Diane Pearce, who moved to Clovis over three years ago, has been a small business production owner in Clovis for the last 20 years. After graduating from UC Davis, Pearce worked for former Congressman Radanovich. After that, she was a substitute teacher in Clovis Unified.
Pearce ran for election last cycle and didn’t anticipate returning, but she could not pass up this opportunity.
“Last round was just kind of a unique opportunity with some of the things that I had seen and so I went ahead and ran last cycle but I didn’t really know that I was going to be running again so soon. But when this opportunity presented itself, I had a number of people who reached out to me and my husband and I had already been considering it and so I decided to go ahead and take the plunge again,” Pearce said.
Heading into this election, Pearce said she has the “momentum” from her previous attempt and this time she’s picking up where she left off, as opposed to just starting over.
For Pearce, the catalyst for her decision to run for City Council stemmed from her family’s opportunity to move to Clovis paired with a goal of representing self employed citizens of Clovis by running.
“I recognized that the Clovis City Council didn’t have anyone who was self employed and diversity of experience is important to a governing body,” Pearce said.
The issues of keeping Clovis safe, supporting local business, maintaining local control and protecting Clovis schools are what Peace feels are key issues this election because “anybody seeking to represent this community had better not only just be aware of it, but committed to maintaining those things,” Pearce said.
“I think the most important responsibility of any government agency is public safety, to make sure that their citizens are safe in their businesses, their neighborhoods, and that their kids can walk to school safely and play in their parks,” Pearce said.
Pearce said the people’s ability to buy into the Clovis way of life and make Clovis their home, like Pearce’s family has, is something she wants for others. Pearce said to do it starts with a focus on “safety and excellent schools,”.
Pearce said in a big field of candidates she feels that her background as a business owner will provide a voice for the business sector and her experience of being self employed and her connection to community leaders and other local officials helps qualify her for a position such as this.
“Being able to reach out and partner with [other local elected officials] to kind of amplify the needs of Clovis…but also to make sure that when we have issues coming down the lane, whether that is from Sacramento or with the County, having those relationships and being able to reach out and really make sure that Clovis’ needs are heard throughout the process is something that I would bring to the table,” Pearce said.