Mendoza wins Democratic primary in LD11 Senate race

 

With 43% of the vote reported for Legislative District 11, JoAnna Mendoza appears to have won the Democratic primary for state senate.

Tuesday night, however, she was spending time watching a movie with her young son, which took the edge off election-night anxiety. Mendoza said she went into the day with the mindset that she was proud of what her campaigned accomplished.

“We really have done the work,” she said. “Even until the very last day, we were calling voters and we were on social media. I think it’s the result of the hard work we put in. They really believed what we believed in.”

Mendoza faced Linda Patterson in Tuesday’s election and has a 57%-43% margin. It was not always a cordial rivalry.

“We had a pretty close election. She’s going to have to bring all of District 11 together in order to beat Vince Leach,” Patterson said. “It was a campaign in which she made some pretty bold statements about me, and she’ll have to heal that.”

Patterson said though she came up short she will sleep well tonight.

“I believe our strategy was sound,” she said. “I feel really good about the fact that we didn’t want to run a campaign that was funded by special-interest money or PACs, that we were always transparent and always honest with the voters.”

“I’m thankful for all of my supporters. I just met so many wonderful people in the campaign.”

Mendoza, meanwhile, is gearing up for the General Election. Leach ran unopposed in the Republican primary and still garnered more votes than Mendoza and Patterson combined.

Mendoza wants to maintain the theme of giving the district a voice to win over voters in a heavily Republican district.

“This district has been neglected for such a long time, and it is time that we elected someone who is actually going to give the people of this district a voice and be responsive to their needs and actually take action,” she said.

“This is very personal for me because I grew up in these communities. I’m from here. I know what it’s like to live in a rural community.”