Mark Ruzon

Mark Ruzon (No party preference) ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent California. He lost in the primary on March 5, 2024.

Ruzon completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Mark Ruzon was born in Joliet, Illinois. Ruzon's professional experience includes working as a software engineer. He served on the board of directors for Peninsula Interfaith Action. Ruzon earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California in 1994 and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2000.^[1]

Ruzon has been affiliated with the American Solidarity Party and St. Athanasius Catholic Church.^[1]

Elections

2024

General election

General election for U.S. Senate California

Adam Schiff defeated Steve Garvey in the general election for U.S. Senate California on November 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Adam Schiff (D)	58.9	9,036,252
	Steve Garvey (R)	41.1	6,312,594

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 15,348,846
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

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

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Adam Schiff (D)	31.6	2,304,829
✔		Steve Garvey (R)	31.5	2,301,351
		Katie Porter (D)	15.3	1,118,429
		Barbara Lee (D)	9.8	717,129
		Eric Early (R)	3.3	242,055
		James P. Bradley (R)	1.4	98,778
		Christina Pascucci (D)	0.8	61,998
		Sharleta Bassett (R)	0.8	54,884
		Sarah Sun Liew (R)	0.5	38,718
	Submit photo	Laura Garza (No party preference)	0.5	34,529
		Jonathan Reiss (R)	0.5	34,400
		Sepi Gilani (D)	0.5	34,316
		Gail Lightfoot (L)	0.5	33,295
		Denice Gary-Pandol (R)	0.4	25,649
		James Macauley (R)	0.3	23,296
		Harmesh Kumar (D)	0.3	21,624
		David Peterson (D)	0.3	21,170
		Douglas Howard Pierce (D)	0.3	19,458
		Major Singh (No party preference)	0.2	17,092
		John Rose (D)	0.2	14,627
		Perry Pound (D)	0.2	14,195
		Raji Rab (D)	0.2	13,640
		Mark Ruzon (No party preference)	0.2	13,488
		Forrest Jones (American Independent Party of California)	0.2	13,140
	Submit photo	Stefan Simchowitz (R)	0.2	12,773
		Martin Veprauskas (R)	0.1	9,795
		Don Grundmann (No party preference)	0.1	6,641
		Michael Dilger (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	7
		Carlos Guillermo Tapia (R) (Write-in)	0.0	5
	Submit photo	John Dowell (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	3
		Danny Fabricant (R) (Write-in)	0.0	3

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 7,301,317
= 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.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Lexi Reese (D)
Alexander Norbash (D)
Renee Martinez (No party preference)
Dominick Dorothy (D)
Joshua Bocanegra (D)
Barack Obama Mandela (R)
Joe Sosinski (No party preference)
James Shuster (R)
Rommell Montenegro (D)
Zakaria Kortam (R)
John Pappenheim (R)
Jacob Farmos (D)
Roxanne Lawler (R)
Jessica Resendez (D)
Jeremy Fennell (D)
Carson Franklin Jr. (D)
Fepbrina Keivaulqe Autiameineire (Vienmerisce Veittemeignzce USA)
Paul Anderson (G)
Peter Liu (R)
Dana Bobbitt (No party preference)
Zafar Inam (D)
Jehu Hand (R)
Eduardo Berdugo (No party preference)
Frank Ferreira (No party preference)

Endorsements

Ruzon received the following endorsements.

American Solidarity Party of California

2022

General election

General election for U.S. Senate California

Incumbent Alex Padilla defeated Mark Meuser in the general election for U.S. Senate California on November 8, 2022.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Alex Padilla (D)	61.1	6,621,621
	Mark Meuser (R)	38.9	4,222,029

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,843,650
= 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.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

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

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Alex Padilla (D)	54.1	3,725,544
✔		Mark Meuser (R)	14.9	1,028,374
		Cordie Williams (R)	6.9	474,321
		Jonathan Elist (R)	4.2	289,716
		Chuck Smith (R)	3.9	266,766
		James P. Bradley (R)	3.4	235,788
		Douglas Howard Pierce (D)	1.7	116,771
		John Parker (Peace and Freedom Party)	1.5	105,477
		Sarah Sun Liew (R)	1.1	76,994
		Dan O'Dowd (D)	1.1	74,916
		Akinyemi Agbede (D)	1.0	70,971
		Myron Hall (R)	1.0	66,161
		Timothy Ursich Jr. (D)	0.8	58,348
		Robert Lucero (R)	0.8	53,398
		James Henry Conn (G)	0.5	35,983
		Eleanor Garcia (Independent)	0.5	34,625
		Carlos Guillermo Tapia (R)	0.5	33,870
		Pamela Elizondo (G)	0.5	31,981
		Enrique Petris (R)	0.5	31,883
		Obaidul Huq Pirjada (D)	0.4	27,889
		Daphne Bradford (Independent)	0.4	26,900
		Don Grundmann (Independent)	0.1	10,181
		Deon Jenkins (Independent)	0.1	6,936
		Mark Ruzon (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	206
		Lily Zhou (R) (Write-in)	0.0	58
	Submit photo	Irene Ratliff (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	7
	Submit photo	Marc Roth (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	1

