Joe Kerr
Joe Kerr (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 40th Congressional District. He is on the ballot in the primary on June 2, 2026.[source]
Biography
Joe Kerr's career experience includes working as a firefighter in roles such as fire captain with the Orange County Fire Authority. He was elected as the first president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, a position he held for 17 years, and was the vice president of the California Professional Firefighters and the Orange County Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO). Kerr also served as vice chair of the Regional Water Quality Control Board.[1]
2026 battleground election
Ballotpedia identified the June 2 top-two primary as a battleground election. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.
Ten candidates are running in the top-two primary for California's 40th Congressional District on June 2, 2026. Incumbent Ken Calvert (R), incumbent Young Kim (R), Joe Kerr (D), and Esther Kim Varet (D) lead in campaign fundraising and polling ahead of the election.
Currently, Calvert represents California's 41st Congressional District, and Kim represents the 40th District. The two incumbents were drawn into the same district as a result of Proposition 50, a redistricting amendment voters approved in November 2025. According to ABC7's Josh Haskell, Calvert represents 51% of the new district and Kim represents 35% of the new district.[2] Based on 2024 presidential results, the new district is 10 percentage points more Republican than the old district.
Calvert was first elected to Congress in 1992. He earned his associate degree from Chaffey College and his bachelor's degree from San Diego State University. Before his election to Congress, Calvert was a small business owner in the restaurant and real estate industries.[3]
Calvert is running on his record. His campaign website says, "Ken’s legislative work has received top ratings from the Americans for Tax Reform, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Businesses, National Association of Manufacturers, and the 60 Plus Association" and highlighted his legislation creating the E-Verify system to verify the legal status of employees, securing federal funding for transportation and environmental projects, and constituent services.[4][5]
Kim was first elected to Congress in 2022. She earned her bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Southern California. She worked as a business owner, financial analyst, and staff for then-U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R).[6] She represented District 65 of the California State Assembly from 2014-2016.
Kim is running on her record. Her campaign website says, "In Congress, I fight everyday to ensure President Trump has allies to undo the disastrous Joe Biden-Nancy Pelosi agenda that caused skyrocketing prices, rising crime, open the border, and a political class that does the bidding of the swamp instead of fighting for working families."[7]
Kerr was a fire captain and Orange County Professional Firefighters Association president.[8] On his campaign website, Kerr describes himself as "a firefighter, labor leader, and problem-solver who has spent my career protecting communities and fighting for working families."[9]
Kerr says he is running for Congress "to take on the challenges that determine whether families can afford to live and thrive in our communities: lowering everyday costs, creating good-paying jobs, strengthening public safety, protecting healthcare and reproductive freedom, and ensuring government works for the people it serves."[9]
Varet earned her bachelor's degree from Yale University and her master's degree and doctorate from Columbia University, each in art history.[10] She owns the contemporary art gallery Various Small Fires.[11]
Varet says she is running "because we can’t keep electing the same cynical career politicians and expecting different results. I’m a working mom, an entrepreneur, and a problem solver. I don’t just talk — I roll up my sleeves and get things done. And I’m not afraid to fight hard for the issues that matter."[12]
California uses a top-two primary system, in which all candidates appear on the same ballot. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, move on to the general election.
Elections
2026
See also: California's 40th Congressional District election, 2026
California's 40th Congressional District election, 2026 (June 2 top-two primary)
General election
The primary will occur on June 2, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House California District 40
The following candidates are running in the primary for U.S. House California District 40 on June 2, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Ken Calvert (R) | |
 | Young Kim (R) | |
| Francis Hoffman (D) | ||
 | Claude Keissieh (D) | |
 | Joe Kerr (D) | |
 | Nina Linh (No party preference) | |
 | Lisa Ramirez (D) | |
 | Esther Kim Varet (D) | |
| ||||
 = 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
- Christian Ahmed (No party preference)
- Eric Peterson (D)
- Paula Swift (D)
- Tiffanie Tate (D)
- Christina Gagnier (D)
- Perry Meade (D)
- Maricar Payad (American Independent Party)
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.[13] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."[14] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.
Below we provide results for polls from a wide variety of sources, including media outlets, social media, campaigns, and aggregation websites, when available. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval. Know of something we're missing? Click here to let us know.
| Poll | Dates | Calvert (R) | Kerr (D) | Kim (R) | Varet (D) | Undecided | Sample size | Margin of error | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
– | 22 | 22 | 23 | 14 | 19 | 400 LV | ± 4.9% | Young Kim (R) | |
| Note: LV is likely voters, RV is registered voters, and EV is eligible voters. | |||||||||
Candidate spending
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ken Calvert | Republican Party | $4,493,644 | $1,338,897 | $3,416,882 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Young Kim | Republican Party | $6,339,771 | $2,580,505 | $5,496,764 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Francis Hoffman | Democratic Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Claude Keissieh | Democratic Party | $22,100 | $22,090 | $15 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Joe Kerr | Democratic Party | $193,569 | $183,780 | $9,789 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Lisa Ramirez | Democratic Party | $268,764 | $186,871 | $81,893 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Esther Kim Varet | Democratic Party | $2,390,181 | $1,228,564 | $1,161,617 | As of December 31, 2025 |
| Nina Linh | No party preference | $226,322 | $111,416 | $114,906 | As of December 31, 2025 |
|
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." |
|||||
Satellite spending
- See also: Satellite spending
Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[15][16][17]
If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.
