University of the Pacific administrator Mario Enríquez led food bank founder Gina Valadez-Bracamonte Wednesday in the race for Stockton’s City Council District 4, unofficial results from the San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters show.
Enríquez came to the race with impressive academic credentials.
A graduate of UOP with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, he received his master’s in public administration from the USC Price School of Public Policy.
After graduate school, Enríquez went to Washington, D.C., and was selected as the higher education graduate fellow with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
He recently served as Victory Institute’s director of constituent engagement in Washington, leading the programming for the annual International LGBTQ Leaders conference.
Valadez-Bracamonte, founder of the Stockton food bank Bread of Life, and Enríquez, director of UOP’s Center for Identity and Inclusion, ran to replace Councilmember Susan Lenz, who was unable to run again because of term limits in the north Stockton district.
Valadez-Bracamonte touted public safety, homeless issues and quality of life as her campaign priorities. She pointed to her experience running Bread of Life as an example of her effectiveness.
Founded in 2008 with $350 earned from a garage sale, she said the nonprofit now distributes more than $3 million worth of food a year to those in need. The mother of two and now a grandmother, she also has had experience working as a credit manager.
She has won several awards for her civic engagement, including Stockton’s Key to the City in April and the Minerva Empresaria Award from the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2021.