Huntington Beach councilman announces bid for state senate

Huntington Beach City Councilman Tony Strickland announced his bid for State Senate District 36 on Tuesday.

The district, which includes much of coastal Orange County including Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Garden Grove, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Midway City, Stanton, Cypress, Los Alamitos and a handful of cities from Los Angeles County, is currently represented by state Sen. Janet Nguyen.

Nguyen, a Republican who was elected to the state senate in 2022, is currently running for Orange County Board of Supervisors in District 1 to replace Supervisor Andrew Do, who is completing his second full term. County voters have largely thrown their support behind Nguyen, according to vote totals collected by the Orange County Registrar of Voters’ Office in the recent primary election.

According to that data, Nguyen led her competitors with 43.5% of the votes, trailed by Frances Marquez with 26% of the votes. Her election to the board would then mean a special election next year.

In Tuesday’s announcement, Strickland, also a Republican, said, “California needs leaders unafraid to stand up to the liberal overreach that comes out of Sacramento every day. In Huntington Beach, we have shown that conservative governance works. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic super-majority could use more Surf City common sense.”

Strickland was elected to the Huntington Beach City Council in 2022 and was mayor in 2023. He was a state assemblyman in the 37th District between 1998 to 2004 and a state senator in the 19th District from 2008 to 2012.