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Melissa Toomim
Melissa Toomim (Republican Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent California's 36th Congressional District. She declared candidacy for the 2026 election.
Biography
Melissa Toomim's career experience includes working as an investigative journalist.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: California's 36th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.
General election for U.S. House California District 36
Melissa Toomim is running in the general election for U.S. House California District 36 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Melissa Toomim (R) | |
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
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2024
See also: California's 36th Congressional District election, 2024
California's 36th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 top-two primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 36
Incumbent Ted Lieu defeated Melissa Toomim in the general election for U.S. House California District 36 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Ted Lieu (D) | 68.7 | 246,002 |
| Melissa Toomim (R) | 31.3 | 111,985 | |
| Total votes: 357,987 | |||
| = 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 36
Incumbent Ted Lieu and Melissa Toomim defeated Ariana Hakami and Claire Anderson in the primary for U.S. House California District 36 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ted Lieu (D) | 68.5 | 125,858 |
| ✔ | | Melissa Toomim (R) | 14.9 | 27,440 |
 | Ariana Hakami (R) | 14.1 | 25,823 | |
 | Claire Anderson (No party preference) | 2.5 | 4,509 | |
| Total votes: 183,630 | |||
| = 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
- Michael Cheaure (D)
Endorsements
Toomim received the following endorsements.
Pledges
Toomim signed the following pledges.
2022
See also: California's 32nd Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House California District 32
Incumbent Brad Sherman defeated Lucie Volotzky in the general election for U.S. House California District 32 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Brad Sherman (D) | 69.2 | 167,411 |
 | Lucie Volotzky (R) | 30.8 | 74,618 | |
| Total votes: 242,029 | |||
| = 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 32
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House California District 32 on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Brad Sherman (D) | 53.7 | 88,063 |
| ✔ | | Lucie Volotzky (R) | 19.7 | 32,342 |
 | Shervin Aazami (D) | 9.2 | 15,036 | |
| Melissa Toomim (R) | 8.5 | 13,926 | |
 | Aarika Rhodes (D) | 5.3 | 8,744 | |
 | Jason Potell (D) | 1.8 | 2,943 | |
 | Raji Rab (D) | 1.8 | 2,938 | |
| Total votes: 163,992 | |||
| = 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
- Mumin Khan (D)
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
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2024
Melissa Toomim did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Toomim’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
BRING BACK OUR INDUSTRY JOBS For America to remain a light unto the world, we must protect our First Amendment freedoms to speak, write, worship, assemble and peaceably petition our government. Freedom is not merely a meme. When traveling abroad, it’s easy to spot Americans on the street. We walk with the easy confidence that freedom has instilled in our very DNA. Sadly, political correctness and cancel culture are chipping away at our spirit. We must take the PC braces off our collective brains in order to enhance creativity and our competitive edge, to reinvigorate our entertainment, technology and aerospace industries and to lure other industries to LA.Communist China is notorious for stealing American intellectual property. Why would a country with such enormous wealth need to steal American ingenuity? It’s because their totalitarian system requires adherence to ideological orthodoxy. Such oppression restricts the mind’s natural creative process, thereby limiting China’s ability to compete technologically. If America continues down its current path of political correctness (a term invented by Vladimir Lenin), our own creative strength will undoubtedly diminish. Runaway production is a real problem. There are 53 shows in production in Georgia. That’s not just thousands of production jobs lost from Los Angeles, it’s also business and jobs lost in related fields, such as craft services, equipment sales and rental, fashion, construction, housing, retail, etc. Jobs and prosperity follow the industry. Georgia’s gain is LA’s loss. Because of high taxation, onerous union contracts, byzantine zoning regulations and the PC culture which is choking creativity, both film and tv production and finance have fled Los Angeles. We must strengthen our creative environment by breaking free from “correct” thought. Liberty is not a jingoistic term. It is the fundamental value that drives American ingenuity. Free speech is critical for our entertainment industry to flourish. The Democrats may have support from large labor unions, but they relinquished their role as the party of American workers many years ago. They are the party of globalization, and that’s bad for Americans. They want Americans to believe that all those manufacturing jobs that fled to China will never come back. But in the past few years, many manufacturing jobs did come back. In 2018 alone, five steel mills opened in this country. We can provide tax incentives to companies to re-shore production to the U.S. We can make the regulatory environment easier. Maybe Apple doesn’t care if its workers are jumping off the roof to escape Chinese slavery, but most companies want to do right by their employees and the environment. Unfortunately, because of many legislators and bureaucrats — who feel the need to make themselves “useful” through passage of ever and ever more complicated and often contradictory and opaque government regulations — companies are afraid to re-shore. Making regulations streamlined and consistent will help companies make the choice to come home. That’s the how we can support labor by producing more good jobs, while also supporting management. HOMELESS PROBLEM Before Congress appropriates another penny, I propose that full audits of all programs receiving funds to serve the needs of the unhoused be conducted to determine which agencies and contractors are using those funds wisely and which are merely enlarging their bank accounts with taxpayer funds. Before we can solve the problem, we must rid the system of