Stephanie L. Castro

CANDIDATE STATEMENT

 I am a woman of my word. I won’t make promises I cannot keep, but I will fight and stand for my constituents, small businesses, and our personal freedoms.

I will fight for positive changes that need to be made in our school system, like school choice, on our roads, with our homeless, and will be harsh on crime in your community so we can all feel safe at home. 

I will fight to improve our working wages, where we can see real wage growth without taking more out for taxes or raising them so you can readily provide for your family.  

You should vote for me because there are bad policies coming out of California, like AB101 that brought the highly controversial and divisive Critical Race Theory curriculum to our children, and other policies that cause your gas, heating, rent, and food costs to be extremely high.  I oppose this and will be the voice for the common people who will develop common sense policies and solutions.  

I have fought hard for everything I have worked for and will always persevere when things feel tough.  I intend to maintain that level of endurance throughout my campaign, in Sacramento, and beyond, because we all deserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

EDUCATION

 Stephanie is an educator by profession and earned her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies from CSU Chico, earned 2 clear teaching credentials, a Multiple Subject Credential from CalStateTEACH and a Single Subject Secondary Art Credential from the University of Phoenix all while working full time as a teacher.  

She went to West Valley College out of high school then transferred to Fresno State.  She majored in Interior Design, but things didn’t work out the way she had hoped so she went back to West Valley and earned her 3-year advanced certificate in Interior Design. But as her children grew older, she realized that wasn’t going to be helpful because she really wanted to teach, or  substitute teach.  Teaching Art was one of her long-term goals ever since she was a child.   

BACKGROUND

 Stephanie grew up in South San Jose and moved to Hollister with her husband in 1998. They have lived in San Benito County ever since and have three children. Their oldest Eagle Scout son is currently serving overseas in our United States Air Force.

In 2009, even with two young children in school and one toddler at home, Stephanie managed to finally earn her bachelor’s degree in 2013 from CSU Chico online majoring in liberal studies where she went on to become a substitute teacher and then a full-time teacher in 2014. She taught elementary and high school students for 6 years until her career ended when the pandemic began.  But God had other plans for her, and she realizes now that teaching was just a steppingstone for her real career as a future politician. She organized her first March for Freedom Rally in Hollister in December of 2020 when she started to see the politicized events of the pandemic and how they coincided with the fraudulent election. She helped with the recall Gavin Newsom efforts by gathering signatures and started the San Benito Patriots group and organized a Recall Gavin Newsom Rally just before the recall election.