Latinos lead the Gridley city council seats, could be first time Latinos are elected

If Calderon or Sanchez are elected, they will be the first Latino or Latina elected to fill those seats.

As election results continue to come in, here in butte county, one electoin could be historic.

Action news now reporter esteban reynoso is here now with the latest on the gridley city council race?

These are the results as of tonight, i want to remind you none of these are official results as of yet, but the ones who lead the way for the 3 seats available on the gridley city council are michael farr, angel calderon and catalina sanchez.

If calderon or sanchez are elected, they will be the first latino or latina elected to fill those seats.

I spoke with sanchez about that milestone, as well as being not just a hispanic -- but also a woman running for office.

"it feels very humbling.

I believe that i ran a very active campaign and i attempted to talk to as many voters.

Being able to have women on any type of seat that allows our government to make decisions is very important because women do make up a large majority of not just our community, but also nationally."

"i think it's inspiring to have a woman of color, of any nationality.

I think that a female coming in would be interested as well."

According to 2019 census data -- gridley has the highest percentage of hispanics or latinos in butte county with more than 44%.

And in gridley, women are the majority at more than 53% of the total population.

So for sanchez -- "it's a reflection of the community and the growing diversity that we have not only just socially and culturally, but also economically.

We need to be able to bring more representation to our local government especially, and i think just being able to have three latinos who ran for city council here in town, was really able to allow our community to have a very active conversation.

What they feel that they deserve from a city council that will be able to deliver equal representation to everyone."

If elected, sanchez says the first thing she'll try to make happen as a city council woman is -- "affordable utlities that has been a very big issue here in town.

Are utlities affordable?

What can we do to bring more businesses into this town to provide more local based jobs?

And as a potential city council woman, i look forward to engaging with the current council and having those conversations."

Sanchez told me when she decided to run for office, her ethnicity wasn't what she thought would be controversial -- she threw her hat in the ring as a woman first.

Alan, back to you.

We want to remind you that all of the results so far are unoffical.

Butte county expects to have counted 90% of all votes by friday.