California's 31st Congressional District election, 2024

	2026 → ← 2022
California's 31st Congressional District
	Top-two primary; General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: December 8, 2023
	Primary: March 5, 2024; General: November 5, 2024
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: Safe Democratic; 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, 2024
See also
	California's 31st Congressional District; U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th • 11th • 12th • 13th • 14th • 15th • 16th • 17th • 18th • 19th • 20th • 21st • 22nd • 23rd • 24th • 25th • 26th • 27th • 28th • 29th • 30th • 31st • 32nd • 33rd • 34th • 35th • 36th • 37th • 38th • 39th • 40th • 41st • 42nd • 43rd • 44th • 45th • 46th • 47th • 48th • 49th • 50th • 51st • 52nd ; California elections, 2024; U.S. Congress elections, 2024; U.S. Senate elections, 2024; U.S. House elections, 2024; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

California 2024 elections

U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Congressional special elections • State Senate • State Assembly • State ballot measures • Local ballot measures • School boards • Municipal • Recalls • All other local • How to run for office

All U.S. House districts, including the 31st Congressional District of California, held elections in 2024. The general election was November 5, 2024. The primary was March 5, 2024. The filing deadline was December 8, 2023.

The outcome of this race affected the partisan balance of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 119th Congress. All 435 House districts were up for election.

At the time of the election, Republicans held a 220-212 majority with three vacancies.^[1] As a result of the election, Republicans retained control of the U.S. House, winning 220 seats to Democrats' 215.^[2] To read more about the 2024 U.S. House elections, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Democratic candidate won 59.5%-40.5%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have defeated Donald Trump (R) 64.5%-33.4%.^[3]

This is one of 45 open races for the U.S. House in 2024 where an incumbent did not run for re-election. Across the country, 24 Democrats and 21 Republicans did not run for re-election. In 2022, 49 representatives did not seek re-election, including 31 Democrats and 18 Republicans.

For more information about the primaries in this election, click on the links below:

California's 31st Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 top-two primary)

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for U.S. House California District 31

Gil Cisneros defeated Daniel Martinez in the general election for U.S. House California District 31 on November 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Gil Cisneros (D)	59.7	148,095
	Daniel Martinez (R)	40.3	99,856

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 247,951
= 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 31

The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House California District 31 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Gil Cisneros (D)	23.6	23,888
✔		Daniel Martinez (R)	19.2	19,464
	Submit photo	Pedro Casas (R)	16.9	17,077
		Susan Rubio (D)	15.8	16,006
		Bob Archuleta (D)	10.0	10,151
		Mary Ann Lutz (D)	6.5	6,629
		Gregory Hafif (D)	4.9	4,914
		Kurt Jose (D)	1.4	1,415
		Erskine Levi (No party preference)	1.2	1,166
		Y. Marie Manvel (No party preference)	0.5	534

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 101,244
= 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

Ricardo Vazques (D)
Elvira Moreno (R)

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.

Gil Cisneros

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office:

U.S. House California District 39 (2019-2021)

Submitted Biography: "Gil is the son of a public school cafeteria worker and a Vietnam veteran. He attended college on a Naval scholarship, and he served as a U.S. Navy officer for 10 years. Gil’s roots are in the San Gabriel Valley. He grew up with family in La Puente and attended Charter Oak High football games. After the Navy, he worked at Frito-Lay, with facilities in the City of Industry and Rancho Cucamonga, before he and his wife, Jacki, dedicated their lives to helping students through the educational foundation they established after winning the lottery. In 2018, Gil ran for Congress with strong support from Unions and flipped a historic seat from red to blue. In Congress, Cisneros directly recovered over $550K for constituents, brought back $136M in non-COVID related grants, responded to 119K letters, and held 250 in-district events, including 30 town halls. Gil was appointed by President Biden as the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, and served as the military’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, where he expanded access to reproductive healthcare and access to abortion even in states that had banned it, promoted LGBTQ equity, worked to stop sexual assaults, and expanded universal pre-k to all military families. Gil has returned to the San Gabriel Valley in El Monte to run for Congress in the 31st Congressional District. Gil is fighting for gun safety reform, educational opportunities, climate action, and women's rights."

