California’s Next Senate Leader Faces a Challenging Budget Season

This spring, toward the end of a tense session in the California state Senate, Democrats announced that Monique Limón would serve as their next president pro tem, starting in 2026. Limón, a second-term Democrat from Santa Barbara who previously served in the state Assembly, will take over the top Senate post from Mike McGuire, who represents parts of the North Coast. Before joining the state Legislature, she worked as an adviser at colleges and universities in her district and served on the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education. She’ll be the first woman of color to serve in the role.

California is facing massive budget deficits as it absorbs the impacts of inflation and shifting tariff policies. Gov. Gavin Newsom has sought to cut some spending, but the 2025 budget deal has pushed some potentially painful cuts to future years. California Democrats are also undergoing something of a shift around environmental regulation and development, with a late-breaking deal this year backed by Newsom to modify a landmark environmental law in hopes of spurring housing production.

Because of California’s term limits, Limón will leave office at the end of her term in 2028. In a recent interview with Governing, she spoke about the need to build trust and coalitions across a geographically diverse caucus. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Governing: What motivated you to enter politics in the first place, and why the state Legislature specifically? 

Monique Limón: I’m an accidental politician. This is not what I thought I would do in my life. I spent 14 years working with students and families in the communities I represent. My job was to help students get from point A to point B in their academic careers. When you work with students and families, you quickly learn that so much of what happens outside of the classroom has an impact in the classroom. That exposed me to broader policies and created an interest in how else I could help students reach their academic goals. I had to think about issues related to jobs and housing and the environment and health access in particular, all those things. I joined several nonprofit boards in the community and from there people said, "Hey, why don’t you run for school board?"

I ran for school board in 2010 and it was really important work and a tough time as far as the budget was concerned in California, but also it had a direct link to the Legislature. The Legislature, both from a policy and budgetary perspective, deeply impacts the work that happens in pre-K-12 schools. That’s where my interest came in 2016. There was an open seat. My Assembly member then had termed out so I ran for Assembly in 2016 and then state Senate in 2020.

What sustains me in this work is the ability to solve for unmet needs. Not always at a fast pace but sometimes solving one slice of policy at a time.

What have you noticed about the kinds of relationship-building or coalition-building that are needed to make things happen in the state Legislature? 

The Legislature is one of those sectors where relationship-building and bringing people to the table and building and sustaining diverse coalitions has been pretty important work. As someone that represents the Central Coast of California it’s been super key for my own work to be able to establish geographical relationships, policy relationships.

Is that because the Central Coast isn’t traditionally one of the main political power centers in the way other regions are? 

Most people would say the Central Coast is not necessarily a political power player. Historically you’ve seen some of the bigger metropolitan areas lead in that way. And certainly for good reason, because they represent a larger base of population.

But I learned how important it was to create relationships, and just like it was an accident that I ended up in politics, I didn’t come into the Legislature necessarily with the intention of saying I would be the next leader of anything. These opportunities just kind of created themselves, but also I worked really hard. I worked really hard with different members from different districts. Not all in the same policy area. If you look for examples of the bills that I’ve authored and that the governor has signed, over 80 percent of them have bipartisan support. I’ve worked to understand the issues in other districts. I’ve worked to also try to help people understand the similarities and differences of districts. I think that geographical diversity is part of that equation.

What was your pitch to your fellow caucus members that you’d be a good choice as Senate president? 

The work that we do to establish strong relationships with our colleagues, to build trust, to work through differences in opinions. It’s not something that has a start and end date necessarily. It’s just who you are. There was a moment when it became clear that there would be a potential new leader and I think it was an opportunity that, certainly with a lot of conversations with colleagues, arose for myself and it was also a super humbling experience.

What do you think makes someone effective in that role? 

I think the breadth of experience that the individual has is important. But first and foremost it’s really the trust of your colleagues, that relationship you have with your colleagues. I think trust is built not just in the moments in front of the cameras — it’s built in the harder moments, the difficult moments. You build trust with communication, with follow-through and follow-up. It’s not terribly different from other sectors where you have someone who is appointed. How do leaders build trust with their colleagues? I’m grateful and really humbled that my colleagues put that trust in me. It comes with a responsibility as well, especially knowing that in 2026 we’re going to have a really difficult budget year for the state of California, the most difficult that we’ve seen over the last decade. It also comes with a number of issues and challenges at the state and federal level.

How do your own policy priorities and goals align with the momentum in the Legislature at this moment? 

Every single legislator is part of the momentum that happens in the Legislature. Certainly I am one piece but as the leader of the Senate you’re also ensuring that your leadership is reflective of the caucus. Some of it is also contextual. Things change as needs change. People’s perspectives on certain policy positions evolve, and that matters. How people felt about wildfires 10 years ago versus how they feel about wildfires now is different. It’s no longer seen as rural forest areas, it’s now understood that wildfires are a big thing. If you look at that as a policy example you see how there’s been change. More and more people are at the table from different parts of the state. Certainly the role of the leader of the Senate is to move the house and the work of the house forward in a collective manner. And I am very committed to that.

Democrats have been shifting a little bit in California on their approach to development and environmental regulations with respect to wanting to lower housing costs. How much acrimony do you expect there to be around some of those hot-button housing issues in the next session, and what’s your role in helping mediate those negotiations? 

The policy issues are driven by Californians. There are constants like housing, insurance, wildfires, federal aid, education, health-care access and more. I expect that you will see the Legislature continue to work on issues that are really driven by what Californians need. That’s what will come in 2026, in addition to having to determine a really difficult budget.