified candidate in the State Senate race. Beyond her achievements in the legislature, she said her work as an educator and with nonprofit organizations gives her a unique perspective on the community.

“As an educator, as a former board member for nonprofits and as a state legislator, I think that I have a very unique experience of being … on the ground working with the students and families and understanding what the issues are that they face, that impact their lives,” Limón said.

Running against her is Mack, who hopes to become the youngest state senator ever at 19 years old. Mack began his campaign for the seat when he turned 18.

Mack, born in Seattle, Washington, moved to Santa Barbara when he was 7. He splits his time among college, working at Rusty’s Pizza Parlor and campaigning.

Although this is his first political race, Mack said he always had an interest in politics.

“In high school, I was always sort of that weird kid who would watch live streams of Congress and State Senate and things like that,” Mack said. “Legislative politics would certainly be like my sport, and so I definitely wanted to search for a legislative position to run for as my first office.”

Mack has bounced around different groups, including the Libertarian Party, the Common Sense Party and the Reform Party; and even established the Santa Barbara Libertarian Party with a friend.

Eventually, he was invited to run with the support of the Republican Party.

Mack said his goal as a candidate is to create a “paradigm shift” in California politics. He believes many people across the political spectrum have been disenfranchised from politics.

He added that issues such as homelessness, a rising cost of living and rising crime also have led to dissatisfaction from voters.

“They also often see that … the California Democratic Party has a super majority in both houses of our state legislature and they’ve had a Democrat governor,” Mack said. “And they’ve held it for years and years and years, if not decades now. And in that time, these issues largely have only worsened.”

Mack said his campaign focuses on four pillars: lifestyle liberty, wild nature, free markets and strong community.

As part of his platform, he said he wants to see communities become stronger and more independent. He favors mutual aid groups that people can turn to for support, rather than the government.

He also is in favor of cutting taxes and regulations for small businesses. One industry he proposed cutting regulations for is housing, where he said removing red tape would allow builders to create more buildings and lower the cost of homes.

If Mack wins, he said he intends to work with his fellow senators to think of ways legislation can work on the local level rather than the state level. Even if he knows he cannot stop a bill from being passed, he wants to work with his colleagues to modify it in ways beneficial to communities.

He also said he will work with anyone on either side of the aisle.

“My main role, if I was elected, (is) to sort of be a mediator in a certain sense between the Democrats and Republicans in our state legislature and try to bring about bit more cooperation,” Mack said.