Joaquin Arambula

Joaquin Arambula attended Computech Middle School and Edison High School and later spent two decades practicing medicine in the Central Valley. He entered politics after seeing patients who could not afford their prescriptions. The Assembly was already part of the family record: his father, Juan Arambula, served there from 1987 to 2010, although he advised his son not to run. Joaquin Arambula won a special election in 2016 and was re-elected four times. He announced his retirement from the Assembly in 2026 and is now running for the Fresno City Council.

THE JOB BEFORE THE JOB

Arambula was born in Delano on May 17, 1977. His mother, Amy Rappaport, is the daughter of lawyer Jerome Lyle Rappaport; his brother, Diego, was appointed to the California State University Board of Trustees in 2020. After attending school in Fresno, Arambula studied at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and the University of Minnesota Medical School.

He then spent 20 years practicing medicine in the Central Valley. The experience he cited when he entered politics was specific: patients coming for care but unable to afford their prescriptions. When Arambula announced his Assembly candidacy in May 2015, he cited his experience as an emergency room doctor and said he had seen too many people without access to primary care.

His father’s advice was to stay out of the race. Arambula ran anyway and won the 2016 special election. His later legislative priorities included health care access and affordability, safety-net programs, shortages of doctors and medical providers, and workforce development.

THE ASSEMBLY YEARS

Arambula won re-election in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024. That continuity gave him nearly a decade in the Assembly to work on health care access, safety-net programs, the medical workforce and job training.

His tenure also included an arrest and acquittal. Arambula, who has three daughters with his wife, Elizabeth, was arrested on December 10, 2018, on suspicion of willful cruelty to a child. A Fresno jury found him not guilty in May 2019. He subsequently won re-election in 2020, 2022 and 2024.

On January 7, 2026, Arambula entered a voluntary inpatient rehabilitation program. Elizabeth Arambula filed for divorce on January 26. He completed the program on February 6 and stated that he had needed help to make sure he did not become dependent on alcohol or marijuana. By April, the two had reached a temporary agreement while continuing their divorce.

That same year, Arambula announced that he would retire from the State Assembly and run for the Fresno City Council. The move would take him from state office to a contest for a seat in Fresno government.

THE POLICY SIGNATURE

A central policy focus for Arambula has been health care, including efforts to expand Medi-Cal access regardless of immigration status. His priorities have also included making care more accessible and affordable, protecting safety-net programs for working families and addressing the shortage of doctors and other medical providers.

That record includes patients who could not afford prescriptions, residents regardless of immigration status and working families relying on safety-net programs. It also identifies a shortage of doctors and medical providers. His priorities included expanding workforce-development programs.

In the Assembly, his work included efforts involving Medi-Cal access, health care affordability, safety-net programs and workforce development. When he first ran, he cited his experience as an emergency room doctor and said he had seen too many people without access to primary care. He had also said that his Central Valley practice exposed him to patients unable to afford prescriptions.