Key Messages

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

ANTI-CORRUPTION - Gil is fed up with corporate special interest money in our politics and will crack down on corruption in politics. He supports efforts to limit the influence and power of lobbyists and refuses to take donations from Big Pharma, oil corporations, tobacco, gun manufacturers, and private prisons. Gil is fighting for real campaign finance reform to stop big corporations from buying elections.

ECONOMY - Gil understands that working families are struggling because wages aren’t keeping up with prices. Too many families in the 31st District can’t keep up with the increased costs of housing, groceries, gas, and the overall cost of living while seeing their incomes remain flat. In Congress, Gil will fight for equal pay for working women, raise the minimum wage to a living wage, lower prescription drug prices, ensure retirement security, and he has plans to bring good-paying manufacturing jobs back home and make housing more affordable.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS - Gil believes that decisions about a woman’s reproductive health should stay between a woman and her doctor. That means every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including contraception and fertility treatment.

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House California District 31 in 2024.

Voting information

See also: Voting in California

Election information in California: Nov. 5, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

In-person: Nov. 5, 2024
By mail: Postmarked by Oct. 21, 2024
Online: Oct. 21, 2024

Was absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

Yes

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

In-person: N/A
By mail: N/A by N/A
Online: N/A

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

In-person: Nov. 5, 2024
By mail: Postmarked by Nov. 5, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

Yes

What were the early voting start and end dates?

Varies to Nov. 4, 2024

Were all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, was a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

7:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (PST)

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?

Image of https://s3.amazonaws.com/ballotpedia-api4/files/thumbs/100/100/GilCisneros2024.jpg

Gil Cisneros (D)

ANTI-CORRUPTION - Gil is fed up with corporate special interest money in our politics and will crack down on corruption in politics. He supports efforts to limit the influence and power of lobbyists and refuses to take donations from Big Pharma, oil corporations, tobacco, gun manufacturers, and private prisons. Gil is fighting for real campaign finance reform to stop big corporations from buying elections.

ECONOMY - Gil understands that working families are struggling because wages aren’t keeping up with prices. Too many families in the 31st District can’t keep up with the increased costs of housing, groceries, gas, and the overall cost of living while seeing their incomes remain flat. In Congress, Gil will fight for equal pay for working women, raise the minimum wage to a living wage, lower prescription drug prices, ensure retirement security, and he has plans to bring good-paying manufacturing jobs back home and make housing more affordable.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS - Gil believes that decisions about a woman’s reproductive health should stay between a woman and her doctor. That means every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including contraception and fertility treatment.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Gil Cisneros (D)

Gil is particularly passionate about issues that impact students, veterans, and protecting choice. In Congress and at the Department of Defense, Gil has been an advocate of expanding Pell grants, improving veteran services, and protecting a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body.

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Bob Archuleta	Democratic Party	$576,501	$559,040	$17,461	As of December 31, 2024
Gil Cisneros	Democratic Party	$6,477,170	$6,437,095	$40,076	As of December 31, 2024
Gregory Hafif	Democratic Party	$826,620	$826,620	$0	As of March 31, 2024
Kurt Jose	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Mary Ann Lutz	Democratic Party	$626,215	$626,215	$0	As of June 30, 2024
Susan Rubio	Democratic Party	$583,861	$582,225	$1,636	As of December 31, 2024
Pedro Casas	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Daniel Martinez	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Erskine Levi	No party preference	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Y. Marie Manvel	No party preference	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. 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.^[4]
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.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Race ratings: California's 31st Congressional District election, 2024
Race tracker	Race ratings
	November 5, 2024	October 29, 2024	October 22, 2024	October 15, 2024
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic
Decision Desk HQ and The Hill	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic
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 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in California, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
California	U.S. House	All candidates	40-60	$1,740.00^[8]	12/8/2023	Source

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2024 U.S. House elections in the state.
Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.

District map

Competitiveness
Presidential elections

State party control

Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in California.

