Progressive Candidate Challenge Fontana's Longtime Mayor

Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, October 22, 2026

• The election is less than two weeks away. And Senator Bernie Sanders has been endorsing progressive candidates in races big and small across the country. In California’s Inland Empire, he endorsed Joz Sida, who’s running for the mayor of Fontana. But the endorsement hasn’t given Sida much traction. 
• A highly contagious strain of bird flu has reappeared in California. Two cases have been reported this month.

A slate of progressive candidates, including one endorsed by progressive stalwart Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), is trying to change the face of City Hall in Fontana in San Bernardino County. But the candidates face strong headwinds in the famously conservative town.

Joz Sida, 37, is running for mayor as a Democratic Socialist. At a recent gathering at Southridge Park in Fontana, she stood on a makeshift stage alongside a slate of progressive candidates running for offices ranging from city council to city treasurer. “Our campaign is about us going to the people, and the best way is at the local parks, is meeting them where they’re at,” Sida said.

Sida moved to Fontana as a teenager. She ran for a school board position in 2012, but lost. She left the Inland Empire and spent the next decade organizing and working on progressive campaigns across the country. “I’ve worked on reproductive rights. I’ve worked on immigrant rights,” said Sida. “I always hope to elect people that do good policy.”

Sida said she moved back home from Chicago in 2023 to bring the progressive fight to Fontana. She recruited a slate of candidates and decided to run for mayor against incumbent Mayor Acquanetta Warren, who has held the office for 16 years. During that time, Warren has taken credit for building up the warehousing industry and helping Fontana prosper economically. But Sida believes Warren has discouraged free speech and protest by limiting public input and supporting restrictions on protests.

Warren and the city council cracked down on street vendors in 2023, sparking outrage from residents, street vendors and some activists. Protests that erupted disrupted council meetings for several weeks. “We have tried everything we can within our power to help people get legal,” said Warren in Oct. 2023, after the council voted unanimously to support the crackdown. “So, now it’s time to grab a couple of hammers. Done.”

Protesters and influencers eventually gathered outside the mayor’s home to protest the street vendor laws. In response, the City Council passed an ordinance making protesting and picketing illegal within 300 feet of a residence. Sida said the measure chilled public dissent over city policies and that the crackdown has largely affected Latino immigrants and families who live in Fontana. “I came back … street vendors were under attack. I came back, warehouses next to high schools. I come back and we’re still one of the worst in air quality,” Sida said.

David Allen, a senior columnist with the Southern California News Group who has followed Warren’s political career for 16 years, said Fontana has deep blue-collar Democratic roots but was also a haven for white supremacists until the 1990s. In that context, Warren was a trailblazer when she became the city’s first Black mayor in 2010. “She’s certainly, you know, 100% pro Fontana. I think Fontana’s definitely improved economically. Its image has improved, kind of along with her tenure,” Allen said.

While progressives such as Sida have tapped into residents’ growing opposition to warehouses, Warren has received endorsements from the region’s two largest carpenter unions and the Teamsters, who represent county workers and warehouse workers at Amazon. Randy Korgan, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 1932, said Warren has supported pensions for city employees. “I think that she’s proven to be accessible,” Korgan said. “Look, I’ve been doing this long enough to know the difference between someone who’s going to work to get it done versus the lip service. She doesn’t give you lip service. Korgan said he is intrigued by Sida’s campaign, but that the Teamsters endorsed Warren because she has delivered for workers and that the mayor has focused on solving local problems, while staying away from issues that divide Americans nationally.

A highly contagious strain of bird flu has reappeared in California.

Starting in 2022, highly pathogenic avian influenza ravaged the state’s poultry flocks and even dairy farms. The price of eggs skyrocketed as tens of millions of the state’s poultry had to be euthanized and hundreds of cattle herds were quarantined.

For years, all those efforts worked. The state declared itself free from highly pathogenic bird flu in the spring.

Earlier this month, however, the virus was detected in a backyard flock in Sacramento County. State agriculture officials say this affected just 40 birds and will not lead to any restrictions on animal movement.