| District: | 12 |
| Chamber: | Senate |
| Population: | 939,354[1] [2] |
| Population Year: | 2020 |
| Voting Age: | 703,636 |
| Citizen Voting Age: | 618,054 |
| Percent White: | 48.73 |
| Percent Black: | 3.53 |
| Percent Latino: | 33.76 |
| Percent Asian: | 7.94 |
| Percent Native American: | 0.81 |
| Percent Pacific Islander: | 0.16 |
| Percent Other Race: | 0.58 |
| Percent Remainder Of Multiracial: | 4.48 |
| Registered: | 555,204[3] |
| Democratic: | 28.49 |
| Republican: | 44.90 |
| Npp: | 18.50 |
California's 12th senatorial district is one of 40 California State Senate districts. It is currently represented by Republican Shannon Grove of Bakersfield.
New district boundaries drawn by the 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission went into effect for the 2022 elections. The 12th State Senate district now encompasses the southeastern Central Valley and the northwestern corner of the Mojave Desert; and it includes portions of Fresno County, Kern, and Tulare Counties, including the following cities:
The district also includes the Tule River Indian Reservation, Cold Springs Rancheria, Big Sandy Rancheria, and Table Mountain Rancheria.
Tourism, agriculture, and ranching are important in the district. The neighboring districts 14 and 16 were specifically drawn to allow Latino voters to elect state senators of their choice in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act, which affected the western border of District 12.
The district's racial/ethnic demographics (based on the 2020 census) are as follows:
| scope=col | Population ! | scope=col | Latino ! | scope=col | White ! | scope=col | Black ! | scope=col | American Indian ! | scope=col | Asian ! | scope=col | Hawaiian or Pacific Islander ! | scope=col | Other ! | scope=col | Multiracial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 939,354 | 317,166 | 457,719 | 33,143 | 7,634 | 74,614 | 1,519 | 5,435 | 43,124 | |||||||||
The district included the Salinas Valley and a swath of the Central Valley between Modesto and Fresno. The rural district was primarily agricultural and heavily Latino.
Fresno County – 14.3%
Madera County – 81.1%
All of Merced County
Monterey County – 54.2%
All of San Benito County
Stanislaus County – 27.6%
The district's demographics (based on the 2010 census) were as follows:[4]
| scope=col | Population ! | scope=col | Voting age ! | scope=col | Citizen voting age ! | scope=col | White ! | scope=col | Black ! | scope=col | Latino ! | scope=col | Asian ! | scope=col | Native American ! | scope=col | Hawaiian or Pacific Islander ! | scope=col | Other ! | scope=col | Multiracial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 933,222 | 641,932 | 438,286 | 25.68% | 3.00% | 64.48% | 5.12% | 0.80% | 0.27% | 0.25% | 0.39% | |||||||||||
As of February 18, 2020, the district had 377,188 registered voters, of whom 45.00% were registered as Democrats, 26.35% were registered as Republicans, and 23.22% were registered with no party preference.[5]
| Year | Office | Results |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Governor[6] | Dahle 67.2 – 32.8% |
| Senator[7] | Meuser 65.4 – 34.6% | |
| Senator[8] | Meuser 65.4 – 34.6% | |
| 2021 | Recall[9] | No 53.2 – 46.8% |
| Governor[10] | Elder 56.5 – 6.1% | |
| 2020 | President | Biden 58.0 – 39.8% |
| 2018 | Governor[11] | Newsom 55.3 – 44.7% |
| Senator[12] | De Leon 54.3 – 45.7% | |
| 2016 | President | Clinton 57.3 – 37.1% |
| Senator | Harris 50.5 – 49.5% | |
| 2014 | Governor | Brown 54.9 – 45.1% |
| 2012 | President | Obama 57.6 – 40.3% |
| Senator | Feinstein 59.0 – 41.0% | |
| 2010 | Governor[13] | Brown 51.4 – 42.3% |
| Senator[14] | Boxer 47.6 – 45.4% | |
| 2008 | President[15] | Obama 57.9 – 40.3% |
| 2006 | Governor[16] | Schwarzenegger 58.0 – 37.3% |
| Senator[17] | Feinstein 56.8 – 38.2% | |
| 2004 | President[18] | Bush 51.2 – 47.7% |
| Senator[19] | Boxer 54.0 – 41.9% | |
| 2003 | Recall[20] | Yes 56.5 – 43.5% |
| Governor[21] | Schwarzenegger 46.7 – 29.8% | |
| 2002 | Governor | Davis 49.2 - 42.3% |
| 2000 | President | Bush 54.6 - 41.6% |
| Senator | Feinstein 47.4 - 45.2% | |
| 1998 | Governor | Lungren 49.2 - 48.4% |
| Senator | Fong 51.3 - 44.7% | |
| 1996 | President | Dole 47.5 - 43.1% |
| 1994 | Governor | Wilson 63.7 - 32.2% |
| Senator | Huffington 53.9 - 37.6% | |
| 1992 | President | Clinton 39.1 - 38.5% |
| Senator | Herschensohn 49.5 - 40.8% | |
| Senator | Feinstein 47.3 - 44.5% |
Due to redistricting, the 12th district has been moved around different parts of the state. Its current boundaries resulted from the redistricting after the 2020 census by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission and went into effect in 2022.