cronyism. Hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds (federal, state, county and city) have been doled out in the form of bonds to a small circle of developers by California’s political elites. These crooks pocket the money and build little to no housing. This must end! We the people demand greater accountability. If corrupt politicians grant millions of dollars to developer pals, who do not use the funds to build safe, low-cost housing for a reasonable price, within a reasonable timeframe, the people have a right to demand a return of those funds to public coffers. No more cronyism! There are approximately 4,000 homeless veterans currently suffering and trying to survive on the streets of Los Angeles County. These men and women sacrificed their health and sanity in service to our nation, and they are being treated like garbage, because greedy real estate predators and UCLA, among others, are stealing their home. This is not merely a crime against humanity, it is a threat to national security. No one in his/her right mind is going to volunteer for military service, put life and limb on the line, if such inhumane treatment is the thanks they can expect to receive afterwards. In 2013, numerous illegal land users were ordered by a federal judge to vacate the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (a/k/a West LA VA), but through back room deals, they contrived to remain in place and expand their thievery operations. We must ensure that all funds for construction and renovation of housing on the property go to actual construction and not into the pockets of political cronies, and that such housing be made available exclusively for veterans, with neither age nor income limitations. The Soldiers Home was created to be a tranquil setting adjacent to the services veterans need to heal, both physically and mentally. This is the quality care our veterans have earned. As your Representative in Congress, I will make housing them in the buildings established for their care on their National Home a top priority. IMMIGRATION We absolutely must control our southern border. The Democratic Party has a lot of gall these days pretending to be the party of women’s rights, labor and the working class. First of all, the current open borders policy is resulting in the wholesale sexual abuse and enslavement of women and children whose lives are in the hands of traffickers. Thousands of these children have been kidnapped from their families in Guatemala and Honduras by drug cartels for use as props to get across the border. It breaks my heart to hear our Customs and Border Patrol officers characterized as brutes, when I have listened to their emotional stories of rescuing toddlers abandoned in the desert, rocking crying children to sleep, treating their wounds and combing the lice from their hair. Thousands of unaccompanied children, many too young to know where home was, have crossed the border and are trapped in a system where love is in short supply. We need tax incentives and a massive media campaign to encourage more people to become foster and/or adoptive parents. Finishing the border wall will reduce human trafficking, as well as trafficking in drugs and weapons and reduce the violence plaguing our border communities. Secondly, unchecked illegal immigration negatively impacts American workers, particularly unskilled workers in Latino and black communities. As a workforce, illegal immigrants accepting “under the table” jobs reduce the availability of jobs for citizens and legal residents and puts downwards pressure on wages, while increasing the demand and cost of housing. This is economics 101! However, we also have millions of immigrants who came here illegally, were brought here as children or who overstayed their visas, but who have been living and working in this country for ten, twenty years or more. These are productive members of our society, and we need to help them out of limbo and onto a path towards citizenship. This is not a doors wide open amnesty, but a way to help people who have earned their right to be here over many years.[2] |
” |
| —Melissa Toomim’s campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
2022
Melissa Toomim completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Toomim's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Rights of Parents - School Choice
- Border Sanity
- Energy Independence
I support health freedom and have developed a proposal to lift tens of thousands of homeless former foster care kids and former prison inmates off the streets by utilizing excess office space for post-prison halfway houses with supervised living, mental healthcare and life-skills classes; and excess college dormitory space with scholarships to help foster kids obtain the education and skills necessary for them to succeed in life.
Of course, improving our nation's foreign policy is high on my priority list. I know that, were I already serving in Congress, there would be no holocaust in Afghanistan now. I am also very active in advocating for military veterans and protecting the West Los Angeles Soldiers Home from real estate predators.
I am passionate to rebuild the economy of Los Angeles County and California by creating a business friendly environment. We need to attract manufacturing and technology industries and restore LA as the Entertainment Capitol of the World. LA was built on creativity, and I believe that freedom of speech is key to a vibrant entertainment industry, and strong industries are key to re-establishing small businesses and rebuilding our middle class.
Placing DEI policies above professional qualifications and achievements is hurting our ability to compete in the politically incorrect global market. Or as I like to call it, "Divisiveness, Iniquity and Exclusion." The challenge we face as a nation is that a generation of American kids have come of age being indoctrinated to believe we have systemic racism, and therefore, we must oppress the majority - particularly white males - in order to achieve social justice. This is absolutely false. This only serves to divide and weaken us as a nation, which is exactly what our greatest enemies - China and Russia - want. Regardless of how it's marketed, critical race theory = racism. In the words of the great actor, Morgan Freeman, the best way to end racism is to "stop talking about it." In other words, stop evaluating each other based on indelible qualities and return to the values expressed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that we should judge one another by the content of our character.
