California's 2nd Congressional District election, 2026

The boundaries of this district will change as a result of California Proposition 50, which voters approved on November 5, 2025. Click here to read more about the mid-decade redistricting effort in California and other states.

← 2024
California's 2nd Congressional District
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: March 6, 2026
Primary: June 2, 2026 General: November 3, 2026
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting in California
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic DDHQ and The Hill: Pending Inside Elections: Solid Democratic Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
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All U.S. House districts, including the 2nd Congressional District of California, are holding elections in 2026. The general election is November 3, 2026. To learn more about other elections on the ballot, click here.

Candidates and election results

Note: The following list includes official candidates only. Ballotpedia defines official candidates as people who:

• Register with a federal or state campaign finance agency before the candidate filing deadline
• Appear on candidate lists released by government election agencies

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for U.S. House California District 2

Incumbent Jared Huffman, Kevin Eisele, and Colby Smart are running in the general election for U.S. House California District 2 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Jared Huffman (D)
		Kevin Eisele (D)
	Submit photo	Colby Smart (No party preference)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Kyle Wilson (No party preference)

Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Kevin Eisele

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography:  "I am running for Congress because the people of California’s 2nd District deserve a representative who understands what it means to live and work here. I am not a career politician. I am a surgical technologist at UCSF’s Mount Zion campus and a member of AFSCME Local 3299, the union representing University of California workers. Like many in our community, I balance a mortgage, retirement planning, and the everyday challenges of making ends meet. Affordable housing is one of the issues that drives me to run. Too many families are priced out of the very communities they serve. Teachers, nurses, and service workers deserve the ability to live where they work. I also want to strengthen healthcare access. In my work in the operating room, I see firsthand the importance of care and the devastating consequences that can result when cost. Education is equally critical: we should expand community colleges, apprenticeships, and vocational training so students can build a future without being buried in debt. I also believe our district needs balanced leadership on land use and water policy. Ranching and dairies are part of the cultural and economic fabric here, and they deserve respect. Mountain biking and recreation should be expanded rather than restricted. On dam removal, I believe environmental restoration is important, but all stakeholders — from tribal communities to farmers — must have a voice. I want to bring working-class priorities to Congress and ensure our district has"

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Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

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Working-Class Voice: I am a surgical technologist at UCSF’s Mount Zion campus and a proud member of AFSCME Local 3299, bringing the perspective of working people—not career politicians—to Congress.

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Core Priorities: My campaign focuses on economic reform, affordable housing, healthcare access, and investment in education to strengthen opportunities for families in California’s 2nd District.

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Accountability & Representation: I believe government should serve the people of Northern California with transparency, fairness, and a commitment to building an economy that works for everyone.

Voting information

See also: Voting in California

Ballotpedia will publish the dates and deadlines related to this election as they are made available.

Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Survey responses from candidates in this race

Click on a candidate's name to visit their Ballotpedia page.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Expand all | Collapse all

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Kevin Eisele (D)

Working-Class Voice: I am a surgical technologist at UCSF’s Mount Zion campus and a proud member of AFSCME Local 3299, bringing the perspective of working people—not career politicians—to Congress.

Core Priorities: My campaign focuses on economic reform, affordable housing, healthcare access, and investment in education to strengthen opportunities for families in California’s 2nd District.

Accountability & Representation: I believe government should serve the people of Northern California with transparency, fairness, and a commitment to building an economy that works for everyone.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Kevin Eisele (D)

I am passionate about standing up for the working class, because I live the same challenges that so many families in our district face. Housing has become unaffordable for teachers, healthcare workers, and service workers who form the backbone of our communities. Healthcare costs leave too many people choosing between getting care and paying their bills. Education, which should be a path to opportunity, too often leaves students burdened with debt. I believe public policy must focus on these core needs—making housing affordable, ensuring healthcare is accessible, and providing education that empowers people without trapping them in lifelong loans—so that working families can build stable, hopeful lives in Northern California.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Kevin Eisele (D)

I believe the most important characteristics for an elected official are honesty, accountability, and the ability to listen. People put their trust in those they elect, and that trust must never be taken for granted. An official should be transparent about their decisions and willing to explain not only what they support but why they support it. Accountability means being answerable to the people you represent, not to special interests or party insiders.

Another principle that matters greatly to me is independence. Too often, decisions in Washington are driven by pressure from political leadership or large donors instead of the needs of ordinary people. I believe an elected official should have the courage to make choices based on what is best for their constituents, even when it is not the easiest path politically.

I also believe empathy is essential. Policy is not just about numbers and legislation—it is about people’s lives. An effective representative should be able to put themselves in the shoes of the families they serve, understanding the struggles of paying rent, affording healthcare, or sending a child to college.

Ultimately, I believe that an elected official must be committed to upholding fairness. That means ensuring that government works for everyone, not just the wealthy and powerful. Fairness requires fighting for equal opportunity, protecting rights, and creating policies that give working families a chance to succeed.

In short, the principles that guide me are honesty, accountability, independence, empathy, and fairness—values that I believe every elected official should uphold.

What legacy would you like to leave?

Kevin Eisele (D)

I want my legacy to be that I stood up for the working class and gave ordinary people a stronger voice in Congress. I hope to be remembered as someone who made housing more affordable, healthcare more accessible, and education more fair, including no-interest federal university loans that allow students to build their future without crushing debt.

I want my legacy to show that government can work for people, not just for the wealthy and well-connected. That means defending unions and labor rights, protecting ranches and dairies, expanding recreation like mountain biking that is part of our district’s culture, and ensuring environmental policies balance restoration with the needs of local communities.

Most of all, I want to leave behind a record of honesty, accountability, and independence. If future generations can look back and say that I helped make Northern California a place where working families could live, grow, and thrive, then I will have fulfilled my purpose in public service.