| Senators | Party | Years served | Counties represented | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John T. Dougherty | Democratic | January 8, 1883 - January 3, 1887 | San Francisco | Served together.[22] | |
| Martin Kelly | January 8, 1883 - January 3, 1887 | ||||
| Augustus Lemuel Chandler | Republican | January 3, 1887 - November 5, 1888 | Sutter, Yuba | Died in office. Died from pneumonia.[23] | |
| F. H. Greely | January 7, 1889 - January 5, 1891 | ||||
| Daniel Augustus Ostrom | Democratic | January 5, 1891 - January 7, 1895 | |||
| Sutter, Yolo, Yuba | |||||
| John Henry Shine | Republican | January 7, 1895 - January 2, 1899 | Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus, Tuolume | ||
| John Curtin | Democratic | January 2, 1899 - January 4, 1915 | |||
| Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus, Tuolume | |||||
| Lafayette Jackson Maddux | January 4, 1915 - January 6, 1919 | Alpine, Calaveras, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Stanislaus, Tuolume | |||
| Lewis Lincoln Dennett | Republican | January 6, 1919 - January 3, 1927 | |||
| James Charles Garrison | January 3, 1927 - January 5, 1931 | ||||
| Herbert W. Slater | Democratic | January 5, 1931 - August 13, 1947 | Sonoma | Died in office. Died from heart attack.[24] | |
| Clarence J. Tauzer | Republican | November 19, 1947 - September 4, 1948 | Sworn in after winning special election.[25] Died in office, from heart attack.[26] | ||
| Farley Presley Abshire | January 3, 1949 - January 5, 1959 | ||||
| Joseph A. Rattigan | Democratic | January 5, 1959 - January 2, 1967 | |||
| Richard J. Dolwig | Republican | January 2, 1967 - January 4, 1971 | San Mateo | ||
| Arlen F. Gregorio | Democratic | January 4, 1971 - November 30, 1974 | |||
| Jerry Smith | December 2, 1974 - December 14, 1979 | Santa Clara | Resigned from the Senate.[27] | ||
| Dan O'Keefe | Republican | June 12, 1980 - November 30, 1982 | Sworn in after winning special election.[28] | ||
| Dan McCorquodale | Democratic | December 6, 1982 - November 30, 1994 | Santa Clara, Stanislaus | ||
| Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, Merceded, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne | |||||
| Dick Monteith | Republican | December 5, 1994 - November 30, 2002 | |||
| Jeff Denham | December 2, 2002 - November 30, 2010 | Madera, Merceded, Monterey, San Benito, Stanislaus | |||
| Anthony Cannella | December 6, 2010 – November 30, 2018 | ||||
| Fresno, Madera, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, Stanislaus | |||||
| Anna Caballero | Democratic | December 3, 2018 – December 5, 2022 | |||
| Shannon Grove | Republican | December 5, 2022 – | Fresno, Kern, Tulare[29] | ||