State Assembly

District 2

Candidates

The District

This vast coastal district, which reaches from Santa Rosa up to the Oregon border, is a major agricultural region, with dairy, wine grapes and the struggling cannabis farms of the Emerald Triangle. Though overwhelmingly white, it includes California’s largest indigenous tribe, the Yurok.

Voter registration: 51.0% Democratic, 21.8% Republican, 18.8% no party preference

The Scoop

By unexpectedly passing on his final term representing this safely Democratic district on the north coast, Assemblymember Jim Wood set off one of the most contentious legislative races of the year. California Democratic Party Chairperson Rusty Hicks, who recently moved to Arcata, is now seeking to make his first foray into public office — frustrating longtime critics in the progressive wing of the party, who have unsuccessfully called on Hicks to step down from his post while he campaigns. A former Los Angeles labor leader, Hicks is a well-connected insider who quickly pulled in influential endorsements, including from Wood and the California Labor Federation.

He faces stiff competition, including Chris Rogers, a council member in Santa Rosa, by far the largest city in the district. Rogers has racked up his own lengthy list of supporters from local labor and political circles, led by Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents Santa Rosa in Congress and soon-to-be state Senate leader Mike McGuire. Other Democrats pursuing the seat include Healdsburg Mayor Ariel Kelley, Yurok Tribe Vice Chairperson Frankie Myers and Mendocino County Supervisor Ted Williams. The strong liberal lean of the district means there’s an outside chance two of them make it through the primary and face off in the November general election. But with only one Republican in the race — Michael Greer, a school district trustee in Del Norte County — that’s unlikely, making the primary potentially decisive.

Fundraising

Key Endorsements

Related News

Back to top

District 6

Candidates

The District

This diverse district covers more than half of Sacramento, including its downtown core, as well as its closest northern and eastern suburbs. The voters, many of whom work in state government, are highly politically involved and very liberal.

Voter registration: 50.5% Democratic, 20.5% Republican, 21.3% no party preference

The Scoop

By giving up his final term in the Legislature to run for Sacramento mayor, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty opened the floodgates to liberal candidates seeking this safely Democratic seat in the backyard of the state Capitol. Some may be vaguely familiar to local voters who pay close attention to their ballots: Rosanna Herber, one of four openly LGBTQ people in the race, is on the board of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Maggy Krell, a prosecutor in the California Department of Justice, ran unsuccessfully for Sacramento County district attorney in 2014. And Paula Villescaz, who advocates for county welfare agencies, previously served on a local school board and lost a 2022 race for state Senate.

Other hopefuls, while mostly unknown to the public, come from political backgrounds that have allowed them to rack up extensive endorsements from state and federal officials and organizations: Sean Frame, a labor leader with close ties to progressive activists; Carlos Marquez III, the former director of the American Civil Liberties Union California Action; and Evan Minton, a progressive policy advocate who successfully sued Dignity Health for denying him a hysterectomy and would be the first openly transgender legislator. Emmanuel Amanfor, who has served on Sacramento’s housing and development commission and personnel board, is the only Black candidate running.

Given the partisan breakdown of the district, the highly competitive primary could effectively determine the outcome of this race. It depends on how much the crowded Democratic field splits the vote and whether one of the GOP candidates — Preston Romero, a legislative staffer who is president of the local Log Cabin Republicans chapter, or Nikki Ellis, an international affairs specialist for the California Chamber of Commerce — can consolidate enough support to finish in the top two.

Fundraising

Key Endorsements

Related News

Back to top

District 13

Candidates

The District

Covering most of San Joaquin County along its western side, this diverse district — with large Latino and Asian populations — includes Stockton, where a majority of voters live, as well as agricultural communities in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Bay Area suburbs such as Tracy.