California U.S. House primary competitiveness, 2014-2024
Office	Districts/ offices	Seats	Open seats	Candidates	Possible primaries	Contested top-two primaries	% of contested primaries	Incumbents in contested primaries	% of incumbents in contested primaries
2024	52	52	7	241	52	42	80.8%	36	80.0%
2022	52	52	5	272	52	52	100.0%	47	100.0%
2020	53	53	4	262	53	47	88.7%	32	64.0%
2018	53	53	2	244	53	41	77.4%	39	76.5%
2016	53	53	4	202	53	40	75.5%	36	73.5%
2014	53	53	6	209	53	38	71.7%	32	68.1%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in California in 2024. Information below was calculated on 1/16/2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

Two-hundred forty-one candidates filed to run for California's 52 U.S. House districts in 2024, including 125 Democrats, 88 Republicans, and 28 independent or minor party candidates. That’s 4.63 candidates per district. In 2022, the first election after the number of congressional districts in California decreased from 53 to 52 following the 2020 census, 5.2 candidates filed per district. In 2020, when the state still had 53 Congressional districts, 4.94 candidates filed per district. In 2018, 4.6 candidates filed.

The 241 candidates who ran in California in 2024 were the fewest total number of candidates since 2016, when 202 candidates ran. Forty-five incumbents—34 Democrats and 11 Republicans—ran for re-election. That was fewer than in 2022, when 47 incumbents ran. Six districts were open, one more than in 2022, and the most since 2014, when six districts were also open.

Incumbents Barbara Lee (D-12th), Adam Schiff (D-30th), and Katie Porter (D-47th) ran for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. Incumbent Sen. Laphonza Butler (D) didn't run for re-election. Incumbents Grace Napolitano (D-31st), Tony Cárdenas (D-29th), and Anna Eshoo (D-16th) retired from public office. One incumbent—Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-20th)—left Congress before the end of his term. A special election was held to fill his seat before the general election.

Fifteen candidates—12 Democrats, two Republicans, and one nonpartisan—ran in the open 30th district, the most candidates running for a seat in 2024.

Forty-two primaries were contested, the fewest since 2018, when 41 were contested. All 52 primaries were contested in 2022, and 47 were in 2020. In California, which uses a top-two primary system, a primary is contested if more than two candidates file to run.

Incumbents ran in 35 of the 42 contested primaries. That’s lower than 2022, when 47 incumbents ran in contested primaries, but higher than every other year since 2014. In 2020, 32 incumbents faced contested primaries. Thirty-nine incumbents did so in 2018, 36 in 2016, and 32 in 2014.

Democratic candidates ran in every district. Republican candidates ran in every district except one—the 37th. Two Democrats, including incumbent Sydney Kamlage-Dove, one nonpartisan candidate, and one Peace and Freedom Party member ran in that district.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+15. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 15 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made California's 31st the 97th most Democratic district nationally.^[9]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in California's 31st based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden	Donald Trump
64.5%	33.4%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district.^[10] The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline	Republican Baseline	Difference
62.3	37.4	D+24.9

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in California, 2020

California presidential election results (1900-2020)

15 Democratic wins
15 Republican wins
1 other win

Year	1900	1904	1908	1912	1916	1920	1924	1928	1932	1936	1940	1944	1948	1952	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2020
Winning Party	R	R	R	P^[11]	D	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D

See also: Party control of California state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of California's congressional delegation as of May 2024.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from California
Party	U.S. Senate	U.S. House	Total
Democratic	2	43	45
Republican	0	9	9
Independent	0	0	0
Vacancies	0	0	0
Total	2	52	54

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in California's top four state executive offices as of May 2024.

State executive officials in California, May 2024
Office	Officeholder
Governor	Gavin Newsom
Lieutenant Governor	Eleni Kounalakis
Secretary of State	Shirley Weber
Attorney General	Rob Bonta

State legislature

California State Senate

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	32
	Republican Party	8
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		40

California State Assembly

Party		As of February 2024
	Democratic Party	62
	Republican Party	18
	Independent	1
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		80

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

California Party Control: 1992-2024
Nineteen years of Democratic trifectas • No Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
Governor	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
Assembly	D	D	D	S	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D

District history

The section below details election results for this office in elections dating back to 2018.