Co-founder of local progressives group enters race for Modesto mayor
One of the founders of Indivisible Stanislaus — part of a nationwide effort to elect progressives, enact progressive policies and oppose the Trump administration — has entered the Modesto mayoral race.
Naramsen Goriel, 35, is a first-generation Assyrian American, graduate of UC Berkeley and Trinity Law School, and longtime community organizer. He also serves on the city’s Board of Zoning Adjustment and Landmark Preservation Commission.
Goriel joins Mayor Ted Brandvold, Senior Pastor Rick Countryman of Big Valley Grace Community Church, Bert Lippert, the city’s building safety program coordinator, Councilman Doug Ridenour and former Mayor Carmen Sabatino in the November 2020 election.
Former mayoral candidate Armando Arreola filed paperwork with the city Friday indicating he was running. But he has been an underdog, receiving 4.5 percent of the vote in 2011 and 1.1 percent in 2015. Arreola could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Goriel cites the same issues the other candidates cite regarding Modesto: the lack of affordable housing, the homelessness crisis, the need for more high-paying jobs, and making the city safer. But he said his experience as a grass-roots organizer sets him apart because he can offer solutions that work.
Goriel said as mayor, he would include all of the city in finding solutions and work with people and groups that City Hall ordinarily does not include.
Indivisible Stanisluas is part of the Indivisible Project, a progressive movement that started in reaction to Trump’s election. It has chapters across the nation.
Goriel said he co-founded and served as chairman of Indivisible Stanislaus but has scaled back his involvement so he can focus more on local issues and his campaign. Goriel said his community activism and grass-roots organizing predate his involvement with the group.
“I’ve always been interested in the public process,” he said, citing his own family’s involvement in that process in immigrating to Stanislaus County from Iraq in 1979.
