I am a community organizer, and I have hosted our community forums every week since last July. I am not eligible to vote, but I have always loved politics, a little too much if you ask my family. For the last few months, community members in our forums have been asking my opinion on who I would vote for or support, and I finally sat down to write some thoughts down, and I am willing to share how I would personally vote if I could. I wrote this with the intention of sharing my unfiltered opinion and my thought process, and I hope it inspires more people to look into this race, to talk to each other about their political opinions, or to rip my opinions apart, because I believe that the more passionate opinions our people have, the more engaged they are, and the more connected they are, and that is what strengthens our democracy and builds our power.
I am not telling anyone how to vote, because that is not my place, and because the whole point of building community power is that we each have to do the work of arriving at our own conscience. I have not been paid by any campaign, party, or organization for this content, I am just a nerdy gal with a lot of opinions and a lot of time as I look for a new job. I also firmly believe that the work of building a better world starts now, and that voting can be a very useful tool.
Given that, here is my thought process. My rule, for what it is worth, is this: I support the most progressive candidate I can when there is actually room to do that without handing the seat to a Republican, I support the centrist Democrat when that is the only viable option to keep the right out of power, and I support an ideological choice, sometimes a third party and sometimes a write-in name, when the race is safe enough that I can afford to send a message instead, and whenever I am holding my nose to support someone I have real reservations about, I tell you so directly, in the section about that race, so you can decide whether the same reasoning applies to you.
Look up your exact ballot at Ballotpedia →This guide is free to read and free to share. If you use it and it helps you, please consider a one-time donation of $5 or more, or a monthly subscription of $5, $10, $20, or $30 on my Patreon, so I can keep doing this work. Here is how to support it.
The picks on this page are La PodeRosa's own decisions, written in her own voice. They are not endorsements of Radiant Futures or Semillas de Poder, and that line matters to us.
I am La PodeRosa, a daughter of immigrants who grew up in Santa Ana, California, and I have spent my life convinced that a more just world is not only possible, it is owed to every one of us. I am a community organizer, and every week I host our community forums, because I believe the people closest to the problem are the ones who will dream up the answer.
I have loved politics since I was a kid, a little too much if you ask my family. I followed campaigns and Supreme Court arguments the way other kids followed sports, I built my own electoral trackers, and I still follow the math down to the county level. That obsession is not cynicism, it is the opposite. I study how power works because I want us to take it back and use it to build the future we deserve.
What I believe is simple. I believe a better world is possible, I believe every one of us deserves to live in it, and I believe we build it starting now, with each other, in our own neighborhoods. That is the lens I bring to everything on this page. Take what is useful to you, leave what is not, and argue with me, because a community full of passionate opinions is a community building its power.
Our State Senate seat is SD-33, held by Lena Gonzalez. She was re-elected in November 2024 and her term runs through December 2028, so SD-33 is NOT on the June 2, 2026 ballot. There is no State Senate vote for SELA voters this primary. The next time SD-33 is up is the June 2028 primary.
The big races. This is where I decide how far left California can push on climate, housing, immigration.
I know what you might be thinking when you read that my vote is going to Tom Steyer, because a billionaire is exactly the kind of candidate I should be most skeptical of, and I am, but Steyer is also the only person in this race who has been talking publicly about taxing the rich and breaking up the investor-owned utilities like PG&E and SoCal Edison, and ending all new oil and gas drilling permits, for years before any of those things became politically safe to say in Sacramento, and that record matters to me, even when I have to hold it up next to his Farallon years, which I have not forgiven and which I do not think he has fully reckoned with in public.
What I am looking for in this race is somebody actually willing to use the power of the state of California against the oil wells in our backyards, against the insurance companies that walked away from working-class neighborhoods after the fires, against the corporate landlords that have made it impossible for our families to stay in the homes they have lived in for decades, and against the federal immigration machine that is once again terrorizing our community, and as far as I can tell from reading every plan and every debate transcript and every Substack post in this race, Steyer is the major Democrat who has put the most concrete commitments on the table, including his plan to direct the state Attorney General to prosecute ICE agents for violations of California law, a plan whose legal limits he himself acknowledges in his own writing but which he is at least willing to fight for in public.