Los Angeles is awash in stories of intentionally bad government policies that are destroying our communities. When I hear them I feel like my head will simply explode off my shoulders. But this is why I decided to step up and run for office. It's not about me. I live in LA, Tinsel Town. I've walked enough red carpets in my life, Washington does not hold any glamourous appeal to me, and I don't need the attention. What I need is a job in which I can utilize my knowledge and skills to make a difference for my city, my state, my country and the world. That's why I am running for Congress. I am driven to serve.
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.
Campaign website
Toomim's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
BRING BACK OUR INDUSTRY JOBS THE 1ST AMENDMENT IS KEY TO ENDING RUNAWAY PRODUCTION AND REINVIGORATING LA AS THE ENTERTAINMENT CAPITOL OF THE WORLD, BRINGING BACK AEROSPACE, EXPANDING TECH AND ATTRACTING OTHER INDUSTRIES
END CRONYISM AND CORRUPTION AND EMPLOY A MULTI-PRONGED APPROACH TO SOLVING THE HOMELESS CRISIS
The “housing first” policy is just a scam whereby developers receive taxpayer funds for apartment buildings to provide “low-income housing,” which they convert to private ownership. I propose leasing empty office buildings to create halfway houses for former prisoners, with private bedrooms, but common kitchens and bathrooms, on-site supervision, mental health services and life skills classes. This is the way to lift tens of thousands of homeless off the streets, while assisting former inmates in rebuilding their lives outside of prison walls. CoVid accelerated the trend of remote work, which has left commercial landlords struggling to fill empty offices. My plan will help property owners, while reducing costs associated with the correctional system, law enforcement and sanitation. We will have safer, cleaner streets and neighborhoods. Everybody wins!
I STAND WITH ISRAEL There is a chant frequently shouted during Quds Day marches around the world: “Khybar Khybar ya Yahud, Jaish Muhammad sa Yahud!” It means “Khybar Khybar oh Jews, Muhammad’s army will return for you.” This chant refers to the single day massacre committed in 628 A.D. of approximately 900 Jewish men and boys from the village of Khybar in Saudi Arabia. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is the more socially acceptable expression of the same sentiment. These are blantantly antisemitic chants by people who believe there should be no Jews living in Israel. There’s a common misperception about the meaning of the term “Israeli occupation.” Most people believe it means the presence of IDF soldiers patrolling and oppressing Arabs on the streets of Gaza. In fact, since 2005, there have not been any Jews living in Gaza, nor Israeli soldiers patrolling the streets. That year, the Israeli government forced every Jew to evacuate the coastal enclave, many at gunpoint. A few months after achieving its goal of a Jew-free zone, HAMAS launched some 1,200 rockets over the border into Southern Israel. What occupation were they fighting? Any territory formerly under Islamic rule, which is currently not under Islamic rule is considered occupied. Therefore, HAMAS, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups continually launch attacks at Israel because they are fighting Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish Homeland. Israel has a right and duty to defend itself from militants and nations committed to its destruction. It cannot be expected to idly allow missiles to rain down on Israeli civilians without taking military measures to eliminate its enemies’ weapons stockpiles. No nation under attack takes greater measures to prevent harming civilians. Before every airstrike, the Israelis telephone civilians in the strike zone with 2-3 hours advance notice to evacuate. “Knock-knocks” (rockets without warheads) are then dropped, to give another 3-15 minutes advance warning. After military actions, Israel immediately sends trucks into Gaza laden with recovery supplies. Israel has the right to defend itself, and there is no nation on earth that conducts its military defense in a more humane fashion. I stand with Israel.
SECURE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER TO STEM THE TIDE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND TRAFFICKING, SUPPORT MANAGED IMMIGRATION AND ESTABLISH A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR IMMIGRANTS IN LIMBO WHO HAVE BEEN HERE FOR MANY YEARS
First of all, the current open borders policy is resulting in the wholesale sexual abuse and enslavement of women and children whose lives are in the hands of traffickers. Thousands of these children have been kidnapped from their families in Guatemala and Honduras by drug cartels for use as props to get across the border. It breaks my heart to hear our Customs and Border Patrol officers characterized as brutes, when I have listened to their emotional stories of rescuing toddlers abandoned in the desert, rocking crying children to sleep, treating their wounds and combing the lice from their hair. Thousands of unaccompanied children, many too young to know where home was, have crossed the border and are trapped in a system where love is in short supply. We need tax incentives and a massive media campaign to encourage more people to become foster and/or adoptive parents. Finishing the border wall will reduce human trafficking, as well as trafficking in drugs and weapons and reduce the violence plaguing our border communities. Secondly, unchecked illegal immigration negatively impacts American workers, particularly unskilled workers in Latino and black communities. As a workforce, illegal immigrants accepting “under the table” jobs reduce the availability of jobs for citizens and legal residents and puts downwards pressure on wages, while increasing the demand and cost of housing. This is economics 101!
|
” |
| —Melissa Toomim's campaign website (2022)[4] | ||
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
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Candidate U.S. House California District 36 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Melissa Toomim for Congress, "Home," accessed June 10, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Melissa Toomim, “Issues,” accessed February 8, 2024
- ↑ Melissa Toomim for Congress, “Issues,” accessed May 24, 2022
