Sacramento councilwoman is pregnant and up for election. ‘Don’t have to compromise’
Many years had passed since Caity Maple, a Sacramento councilmember, gulped down orange juice.
But unexpectedly around Christmas, she craved freshly squeezed citrus. Maple and her husband couldn’t fathom a reason why. The unusual inclination came during their European vacation, so she ascribed it to that.
The trip was meant to offer a respite for Maple ahead of a busy 2026. The year would mark the end of her first term at City Hall, and she would be running for re-election.
Maple had publicly announced her bid for office when she learned why her body so desperately longed for orange juice: She was pregnant with her first child.
Now the 35-year-old and youngest member on the City Council would have to juggle the complexities of representing Oak Park and Parkway, strategizing a successful campaign and growing a baby. Her child, a boy, is due this year.
“The timing is not amazing,” she said. “Could be better — might have waited a couple more months. But it also just happened that way, and I am really grateful.”
Maple joins a small group of women who have balanced running for public office while carrying a child. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu bore her third child last year while running for re-election. She delivered her two older children when serving on the City Council, according to the Boston Globe.
West Sacramento Councilmember Verna Sulpizio Hull, heavily pregnant, knocked on dozens of voters’ doors in 2022. She joined an all-female West Sacramento City Council and delivered her baby about a week later, according to Comstock Magazine.
State Sen. Angelique Ashby, who delivered her third child while serving on the Sacramento City Council, said she feared some voters would perceive her pregnancy negatively.
“I wasn’t sure how people would receive it,” said Ashby. “I was actually quite worried. I thought, ‘What if the constituents say they don’t think I should be doing both things. Or what if my colleagues think I can’t keep up?’”
Councilmember Mai Vang, who parents her husband’s two children, said she cried tears of joy when she learned Maple was pregnant.
“She’s already a mom in so many ways — the ways in which she shows up for her community and loves on her community,” Vang said. “Councilwoman Maple is the definition of love and leadership.”
The first trimester
Maple prides herself on cramming her schedule with meetings, juggling multiple tasks and constantly being on the go. “It’s really easy for me, actually,” she said. “I do it because I really love what I do, so it doesn’t feel like I’m working.”
But the first trimester zapped her energy. Often, she’d come home and crawl into bed — and sometimes, that rest wasn’t enough.
“I would sleep for eight hours straight — I would wake up, and I would feel like I hadn’t slept at all,” she said.
Maple relied heavily on her husband, Sam Rice. They both work full-time, and he shouldered a greater burden of washing dishes, doing laundry and cleaning.
Her colleagues at work didn’t know about her pregnancy. That meant suffering in silence and putting on a brave face when she felt exhausted, Maple said. She became hyperaware of everything she ate.
“I’m pretty good at compartmentalization,” she said. “You have to deal with so many different things, and so I tell myself ‘OK, just make it through this next thing, this next thing, and then you’ll be fine.’”
Her energy returned after her first 12 weeks — but other challenges persisted.
‘I am human, too!’
The April 28 City Council meeting stretched into its eighth hour. And one of the most divisive policy questions still awaited the council’s vote.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty called for a 30-second break before weighing a controversial East Sacramento apartment project. “Everybody get up and stretch,” he said just before 9:30 p.m.
Maple, pregnant on the dais, clapped her hands. “Squats!” she declared. Maple planted her feet, dropped her thighs to nearly 90 degrees and rose. She repeated her thigh workout two more times before standing upright. Then, she windmilled her arms.
The council did not adjourn until just before 11:15 p.m. Those “marathon 14-hour days” prove hard on her body, she said.
Pain radiates up her back after sitting for too long. Her organs shift while contemplating policy. She said she actively listens to dozens of public speakers, requiring sharp focus for numerous hours. “People come and they take time out of their day. They sit in traffic, they pay for parking, they have time away from their families,” she said. “I owe it to them to pay attention.”
And Maple requires frequent bathroom breaks.
Leaving the dais can prompt taunts from audience members critical of officials for stepping away. People don’t understand every person’s circumstance, she said.
“Sometimes I want to scream in the microphone ‘I am a human, too!’” Maple said. “I have bodily functions and things I need to do.”
But why keep going?
A long re-election campaign loomed for Maple this year. She wondered if she should pause a grueling run for office.
Her 2022 campaign had not been easy. Sacramento’s political establishment backed Maple’s challenger, and hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into the race.
She quit her job, leaving behind a stable paycheck. Maple began knocking on doors across the 5th district. She talked with voters, sometimes alone, for eight hours a day, she said on a recent panel.
“I knew I was going to be successful if I gave it a hundred thousand … percent,” she said. “Which is what I do to almost everything.”
It worked. Maple notched her victory in 2022, just beating her challenger, despite being outfundraised.
Maple, now pregnant and running again, wondered how voters would view her expanding belly. Would constituents think she would miss meetings after she gives birth?
But Maple and her husband together decided to continue. Maple had work to do.
Oak Park residents have gone without a library for 40 years. The region’s leaders would finally meet in one place to discuss homelessness — an outcome Maple sought for years. The region needs affordable housing and better public transit, she said.
“I don’t have to compromise on anything,” she said. “I can have my career. I can pursue my passion, and I can be a mom.”
Ashby said she also worried about the reactions of constituents when she announced her pregnancy.
“Not one person made me feel that way once they knew,” Ashby said. “In fact, it was just the opposite. My colleagues were incredible. My constituents were incredible.”
Maple always dreamed of having kids. She waited until she found the right person, built her career and felt prepared.
As a teenager, Maple had a tumultuous life and left home at 16. She was homeless for a time.
Now, decades later, Maple longs to provide a good life for her son.
“She is creating a life and campaigning at the same time,” Vang said. “That’s so beautiful.”