Steyer is not from our class, and I am not going to pretend otherwise, but he is voting against his own class in a way that I find meaningful in this particular race, with this particular field, and I would rather have a wealthy class-traitor in the governor's office than a comfortable centrist who knows exactly when to fold, which is what I worry I would get from the more establishment options.
tomsteyer.com · CalMatters
This one's one of the easiest on my ballot. Oliver Ma is a civil rights attorney, came to this country at age 7, sues slumlords, defends families against ICE raids, and wants to divest from companies financing the occupation of Palestine. First statewide candidate endorsed by CA DSA.
His platform is literally my list of values. Repeal Costa-Hawkins. Repeal Ellis Act. Statewide rent control. Right to counsel for tenants. End private prisons. Green New Deal. Free childcare. He's 28. Lt. Gov. is almost ceremonial, which is exactly why it's where we can afford to send someone who tells the truth loud.
oliverma2026.com · CA DSA
Being honest with myself here. Shirley Weber is going to win. She's the Democratic incumbent, she authored the reparations bill, I respect that. But in the primary, where my vote doesn't decide anything structural, I'd rather use it to push the conversation.
Blenner is a teacher, has been running with the Green Party for years, and the Left Unity Slate this cycle is seriously organized. My vote is a message: universal mail voting, automatic restoration of voting rights for formerly incarcerated people, end corporate money in elections. Weber wins without my vote. Blenner doesn't, but my vote raises the Green Party's percentage, which helps them keep ballot access.
blenner4sos.org · Left Unity Slate
Rob Bonta wins the primary walking. And look, Bonta has done things. Sued LA County jails over inhumane conditions, defended state sanctuary. He's not bad. But he's also let ICE raids continue and hasn't been strong enough against police.
Marjorie Mikels has been an Inland Empire attorney since 1981. Came out of retirement specifically to run against the massacre in Gaza and against the public-private surveillance contracts with Silicon Valley. In the primary, where Bonta already has his runoff locked, my vote goes with her. She's my loud voice.
marjoriemikels4justice.com · Left Unity Slate
This one's personal. After the 2024-25 fires, we watched insurers abandon entire families in SELA, Altadena, Pacific Palisades. Denied claims. Raised premiums. Left the state.
Lalo Vargas is a former LA County firefighter, son of immigrants, and his platform is the only thing that makes sense. Deny every major rate hike immediately. Audit increases from the last 5 years. Fine insurers for every day they've denied fair payment to survivors. Build a public insurance system. Steven Bradford, the Democratic frontrunner, has taken industry money. Lalo hasn't.
lalovargas4ca.com
Malia Cohen is the incumbent and she's going to win. First African American woman in the role, she's been competent. But Meghann Adams is a school bus driver at SFUSD, president of her union SMART Local 1741, PSL member, lives in the Tenderloin.
Her platform: audit affordable housing statewide, expose corporate landlords, feasibility study of public utilities (PG&E, Edison, SDG&E as non-profit), analyze single-payer Medi-Cal costs, divest from Israel. That's exactly what a Controller can do with their microphone. Cohen wins anyway.
meghann4ca.com
Tough one. Nobody excites me. Going to be honest, there's no good progressive option here. Democratic options are Eleni Kounalakis (outgoing Lt. Gov., decent on climate and LGBTQ rights but part of the Newsom machine), Anna Caballero (the worst, takes money from police, real estate, Edison, fossil fuels, California Apartment Association), and Tony Vázquez (current Board of Equalization, Latino roots, connection to Dolores Huerta). Glenn Turner is the Green candidate but barely has a public platform.
I'm voting Vázquez because he's NOT Caballero, and because he has history with the Chicano movement and state fiscal experience. Without enthusiasm. If I find something bad about Vázquez before June 2, I switch to Kounalakis.
Tony Thurmond is running for governor, so this seat is open. The big Democratic options are Al Muratsuchi (South Bay assemblyman, author of a $10 billion school bond, decent but institutionalist) and Anthony Rendon (former Speaker, defended charters, fine but not radical). Richard Barrera from San Diego has the CTA endorsement.