You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:

• Jared Huffman

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Jared Huffman	Democratic Party	$445,188	$406,719	$1,023,111	As of September 30, 2025
Kevin Eisele	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Colby Smart	No party preference	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. *** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

General election race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

• Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
• Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
• Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.
• Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.

Race ratings: California's 2nd Congressional District election, 2026
Race tracker	Race ratings
	11/4/2025	10/28/2025	10/21/2025	10/14/2025
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic
Decision Desk HQ and The Hill	Pending	Pending	Pending	Pending
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic
Note: Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week.

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in California in the 2026 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in California, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2026
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
California	U.S. House	All candidates	40-60	$1,740	3/6/2026	Source

District history

The section below details election results for this office in elections dating back to 2020.

2024

See also: California's 2nd Congressional District election, 2024

California's 2nd Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 top-two primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House California District 2

Incumbent Jared Huffman defeated Chris Coulombe in the general election for U.S. House California District 2 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jared Huffman (D)	71.9	272,883
		Chris Coulombe (R)	28.1	106,734

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 379,617
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 2

Incumbent Jared Huffman and Chris Coulombe defeated Tief Gibbs, Jolian Kangas, and Jason Brisendine in the primary for U.S. House California District 2 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jared Huffman (D)	73.4	170,271
✔		Chris Coulombe (R)	16.4	38,039
		Tief Gibbs (R)	8.1	18,834
		Jolian Kangas (No party preference)	1.4	3,276
	Submit photo	Jason Brisendine (No party preference)	0.6	1,411

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 231,831
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

2022

See also: California's 2nd Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House California District 2

Incumbent Jared Huffman defeated Douglas Brower in the general election for U.S. House California District 2 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jared Huffman (D)	74.4	229,720
		Douglas Brower (R)	25.6	79,029

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 308,749
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 2

The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House California District 2 on June 7, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jared Huffman (D)	68.7	145,245
✔		Douglas Brower (R)	8.6	18,102
		Chris Coulombe (R)	8.3	17,498
		Beth Hampson (D)	6.7	14,262
		Archimedes Ramirez (R)	5.8	12,202
		Darian Elizondo (R)	1.9	4,012

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 211,321
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Aaron Smith (R)
• Rebecca Spicer (Conservative Party)

2020

See also: California's 2nd Congressional District election, 2020

General election

General election for U.S. House California District 2

Incumbent Jared Huffman defeated Dale Mensing in the general election for U.S. House California District 2 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jared Huffman (D)	75.7	294,435
		Dale Mensing (R)	24.3	94,320

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 388,755
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 2

Incumbent Jared Huffman and Dale Mensing defeated Rachel Moniz, Melissa Bradley, and Charles Coppock in the primary for U.S. House California District 2 on March 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jared Huffman (D)	67.7	184,155
✔		Dale Mensing (R)	18.9	51,287
		Rachel Moniz (D)	7.6	20,609
	Submit photo	Melissa Bradley (G)	4.6	12,412
	Submit photo	Charles Coppock (American Independent Party of California)	1.3	3,600

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 272,063
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

District analysis

This section will contain facts and figures related to this district's elections when those are available.

See also

California	2026 primaries	2026 U.S. Congress elections
California congressional delegation Voting in California California elections: 2026 • 2025 • 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018	Democratic primary battlegrounds Republican primary battlegrounds U.S. Senate Democratic primaries U.S. Senate Republican primaries U.S. House Democratic primaries U.S. House Republican primaries	U.S. Congress elections U.S. Senate elections U.S. House elections Special elections Ballot access

External links

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

[show]

California's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Alex Padilla (D)

Adam Schiff (D)

Representatives

District 1

Doug LaMalfa (R)

District 2

Jared Huffman (D)

District 3

Kevin Kiley (R)

District 4

Mike Thompson (D)

District 5

Tom McClintock (R)

District 6

Ami Bera (D)

District 7

Doris Matsui (D)

District 8

John Garamendi (D)

District 9

Josh Harder (D)

District 10

Mark DeSaulnier (D)

District 11

Nancy Pelosi (D)

District 12

Lateefah Simon (D)

District 13

Adam Gray (D)

District 14

Eric Swalwell (D)

District 15

Kevin Mullin (D)

District 16

Sam Liccardo (D)

District 17

Ro Khanna (D)

District 18

Zoe Lofgren (D)

District 19

Jimmy Panetta (D)

District 20

Vince Fong (R)

District 21

Jim Costa (D)

District 22

David Valadao (R)

District 23

Jay Obernolte (R)

District 24

Salud Carbajal (D)

District 25

Raul Ruiz (D)

District 26

Julia Brownley (D)

District 27

George Whitesides (D)

District 28

Judy Chu (D)

District 29

Luz Rivas (D)

District 30

Laura Friedman (D)

District 31

Gil Cisneros (D)

District 32

Brad Sherman (D)

District 33

Pete Aguilar (D)

District 34

Jimmy Gomez (D)

District 35

Norma Torres (D)

District 36

Ted Lieu (D)

District 37

Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D)

District 38

Linda Sánchez (D)

District 39

Mark Takano (D)

District 40

Young Kim (R)

District 41

Ken Calvert (R)

District 42

Robert Garcia (D)

District 43

Maxine Waters (D)

District 44

Nanette Barragán (D)

District 45

Derek Tran (D)

District 46

Lou Correa (D)

District 47

Dave Min (D)

District 48

Darrell Issa (R)

District 49

Mike Levin (D)

District 50

Scott Peters (D)

District 51

Sara Jacobs (D)

District 52

Juan Vargas (D)

Democratic Party (45)

Republican Party (9)

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