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 6,884,065
= 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.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Chloe Hollett-Billingsley (D)
Dhruva Herle (D)
Chris Theodore (D)
Ernest Taylor (D)
Brant John-Michael Williams (Independent)
Marie Encar Arnold (D)
Peter Liu (R)
Brian Ainsworth (R)
Yvonne Girard (R)
Elizabeth Heng (R)
Erik Urbina (R)
Denard Ingram (D)
Ellerton Whitney (L)
Danny Fabricant (R)
Fepbrina Keivaulqe Autiameineire (Independent)
Paul Gutierrez (R)
Mary Glory Thach (Independent)

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Mark Ruzon completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Ruzon's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am the chair of the American Solidarity Party of California, which has endorsed me. I am a Roman Catholic, a husband of 27 years, and a father of four. I have been a Republican, a Democrat, and an independent, and I have found them all wanting; I believe the ASP's philosophy offers America the best chance to ensure the full flourishing of society. I have been active in politics for 20 years, starting with advocacy for the Opportunity Center in Palo Alto, which provides housing and services for the homeless. I was chair of the Board of Directors for Peninsula Interfaith Action, a multi-faith community organizing non-profit seeking justice for communities. I have taught children to love chess, baseball, soccer, and scouting. My day job is software engineering.

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?

Families are the fundamental building blocks of society. Today, there are not enough families being created in America, and we are not doing enough to sustain existing families. My campaign's primary focus is on supporting the American family.
Every human being has an inviolable dignity that must be acknowledged and upheld, and all human beings have the right to live and be protected from harm.
Recent events have shown a great need for an overhaul of our democratic institutions to ensure fair representation and justice for all.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I see universal health care as the key to unlocking lots of America's economic difficulties. In 1980 governments (federal, state, and local) devoted about 6% of GDP on health care. Now it's 20%. That difference is why low-cost manufacturing and many good jobs left for China, because the margins were too low to cover health care costs. Also, millions of people lost their jobs during the pandemic, and with it their health insurance. No sane person would design a health care system with a feature like that. Universal health care would also level the playing field between big corporations that can afford to insure their workers versus small- and medium-sized businesses that cannot.

I want to improve the quality of voting, elections, and representation in our democracy. The two ways that in my view are simplest to implement and would have the greatest impact are Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and proportional representation. RCV allows voters to make their preferences fully known without forcing them to guess which candidate is most likely to beat the candidate they don't like. It also encourages positive campaigning as candidates compete for all voters. Proportional representation allocates seats based on actual vote shares instead of winner-take-all systems that distort the voters' will.

Housing is a unique area of our economy because, unlike shares of stock, houses are lived in. I want to give more families more opportunity to own their own home.

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

Elected officials should have a commitment to the common good. When making decisions about how to write laws, officials must not place special interests above the good of the people. An elected official should be honest with the public when it comes to the trade-offs that inevitably need to be made on an issue. The valid points of those who disagree must be acknowledged; it is not a betrayal of one's cause to point out what is good in someone else's argument.

An elected official is also a leader, and so, having spent more time understanding details of important issues than most people, they are responsible for communicating to the public what they know and what they have learned from considering different sides of an issue. Sometimes that means they will be able to see a little farther ahead, and they should take the time to explain where a trend is headed.

Finally, an elected official should be flexible. Elected officials are powerful, and even the President cannot get everything he wants when he wants it. Elected officials should be wise enough to understand that the perfect should not become the enemy of the good.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I'm a software engineer by trade. Building software systems involves a dispassionate understanding of the goals that need to be achieved and the facts and the available resources and making trade-offs that will best achieve the goal. I plan to bring these same analytical skills to the U.S. Senate.

I bring a kindness that is best exemplified by my willingness to listen. No matter what my policy disagreements with someone might be, I try to see that person as having an innate dignity and a cousin within this big human family we are all in.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I was an 8-year-old 3rd grader in the fall of 1980 when my teacher, Mrs. Egan, had us all write a paragraph explaining whether we would vote for Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan and why. I do not remember the reasons I gave for voting for Reagan; I do remember the vote being in his favor something like 18-11 and being very glad to have been on the winning side. In retrospect, the outcome was not particularly surprising, as Will County, Illinois, being mostly past the outer ring of Chicago suburbs at that time, was strongly Republican. 8-year-olds' political universes are mostly limited to the thoughts and leanings of their parents, a fact that was driven home by watching the first of the famous BBC film series "Seven Up!"