But Frank Lara, bilingual SFUSD teacher, vice president of United Educators of San Francisco, PSL organizer, is one of ours. Fully fund and staff public schools. Stop charter privatization. Defend immigrant students and families against ICE. Firm vote.
frank4caschools.com
District 3 covers all of LA County. Tony Vázquez (the incumbent) is termed out and running for Treasurer. Of the Democratic candidates, Sam Sukaton is the only real progressive: labor organizer at AFT Local 1521 (LACCD faculty), former director of the Bernie Sanders Inland Empire 2020 campaign, endorsed by CA DSA, Our Revolution, and Teamsters JC7.
His core platform: go after Prop 13, which protects corporate landlords and suburban homeowners at the worker's expense. That's exactly what this tax board position needs. Mike Gipson (assemblyman) is the most visible establishment Democratic option, not bad but not radical on taxes.
samsukaton.com
Confirmed, Jessie Lopez is running. Ward 3 Santa Ana councilmember since 2020, daughter of immigrants, first in her family to graduate from college while working two jobs. Her council record: expanded affordable housing, protected public land, defended Santa Ana's undocumented community.
Her opponent David Peñaloza is the opposite, aligned with developers and the most conservative wing of the OC Democratic Party. Coverage from Orange Juice Blog and The Liberal OC confirm her as the clear progressive candidate. Endorsed by CA Environmental Voters, CA Legislative Women's Caucus, and the DSA network.
votejessielopez.com
My district. Covers Bellflower, Huntington Park, Lakewood, Lynwood, Maywood, Paramount, South Gate, Walnut Park. Solache is the only Democrat on the ballot, his only opponent is Paul Irving Jones, the Republican he already beat in 2024.
Solache is gay, son of immigrants, former Lynwood mayor, former LUSD board. His early Assembly record shows endorsements from Equality California, CFT, LA County Fed of Labor. Is he the most progressive we could have in SELA? I'm not sure, he hasn't voted on enough contested bills yet to have a strong record on Palestine or tenants' rights at the level I want. But there's no progressive challenger. I vote Solache, I monitor him, and if someone further left runs in 2028, I'll consider them.
solacheforassembly.com
My lean is John Erickson, and the reason is the labor record, because UNITE HERE Local 11, SEIU California, the California Federation of Teachers, and the National Union of Healthcare Workers all endorsed him, and his West Hollywood council record on hospitality workers, on housing density, and on LGBTQ+ protections is the most consistent in the field on the issues that drive this guide.
The reservation I have to name is that the California Democratic Party endorsement went to Dr. Sion Roy, and Brian Goldsmith has outraised the field, so the primary likely narrows to Erickson and one of those two, and Erickson is coming at the housing fight from a YIMBY-aligned council record rather than from the tenant-defense side, which is a real gap in a district where so many people are renting. The labor case is strong, the tenant-organizing case is weaker, and you deserve to know both before you decide.
erickson4weho.com · Santa Monica Daily Press
I am leaning Wendy Carrillo because her Assembly record on labor and immigration is the one I would trust against the hardest votes, with a 97 percent lifetime California Labor Federation score, a sanctuary-defense record, and the fact that she was arrested at UNITE HERE Local 11's 2023 civil disobedience standing with hotel workers during a real contract fight.
The reservation I have to name plainly is the November 2023 DUI, which is a real thing that happened and a real thing voters in this district know about. She pleaded no contest in January 2024, did not seek re-election to her Assembly seat, and has been public about it since, including authoring AB 2865 on alcohol-harm education in high schools, and I would rather support a candidate who owns the worst day of her career than one who has never had one tested. Hernandez is a credible alternative, and I would not call a Hernandez vote wrong, so if you read the DUI as disqualifying, that is a defensible call and the district has to decide it.
wendycarrillo.com · LAist
I support Lola Smallwood-Cuevas without much hesitation, because her first term delivered SB 497 to protect workers from retaliation when they report wage theft, SB 627 to protect displaced retail workers when chain stores close, SB 150 to win community-benefits protections on major infrastructure projects, and SB 572 to put surplus state property in South LA toward affordable housing, and because she came to the seat from two decades of labor and civil rights organizing, which is the background this district needs.
The reservation, named honestly, is that I have not seen her tested with a hard vote on policing or on Palestine, both of which are live questions in South LA, so the honest framing is that her labor and housing record is strong and the broader test of how she uses the seat is still open, and the second term will tell us more than the first did.