Voter registration: 49.6% Democratic, 22.3% Republican, 20.4% no party preference

The Scoop

This race has enough drama to fill a soap opera. Two-term Assemblymember Carlos Villapudua cruised to re-election in this safe Democratic seat in 2022 and seemed poised to do so again this year. But with his wife facing a challenging campaign to win an overlapping open state Senate district, Villapudua swapped places with her shortly before the filing deadline in December. Now Edith Villapudua, a real estate agent, is running for the Assembly — and so is Rhodesia Ransom, who was previously her Senate opponent. Ransom, the district director for Rep. Josh Harder and a former city council member in Tracy, beat Edith Villapudua for the California Democratic Party endorsement when they were both Senate candidates.

In each of the past two elections, there was no Republican on the primary ballot, allowing two Democrats to advance to the November runoff. This year, however, Denise Aguilar Mendez, a notorious anti-vaccine activist, is seeking the seat. After founding Freedom Angels, which led protests against the coronavirus pandemic shutdown orders at the Capitol, and Mamalitia, a women’s survivalist group, Aguilar has become a leading voice in California’s parental rights movement, including opposing transgender care for minors. Because of the district’s partisan lean, she will probably finish first in the primary, essentially crowning Ransom or Villapudua — whomever advances alongside her — the eventual winner in November.

Fundraising

Key Endorsements

Related News

Back to top

District 36

Candidates

The District

Bordering Mexico to the south and Arizona to the east, this majority Latino district extends north to the Mojave Desert through Imperial and Riverside counties. Many of the voters live in a thin sliver that juts west into the Coachella Valley.

Voter registration: 43.8% Democratic, 27.3% Republican, 21.3% no party preference

The Scoop

Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia shocked political observers in December when, without warning, he did not file to run for a final term in office. Local Democratic officials piled into the suddenly open race: Joey Acuña, a member of the Coachella Valley Unified School District board; Waymond Fermon, who sits on the Indio City Council; Edgard Garcia and Tomas Oliva, both members of the El Centro City Council; and Eric Rodriguez, a trustee of the Central Union High School District.

One of them is likely to win the seat — if they make it through the March primary scramble. This district leans more conservative than it appears: Gov. Gavin Newsom only won by two percentage points during his re-election bid in 2022. If the Democratic vote is heavily split, both Republican candidates — Jeff Gonzalez, a business owner and past challenger to Garcia, and nonprofit director Kalin Morse — could slip through to the general election. That would lock Democrats out of a seat that Garcia previously won by nearly seven percentage points. The party establishment, including Garcia and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, appears to be consolidating behind Acuña, who ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly in 1998, 2000 and 2002.

Fundraising

Key Endorsements

Related News

Back to top

District 75

Candidates

The District

This safely Republican seat represents inland San Diego County, a more rural expanse that reaches east from conservative-leaning suburbs such as Poway and Santee.

Voter registration: 29.7% Democratic, 41.0% Republican, 21.3% no party preference

The Scoop

With Assemblymember Marie Waldron terming out, the Republican Party wants Andrew Hayes to take her place. The district director for state Sen. Brian Jones, who represents an overlapping Senate district, Hayes received the endorsements of the California and San Diego County GOP. But he faces some intraparty competition from biotech entrepreneur Jack Fernandes and outspoken conservative activist Carl DeMaio. The latter, a former member of the San Diego City Council, may pose a strong challenge if he can draw on the following he cultivated through his talk radio show and other political campaigns, such as his unsuccessful 2018 push to repeal California’s gas tax increase. DeMaio is pitching himself to voters as an aggressive new model to revive the fading Republican Party in the state.

Though flipping such a conservative district is a longshot, the California Democratic Party, labor groups and local officials have lined up behind Kevin Juza, a corporate leadership coach and Democratic activist. If he advances out of the primary, then whichever Republican faces Juza in November is almost guaranteed to win the seat. But if two other low-profile Democratic candidates — teacher Christie Dougherty and Joy Frew, a retired U.S. Treasury Department employee — siphon off enough votes, two Republicans could finish in the top two, setting up a showdown in the general election.

Fundraising

Key Endorsements

Related News

Back to top