Growing up in that area gave me the typical conservative views of Republicans in the '80s and '90s: low taxes, free enterprise, small government. I kept these views as a Californian during my 20s until about 2004 when Republicans, who had had control of both branches of Congress and the presidency for 2 years, failed to address the tragedy of abortion in any meaningful way. The cynicism of watching the government pass tax cuts for the wealthy while using abortion as a way to get poor people to vote against their own economic interests, plus a growing realization that it wasn't enough to tell the poor that they had the "freedom" to improve their lot in life and leave it at that, led me to become a Democrat.

I stayed a pro-life Democrat for over a decade as that wing of the party slowly dried up from lack of support until after the 2016 election, when the Democratic National Committee announced that no pro-life Democrat would receive support from the national party. Since I no longer felt wanted, I left, and a year later found the American Solidarity Party, where I have been happy ever since.

What is your favorite book? Why?

My favorite book is actually a series: the Horatio Hornblower novels of C.S. Forester. These novels chronicle the career of a British naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars as he progresses from a young midshipman who knows nothing of the ways of the navy to a captain whose ingenuity and skill prove to be vital in protecting his nation's survival. He was actually Gene Roddenberry's inspiration for Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk.

I love these books because, in addition to having interesting plots and being set in seas all around the world, they describe the intricacies of sailing ships, of daily life in the navy, and the tactics and strategy of naval warfare. When I go to my local library, I usually pick one at random off the shelf and read a random chapter for a few minutes while my family is finding things to read themselves.

I harbor no illusions that life in the 18th century British navy or the 21st century American navy is any kind of picnic. War is brutal, and we must always exhaust all diplomatic means of resolving conflict before we undertake military action. The idea of being the captain of a ship, somewhat like being a U.S. Senator, involves making hard decisions while sticking to a moral code, and I like that.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Economically, we are in desperate need of a new health care system, as what we have now is neither healthy, nor caring, nor a system. In 1980 health care spending consumed about 6% of GDP; now it is over 18%. That difference is key to understanding why low-margin manufacturing has left the US for China and other low-cost countries. It's a big contributor to the lack of wage growth over the last 40 years. Millions of people lost their jobs during the pandemic through no fault of their own, and with them their health insurance. How does that make sense? Small and medium-sized businesses find it harder to compete with large corporations because they either can't offer health insurance or have to offer it with substantially larger premiums due to their lack of purchasing power. We would never design a system like this, so let's not continue.

From a purely political standpoint, the biggest challenge is that our government is set up as a duopoly of Democrats and Republicans. While that arrangement has more or less been agreeable to the country since the Civil War, the parties these days are moving toward the extremes, especially the Republicans, and I expect that they will either implode or go off the deep end within the next decade. The problem is that the rules don't allow new voices to be heard and new political philosophies to be expressed except in a very limited form. Just as we passed reforms over a century ago with innovations like voter initiatives and recall of elected officials, we need new reforms today such as ranked-choice voting and proportional representation to bring our democracy into the 21st century.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

Ideally we wouldn't need term limits, because voters would take a strong interest in who is representing them in government and replace people who are no longer able to do the job well. However, we have seen plenty of examples demonstrating that this is not the case. In California, Dianne Feinstein was re-elected in 2018 despite being 84 and showing noticeable signs of mental decline and despite California Democrats not even endorsing her for re-election. We have had 5 senators serve over 45 years in the Senate, and that point a person is the head of a state-based machine that is likely to be serving themselves as much as it is serving their constituents.

For these reasons I favor term limits. They should not be so short, however, that lobbyists are the only people in Washington who know how to write legislation. So the limits should be of significant length, say 24 years: 4 Senate terms or 12 House terms. After that, it's time to let someone else take over.

What qualities does the U.S. Senate possess that makes it unique as an institution?

Having only 100 members makes the U.S. Senate a more collegial place where it's harder to ignore people one disagrees with. I remember California Democrats getting quite upset with the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein because she maintained a friendship with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). I saw that friendship as a sign that collegiality has not yet left the Senate as it has the House. Small groups of Republican and Democratic senators have been instrumental in solving logjams in the Senate; I would be happy to make those groups tripartisan.

Also, because senators are elected from states that are usually much larger than House districts, senators tend not to be as extreme as the most members of the House; they have to appeal to a broader range of the electorate to secure their seats.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

American Solidarity Party of California

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.

2022

Mark Ruzon 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.

Mark Ruzon campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	U.S. Senate California	Lost primary	$25,489	$25,489
2022	U.S. Senate California	Lost primary	$0	N/A**
Grand total			$25,489	$25,489
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

External links

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Candidate

U.S. Senate California

Personal

Footnotes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 4, 2023

[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)

[bio-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 4, 2023

[1]

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Mark Ruzon

Contents

Biography

Elections

2024

General election

General election for U.S. Senate California

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Endorsements

2022

General election

General election for U.S. Senate California

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

2022

Campaign finance summary

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2025 Elections

2026 Elections

2024 Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

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