Sandra Van Scotter grew up in a working-class family of eight siblings — the kind of family where everyone found their path, whether through a trade, vocational school, or a university classroom.

 

She started working young and never stopped.

​

She spent decades as a respiratory therapist, first in inpatient hospital care and later in cardiac testing at an outpatient clinic. That's where she saw it up close: how health insurance fails the very people paying into it. How paperwork becomes a wall between a sick person and the care they need.

​

In 2014, Sandra made Ridgecrest home. Today she works as a Direct Support Professional — a DSP — serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She helps her clients navigate some of the most complicated systems in California: Medi-Cal, Social Security, the Regional Center. She does it every day, one person at a time.

​

Sandra's middle son receives services through California's Regional Center system. Through the Self-Determination Program, he was able to access the education and support he needed to do the work he'd always dreamed of. That experience made Sandra's advocacy personal in a whole new way.

​

She's also the grandmother of two, part of a big, loud, loving family — and someone who has spent decades serving and volunteering "behind the scenes," as she puts it, always pointing toward policy and law rather than personalities and drama.

​

When the One Big Beautiful Bill passed in 2025, Sandra watched her clients' faces. They were terrified. She looked around for someone — a representative, a leader, anyone — to stand up and explain what was happening and how people could protect themselves. No one came.

​

So Sandra did what she always does: she figured out the legal resources available, started helping people navigate the system, and then decided that wasn't enough.

​

"I never thought of running for elected office," she says. "But someone had to."

​