Underwood Jacobs makes November ballot

“It’s just completely amazing; it feels so surreal,” Underwood Jacobs said in a telephone interview, Wednesday.

Underwood Jacobs collected more than 1.35 million votes, or 441,000 more votes than Fennell, as of Wednesday.

“Thank you to all of those people, so many people, believing in me and giving me their votes because that means so very, very much,” she said. “I want to make sure that I make all of you proud and this is really about us doing this together.”

Underwood Jacobs cited a Friday story in the Los Angeles Times, which published results from a recent poll by the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research at the University of California, San Diego, which found that 51.8% of voters supported Kounalaskis, compared with 46% who supported her.

“When you think about it, that number is such a small number in comparison,” Underwood Jacobs said.

She filed nomination papers to run for lieutenant governor, on March 11. She has been endorsed by the California Republican Party.

“When I saw that poll and I saw those numbers that they printed, I thought, ‘Wow, we could do this; I could truly win this race,’ ” Underwood Jacobs said.

No Republican has won a statewide office, since 2006.

“I think people are ready for a change; I think people want somebody that has grown up from the grass roots perspective and that I’m definitely that person,” she said.

Underwood Jacobs added her parents instilled a strong worth ethic and character in her.

“That’s what people are seeing now in me,” she said. “I hope to make my parents proud along with the rest of the state.”

Underwood Jacobs talked about running for the statewide office with her husband and children before she filed for the position.

“I’m so very humbled and grateful to be given an opportunity such as this,” she said.

Underwood Jacobs will advocate for lower taxes, improving public safety, reducing homelessness and addressing California’s water crisis.

Underwood Jacobs is a successful bank executive. She serves as senior vice president of the Greater Southern California North Region at California Bank and Trust. She previously served as a consumer market executive at Bank of America, where she was with the company, for 18 years, according to her bio. She began her career in banking as a teller and worked her way up from the frontline to Senior Management.

In April 2015, Underwood Jacobs was appointed to the Lancaster City Council, becoming the first African American woman on the Council. She previously served on the Criminal Justice Commission. She completed the last year of former Councilwoman Sandra Johnson’s term. Underwood Jacobs won election to the City Council a year later, in April 2016.

In April 2019, she declared her intent to campaign for the 25th Congressional District now held by Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita. Underwood Jacobs suspended her campaign, about seven months later, when former Congressman Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, announced that he would try to take back the seat he lost, in November 2018, to former Rep. Katie Hill, a freshman Democrat who later resigned her seat.

In June 2020, Underwood Jacobs testified before the House Judiciary Committee during a hearing on police brutality and racial injustice. Underwood Jacob’s brother Dave Patrick Underwood, a Federal Protective Service Officer, was shot and killed, on May 29, 2020, in Oakland while protecting a US courthouse during protesting over the in-custody death of George Floyd,

“As a nation, as a people, we must come together to defeat hate, prejudice and violence,” Underwood Jacobs said at the time. “I want to ensure the memory of my brother Patrick is a catalyst against injustice, intolerance, and violence of any kind.”

jdrake@avpress.com