Josh Newman, recently ousted from state Senate, is already eyeing political comeback ...Middle East

Josh Newman is, again, a former state senator.

He’s been here before — he was recalled from office by voters in 2018 after voting to raise the gas tax to help pay for infrastructure projects, one of 81 legislators to do so. But he successfully mounted a legislative comeback about two years later.

And now, with his 2024 election loss solidified, Newman is eyeing another attempt to return to Sacramento.

This time, it proved to be an insuperable combination of an almost entirely new district due to redistricting and attacks from AFSCME 3299, the University of California’s largest employee union, that booted Newman from office.

Former State Sen. Josh Newman, of Fullerton, visits his old neighborhood in the Los Angeles Arts District on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. A Democrat, who served the 29th district, narrowly lost his seat after redistricting and running for the 37th district. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Former State Sen. Josh Newman, of Fullerton, visits his old neighborhood in the Los Angeles Arts District on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. A Democrat, who served the 29th district, narrowly lost his seat after redistricting and running for the 37th district. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Former State Sen. Josh Newman, of Fullerton, visits his old neighborhood in the Los Angeles Arts District on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. A Democrat, who served the 29th district, narrowly lost his seat after redistricting and running for the 37th district. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

When all was said and done, Newman lost the 37th Senate district race to Steven Choi, a Republican, by about 6,000 votes.

Newman, 60, insists he isn’t done with politics. Instead, he is already planning a run for the 34th Senate district in 2026.

“I think I have a lot left to offer in public service, and I’m not interested in running for something else,” Newman said over chips and tacos at Guerrilla Tacos in Los Angeles. “I’d like to finish the work I was doing as a member of the state Senate.”

“I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to serve, and I’m proud of the work that I’ve done, so I think it’s worth it taking the case to voters, once again, to have another chance to do that,” he said.

When asked about unfinished legislative business, Newman pointed to education and energy.

On the former, Newman, who chaired the Senate’s Education Committee, said he was proud of the work he was able to do on not only his legislation but his colleagues’ bills as well to “find the right balance to deliver the best and most successful education for California’s kids.”

This past year, he successfully shepherded legislation extending a state program that allows a student to transfer to another district if the family believes it would have better opportunities and adding military entrance processing to the list of excused absences for high school students.

On the energy front, Newman said there’s more legislative work to be had “about how best to make a smart transition that gets us to the appropriate response to climate change without unduly burdening Californians.”

“Those are two things — and there’s probably more — that I hope to be a part of in the future,” he said.

For now, Newman said he plans to teach a class or two on politics at a local university.

And he’s gearing up for what’s already promising to be a tough 2026 battle.

2026 is already heating up

Represented by Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, who is prevented from running again due to term limits, SD-34 centers on Anaheim but includes communities in Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra and Santa Ana. It dips into Los Angeles County as well, picking up South Whittier.

Already, Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, launched a bid for the seat last week.

In his announcement, Valencia, a former Anaheim council member, noted that he has always called the district “home.” It’s where he was born and raised, Valencia said, and where he met his wife.

For Newman, SD-34 includes much more of a swath of where Newman had represented in the legislature.

But he’ll have to move in order to run for the seat.

California election code mandates a candidate is a registered voter and “otherwise qualified to vote for that office” in order to be eligible to run for the seat.

Newman said moving wouldn’t be the “biggest deal.” He’s overcome more, he said, in politics.

“I’ve had an interesting experience in politics,” Newman said, “where the politics of my race often had very little to do with my actual record, my approach to public service.”

While voter registration in the district slightly favored the Fullerton Democrat going into last month’s election, it was a relatively new area. The 37th Senate district — a sprawling Orange County seat with arms jutting out to include at least parts of Costa Mesa, Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Orange and Villa Park — was very different from the area Newman had been representing in the area.

It was more familiar territory to Choi, a former Assembly member, while Newman had to introduce himself to the district’s voters.

And then there was AFSCME 3299, an incredibly powerful labor union in California, which spent more than $1.2 million to oppose Newman in both the primary and the general election.

It was largely considered a bold move for the union — actively campaigning against a Democratic incumbent in a way that would be beneficial to a Republican challenger considered to be less friendly to labor.

“It’s not necessarily unusual for an influential interest group to spend sometimes heavily in a legislative race. The difference here is that because it resulted in an incumbent losing his seat — and obviously a Democratic legislator — it certainly alienated a large number of the Democratic supermajority party, particularly in the state Senate, and that interest group is normally a longtime ally of the supermajority,” said Chris Micheli, a longtime lobbyist in Sacramento.

Newman’s transgression was not supporting a constitutional amendment that would have shored up certain labor protections for UC workers.

Newman isn’t the only legislator who voted against the effort at some point. Though notably, Valencia not only voted for it on the Assembly side but was a co-author as well.

Newman said he stands by his vote on the labor bill — and maintained that it was less about opposing it outright but rather trying to find a solution that would be more palatable to other legislators.

“I don’t know what other members, what role they played, but mine was not opposition,” Newman said. “Just at the end of the day, there wasn’t a working path for that piece of legislation.”

Whether those differences carry far into the 2026 race remains to be seen.

“When (Newman) was initially recalled from office and then ran again … everybody was supportive of getting him back into the Senate, and he was able to do so,” Micheli said. “The question now is how does the entry of Assemblymember Valencia into that race change things.”

In other words, Micheli said, Democrats and interest groups could split on endorsements and whether they stay out of the contest completely, support one candidate and/or oppose the other.

“There are a lot of unknowns because there will be at least two big-name Democrats running for the seat,” Micheli said. “When Newman was successful in coming back … he had a relatively easy route to his reelection. But with a Democratic Assembly member running in the race, what is the impact of that?”

For now, it’s still too early in the contest to tell.

But if you ask Newman how he feels about early reports dubbing him a “comeback kid,” he laughs. “I like comeback kid because it implies I’m still young,” he said.

But he’s also not denying it. “I am really committed to public service,” Newman said.

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