The honest answer here is that I cannot in good faith call a clean endorsement. The incumbent Bob Archuleta took $22,700 in law enforcement campaign contributions during his 2022 cycle, the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs endorsed him for his 2024 congressional run, and he is a former Montebello reserve police officer, and in a district full of immigrant and working-class Gateway Cities that police-union money is a hard thing for me to overlook, even with the California Democratic Party endorsement he carries.
The other candidate, Araceli Martinez, is the Republican, which is not where this guide goes, so I cannot recommend her either, which leaves no clear pick and a vote of conscience, with the police-union reservation named directly so you can decide for yourself.
This is a default pick rather than a strong one. Dr. Tiffanie Tate is the only Democrat in the race against Republican incumbent Kelly Seyarto, and the case for her is her platform on healthcare, on cost-of-living, and on worker protections, plus a background as an OB-GYN that matters where reproductive rights are on the line.
I am calling it a default because her campaign money and her endorsement coverage are thin in the sources I could pull, and I do not have a clean read on her record on policing, on immigration, or on rent control, which is a real gap. The case against Seyarto is easy to make from his Republican record, but a case against is not a case for, and an honest case for needs more than I have right now.
votedrtate.com · Ballotpedia
The case for Avelino Valencia is real. He is the sitting Assemblymember for AD-68, he was the first elected official in Anaheim to publicly call on former Mayor Harry Sidhu to resign as the FBI corruption investigation unfolded, he supported the independent investigation that produced the JL Group report on Anaheim City Hall, and he carries the California Democratic Party endorsement, the Orange County Labor Federation, and UNITE HERE Local 11.
The reservation I have to name is that SD-34 covers Santa Ana, where the ICE-cooperation question is most concrete, and OC is a county whose Sheriff has historically been one of the most cooperative with ICE in the state, and I have not seen Valencia draw a hard line on county-jail-to-ICE transfers and on full sanctuary in a way that satisfies CHIRLA-aligned organizing. He is good on labor and on Anaheim accountability, but the case that he is the right fighter on the immigration question is one I cannot make confidently yet.
avelinovalencia.com · Ballotpedia
The honest read is that this is a Republican-leaning district, and the June ask is to vote Richard "Rick" Foster, a Seal Beach Democrat, so a Democrat stays in the November field against incumbent Tony Strickland, who won a February 2025 special election and whose record runs charter and oil-aligned through his Senate and Assembly career.
I am calling it a default because Foster's labor and tenant-side endorsements are not something I could pull in the time I had, so the case for him on his own is still being built, and a reader deserves to know that. The deeper rationale gets written in the fall guide, when both candidates are on the November ballot and the choice is a real one.
foster4senate.com · Ballotpedia
Southern California decides whether the Democratic House survives 2026. CA-45 especially, if we lose it, Trump gains margin in the House.
Hilda Solis is the candidate to know here. The seat is open because Linda Sánchez moved to CA-41 in the Prop 50 redistricting. Solis was Obama's Secretary of Labor, served 8 years in Congress before that, and is now LA County Supervisor for District 1, which covers a big chunk of SELA.
I have reservations. As Supervisor she supported some Sheriff contracts and hasn't been as strong against incarceration as I'd like. But her record on labor and immigrant rights is solid, she authored the first federal recognition of September 16. The alternative, Monica Sánchez (Pico Rivera councilmember), is clearly running hoping voters confuse her last name with Linda Sánchez's. That rubs me wrong.
Lisa Ramirez is an immigration attorney in Orange County, known for getting the immigrant father of three U.S. Marines out of detention. I know her work, not her personally, because she has helped people I love in their fight to stay with their families, to adjust their immigration status, and in the hardest cases even to reunite with family. That is my bias, and I want to name it plainly. What defends this pick is her record, not a relationship, because I do not have one with her.
The Democratic field is competitive. Joe Kerr (firefighter, lost in 2024 by 10 points), Christina Gagnier (former Chino Valley School Board), Esther Kim Varet (self-funded, art dealer). The district just shifted with Prop 50, now it's more Republican than before, which makes this a brutal fight against Young Kim. Kerr leads in internal polls. But in the primary I vote Lisa because she's the strongest voice against Trump's detention regime. In the general I vote whoever's against Young Kim.
