Dr. Akilah Weber Wins 79th Assembly District

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Photo credit: https://www.cityoflamesa.us

The 79th Assembly District seat in the California State Legislature will now be occupied by Dr. Akilah Weber. With over 300,000 registered voters in the district, there was only an 18.4 percent voter turnout. There were a total of 55,578 ballots cast. With 269 polling sites, only 1648 ballots were cast at those sites in total; 53,930 ballots were cast by mail. Weber, a Democrat, beat out four other opponents, one of whom was Republican, Marco Contreras, who got 18,428 votes compared to Weber’s 28,8834. Since Weber got 52.14 percent of the votes cast, there will be no runoff. The lowest number of votes went to Aeiramique Glass Blake, the only other African American on the ballot. She received 624 votes in total.

Dr. Alikah Weber, an obstetrician/ gynecologist physician at Rady Children’s Hospital, ran on a platform of the need for more doctors in the legislature during this health pandemic. She said there was only one other physician in the legislature. She replaced her mother, Dr. Shirley Weber, in the Assembly. Dr. Shirley Weber resigned from her assembly position to become the first African American woman appointed Secretary of State of California and only the fourth woman in the history of the state to hold that position out of 30 plus predecessors. The 79th Assembly District includes Bonita, Lemon Grove, La Mesa and parts of the City of San Diego’s Southeastern communities.  

Dr. Alikah Weber is a member of the La Mesa City Council, elected in 2018.