| By candidate | By election |
|---|---|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: California's 40th Congressional District election, 2024
California's 40th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 top-two primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 40
Incumbent Young Kim defeated Joe Kerr in the general election for U.S. House California District 40 on November 5, 2024.
| Total votes: 383,635 | |||
| = 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 40
Incumbent Young Kim and Joe Kerr defeated Allyson Damikolas in the primary for U.S. House California District 40 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Young Kim (R) | 56.4 | 109,963 |
| ✔ | | Joe Kerr (D) | 25.6 | 49,965 |
 | Allyson Damikolas (D) | 18.0 | 35,153 | |
| Total votes: 195,081 | |||
| = 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 State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for California State Senate District 38
Catherine Blakespear defeated Matt Gunderson in the general election for California State Senate District 38 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Catherine Blakespear (D) | 52.2 | 190,992 |
 | Matt Gunderson (R) | 47.8 | 174,581 | |
| Total votes: 365,573 | |||
| = 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 California State Senate District 38
Matt Gunderson and Catherine Blakespear defeated Joe Kerr in the primary for California State Senate District 38 on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Matt Gunderson (R) | 45.9 | 106,358 |
| ✔ | | Catherine Blakespear (D) | 43.0 | 99,583 |
| Joe Kerr (D) | 11.2 | 25,908 | |
| Total votes: 231,849 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign finance
2018
General election
General election for Orange County Board of Supervisors District 4
Doug Chaffee defeated Tim Shaw in the general election for Orange County Board of Supervisors District 4 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Doug Chaffee (Nonpartisan) | 50.4 | 76,859 |
| Tim Shaw (Nonpartisan) | 49.6 | 75,537 | ||
| Total votes: 152,396 | |||
| = 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 Orange County Board of Supervisors District 4
The following candidates ran in the primary for Orange County Board of Supervisors District 4 on June 5, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Tim Shaw (Nonpartisan) | 20.6 | 18,171 | |
| ✔ | | Doug Chaffee (Nonpartisan) | 20.5 | 18,093 |
| Joe Kerr (Nonpartisan) | 20.1 | 17,717 | |
 | Lucille Kring (Nonpartisan) | 17.4 | 15,347 | |
| Rose Espinoza (Nonpartisan) | 11.8 | 10,397 | ||
| Cynthia Aguirre (Nonpartisan) | 9.6 | 8,419 | ||
| Total votes: 88,144 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Joe Kerr has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Joe Kerr asking him to fill out the survey. If you are Joe Kerr, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?
Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for. More than 26,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the survey here.
You can ask Joe Kerr to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing campaign@joekerr.org.
2024
Joe Kerr did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Kerr’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
We have enough talkers in Congress. It’s time for leaders who will champion the most critical issues facing our country. That’s why you can count on me in Congress - I’ll fight like hell to protect reproductive freedom, offer solutions to climate change and gun violence, advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, and create an economy that works for all people. Protect Reproductive Freedom >>> Codify Roe v. Wade Tackle Climate Change Most don’t know this, but one 100,000-acre wildfire produces more CO2 greenhouse gas emissions than 7 million cars running simultaneously and continuously for a year. Even a 1-acre fire releases 12 tons of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions that remain in the atmosphere for the next 100 years. And in California, we can burn upwards of 4 million acres per year. No other member of Congress would have this expertise. We can’t solve climate change without solving wildfires first. Who better to solve this problem than a 34-year firefighter. In Congress, I’ll fight to: >>> Secure federal funding for AI technology that would identify wildfires across California before they become out-of-control Economy That Works for All >>> Fight for good jobs because good jobs feed a good economy. Jobs with healthy benefits so that workers can invest back into the economy. End Gun Violence >>> Gun registration - if we can require vehicles to be registered, we can require guns to be registered Affordability and Cost of Living >>> Fight for Affordable Housing >>> Fight for Affordable Healthcare >>> Deliver Real Solutions on Homelessness More priorities: >>> Make college more affordable LGBTQIA+ Protections >>> Support and advocate for passage of the Equality Act. |
” |
| —John Kerr’s campaign website (2024)[19] | ||
2022
Joe Kerr did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
|
Candidate U.S. House California District 40 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Joe Kerr for Congress, "Meet Joe," accessed February 7, 2024
- ↑ ABC7, "Dueling campaigns launched in new California District 40 after Prop 50 passes," November 5, 2025
- ↑ Congressman Ken Calvert, "Biography," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ Ken Calvert 2026 campaign website, "Meet Ken," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ Ken Calvert 2026 campaign website, "Ken Calvert's Record of Effective Representation in Congress," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "Kim, YOUNG," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ Young Kim 2026 campaign website, "Meet Young Kim," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ Joe Kerr 2026 campaign website, "Meet Joe," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Joe Kerr 2026 campaign website, "The Issues," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ Linkedin, "Esther Kim-Varet," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ Frieze, "Los Angeles According to: Esther Kim Varet from Various Small Fires," January 26, 2024
- ↑ Esther Kim Varet 2026 campaign website, "My Promise to You," accessed March 13, 2026
- ↑ For more information on the difference between margins of error and credibility intervals, see explanations from the American Association for Public Opinion Research and Ipsos.
- ↑ Pew Research Center, "5 key things to know about the margin of error in election polls," September 8, 2016
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," December 12, 2021
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ John Kerr for Congress, “Issues,” accessed February 7, 2024
