Republicans Condemned Alexandra Duarte’s Gun Mailer for “Troubling Imagery Implying Violence.” Her Other Mailers Called a Rival “Creepy” and Put Her Democratic Opponent in a Mugshot.

Alexandra Duarte’s campaign for State Senate District 4 has been fought in voters’ mailboxes. Before the June primary, one of her mailers drew a public rebuke from the California Republican Party, her own party, and from five county and regional Republican groups. Another made transgender policy the centerpiece of an attack on her Republican rival. Since the primary, her mailers against her Democratic opponent have used what one calls his “real mugshot.”

The gun mailer

In May 2026, less than two weeks before the primary for California State Senate District 4, Alexandra Duarte’s campaign mailed a flyer to homes in the district. According to the Turlock Journal, it shows Duarte wearing glasses and ear protection and pointing a handgun, with a flash at the muzzle, toward a photo of state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil (R-Jackson), the incumbent.

The flyer puts each candidate’s image on a tin can, which the Journal said gives the appearance of target shooting at cans. Duarte’s can calls her a “Trump Republican.” Alvarado-Gil’s can puts “Republican” in quotation marks and lists criticisms of her as “ingredients,” including that she “loves Joe Biden” and “holds hands with Kamala Harris.” Alvarado-Gil won the seat as a Democrat in 2022 and left the Democratic Party during her first term.

Republicans respond

The California Republican Party condemned the mailer in a statement on X: “The California Republican Party opposes this mailer from Alexandra Duarte’s campaign, especially its troubling imagery implying violence against Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil.” The party added: “Amid recent assassination attempts against President Trump and increased violence targeting elected officials, it’s important for all campaigns, whether Republican or Democrat, to work toward calming our political climate and encouraging respectful dialogue.”

County and regional Republican groups followed, according to the Journal:

• Joel Campos, whom the Journal identified as chairman, said the Republican Party of Stanislaus County “has not and will not ever condone that type of rhetoric. That does not belong here in Stanislaus County, full stop.”
• The board of the Modesto Republican Women Federated said: “Political engagement that prompts violence or perceived violence is unacceptable.”
• The Stanislaus County Republican Assembly said it “strongly repudiates the false and misleading attacks being advanced by Alexandra Duarte against conservative state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil.”
• The El Dorado County Republican Party said it “strongly repudiates the false, desperate, and misleading attacks being pushed by Alexandra Duarte.”
• The San Joaquin Valley Congress of Republicans said: “Alexandra Duarte does not have a conservative record. Instead, her campaign has resorted to political manipulation, dishonest imagery, and brutal attacks designed to mislead Republicans.” The group added: “We believe Alexandra Duarte owes Sen. Alvarado-Gil and the voters of Senate District 4 a public apology.”

Duarte’s campaign stood by the mailer. Its response is in the section below.

“Creepy Liberal”: transgender policy as a theme

Another mailer, paid for by Duarte for Senate 2026, calls her Republican rival “Creepy Liberal Marie Alvarado-Gil” and says she “Voted For Newsom’s Trans Agenda.” Under the heading “Marie Alvarado-Gil’s Voting Record,” it lists “Tampons in elementary boys’ bathrooms,” “Mandatory Trans Training,” and “Requires courts to use trans considerations as a criteria for determining child custody.” It does not name the bills. The gun mailer’s list of “ingredients” likewise said Alvarado-Gil “put tampons in boys’ bathrooms.”

She pressed the theme in debates. At an April 9 debate in downtown Modesto, Duarte raised transgender issues six times in an hour, The Valley Citizen reported, and the sixth drew groans from the audience. The loudest applause of the night, it reported, came when Jaron Brandon, the Democrat in the race, said: “Let’s quit picking on transgender kids.”

In The San Joaquin Valley Sun’s account of an April debate, Duarte faulted Alvarado-Gil for voting for state budgets that included “$6 billion that went to illegal immigrants getting welfare, funding for transgender sex changes on the taxpayer dollar.” Brandon told the candidates: “Shut up about trans kids, and shut up about all these partisan politics.” At a debate hosted by The Modesto Focus, Duarte said: “The transgender (talk) was about priorities in Sacramento.”

After the primary: a mugshot

Duarte and Brandon, a Tuolumne County supervisor, finished in the top two on June 2 and face each other on Nov. 3. Her campaign’s mailers against him borrow the look of a police booking photo.

One, on yellow, reads “WARNING: Jaron Brandon is running for Senate” above a photo of Brandon in front of height lines, captioned “Merced County Sheriff’s Office, Jaron Earvin Brandon, November 14, 2015.” A two-sided card labels the same photo “Jaron Brandon’s real mugshot.” Its other side, using a different photo, is headlined “Jaron Brandon’s corrupt agenda: You pay more, Jaron gets rich” and carries the line “Paid for by Duarte for Senate 2026.” A third mailer puts the booking-style photo under the headline “The cost of food, gas and housing are through the roof,” and it too says it was paid for by Duarte for Senate 2026. The disclosure is not visible in our photo of the yellow mailer.

The booking photo is real, and Brandon made it public himself. After the mailers went out, he wrote on Instagram: “The photo is actually from my campaign post in 2020 sharing that yes, I was once arrested for public intoxication in 2015 — 11 years ago. The charges were dropped, but a mugshot is forever. However, I could have handled the situation better and it’s how we learn from mistakes.” The mailers we reviewed do not mention what the arrest was for or that the charges were dropped.

The mailers’ written charges are about his record as a supervisor: that he “voted to raise his own pay,” “tried to raise taxes by millions” and “laid off public workers.” They cite Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors meetings on Feb. 9, 2022, June 14, 2024 and March 10, 2025.

The message has also gone door to door, along with a claim about Brandon that the public record contradicts. On Sept. 23, a canvasser told a voter he was knocking “not so much for a candidate, so much as I am knocking against somebody who is running,” according to doorbell-camera video the voter shared with Duarte Facts. The canvasser said that when he sees “someone is voting to give themselves more money,” and “someone is voting to take away first responder resources,” that “doesn’t look to me like it’s somebody that’s trying to help a community.” Of the first-responder claim, he admitted: “I’ve looked online—I can’t find a report or, you know, like a conclusion they’ve published or anything.” He then handed the voter the two-sided “real mugshot” card shown above, which says it was paid for by Duarte for Senate 2026, according to photos of both sides that the voter shared. We are not naming the canvasser.

The record contradicts the canvasser’s claim about first responders. In January 2026, Tuolumne County supervisors voted 3-2 to cut six firefighter positions and close Mono Vista Fire Station 56 to close a budget gap. Brandon was one of the two votes against, The Union Democrat reported. “I did not and do not support closing any fire stations, and voted no on that motion,” he said. In April, when the board again voted 3-2 to close the station and cut Cal Fire funding, he again voted no, the paper reported. In the coverage and records we reviewed, we found no vote in which Brandon supported cutting fire funding.

Duarte made the same case at two September forums. “My opponent did vote to raise his pay. He voted to raise taxes,” she said, according to the Turlock Journal. “And then he fired nearly two dozen people in Tuolumne County.” Brandon said he has had to make hard budget decisions, including layoffs and program closures, and is prepared to keep making them, the Journal reported.

Alexandra Duarte, a Republican, is running for California State Senate District 4 on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot. She is married to former Rep. John Duarte, who has served as president of Duarte Nursery.