“I’m running because we need people like me to be in the Legislature,” said Briceño, a Cypress resident. “I’ve washed dishes at the Anaheim Convention Center. I bussed tables at a small restaurant in San Pedro. The only way to bring back the working class is if you legislate on their behalf. Who better to do that than a former worker and organizer like myself?”

Ada Briceño worked to elect Democrats as a hotel union boss and chair of the Orange County party. Now, she’s deploying decades of campaign experience toward a candidacy of her own — for state Legislature in 2026. Here are excerpts from her conversation with Playbook...

“I leave very proud and very happy,” Briceño said. “I couldn’t leave without feeling incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity to help lead alongside thousands of people.”

“We’re shocking people. We’re shocking the bosses,” Briceño said, “because the voices of our workers is what’s front and center for us.”

“The guest is always right in the hotel industry and therefore we have seen a problem that has lasted for so long,” said Unite Here local 11 co-president Ada Briceño during public comment...

Briceño’s upbringing in Nicaragua served as a far cry from her future life as co-president of Unite Here Local 11, a union representing 32,000 hotel and food service workers in California and Arizona...

...Hotel workers trickled out the sunny parking lot behind a Hilton Hotel in Anaheim during their break. They were greeted by Ada Briceño — familiar to many as the co-president of Unite Here Local 11, the union that represents hotel workers, including Hilton employees...