The CA-42 incumbent is Robert Garcia, former Long Beach mayor, first openly LGBTQ+ immigrant elected to Congress, now ranking member on Oversight where he fights the Trump administration every week.
His primary challengers, Noah Blom, Brian Burley, Long Pham, Larisa Vermeulen, none have a progressive profile that overtakes Garcia. Solid record on immigration, affordable housing, LGBTQ. Firm vote.
robertgarcia.com
This one hurts. Derek Tran voted YES on the Laken Riley Act, the law allowing detention without due process for immigrants accused (not convicted) of minor crimes. That's exactly the kind of Democratic cowardice that makes me sick. His justification, "when you commit a crime, you should be deported", repeats the Republican anti-immigrant frame.
And I'm still going to vote for him. Because he won this OC seat against a MAGA Republican by less than a point in 2024, and if I lose it in 2026 we hand Trump another House seat. On his other votes (Affordable Care Act, labor rights, Voting Rights) he's voted well. And there's no serious Democratic challenger to his left in the primary. I vote Tran holding my nose and email his office every week about detentions.
I lean Jasmeet Bains because she is a sitting State Assemblymember and a physician, the chief medical officer for the Central Valley on the California Medical Assistance Team, and her central case against Valadao is his vote to gut Medi-Cal, which provides 68 percent of the affordable healthcare in this district, which is exactly the kind of specific, district-grounded fight a swing seat needs.
The candidate I want you to weigh against her is Randy Villegas, who has aligned with the Working Families Party and is in some ways the more movement-aligned choice, but the seat has flipped repeatedly on the back of voters who do not love the Democratic Party label, so a candidate further to Bains's left has a harder path through November, and I am weighing this race on the November math because putting Valadao out of office is the point.
I lean Pat Wallis on thin evidence, because she has answered Morongo Basin Democratic Club questionnaires on the issues that matter in this district, water access in the high desert, veterans' services, and the public-land question, and she has been a visible presence at local organizing meetings in a way her opponents have not been in the sources I could find.
The reservation is two-part. First, this is not a district where a Democratic primary winner has a real path against Obernolte, so the practical effect is to place a Democrat on the November ballot. Second, Wallis's positions on policing, immigration, and Palestine are not in the sources I could verify, so the case for her is that she is the most engaged Democratic candidate in a thin field, not a full-throated endorsement.
For our Ventura County readers in the northern tip of this district, the practical case for Salud Carbajal is that he is the credible incumbent in a blue district, with a long progressive record on offshore oil drilling moratoria, on veterans, and on immigration including early DACA-protection work, and the California Democratic Party has endorsed him for re-election.
The reservations I want to name honestly are that Carbajal has not been as forward on Palestine as the progressive wing of the caucus has wanted, and his housing and tenant record is the legislative-Democrat record, which is real but is not the tenant-defense record a renter organizer would write. The challengers running from his left in spirit have not built campaigns that signal they will consolidate the progressive primary vote.
carbajal.house.gov · Ballotpedia CA-24
The case for Raul Ruiz is real. He has built one of the most concrete healthcare records of any California Democrat, his work on the Coachella Valley Healthcare Initiative has expanded access where rural health deserts are a daily reality, and he has carried farmworker-protection bills in a district where the farmworker movement is part of how the district votes Democratic.
The reservation I have to name is that Ruiz has been on the more cautious side of the caucus on immigration enforcement, including a 2018 vote for a continuing resolution that funded ICE enforcement at levels organizers were protesting, and his record on Palestine has been the establishment-caucus record. In a heavily Latino and working-class district the immigration record matters, and a vote for Ruiz with that reservation named is more honest than a clean endorsement.
I lean Chris Espinosa because he is making a campaign-grade case for a stronger climate and housing platform than Jacqui Irwin has run on, and Irwin's Assembly record on tenant protections has been thinner than this district's renter population calls for, so the open-seat moment is the moment to push the district to its left rather than retrench to the moderate default.
The reservation is honest and it matters. Irwin has the general-election infrastructure and the moderate-Democrat coalition that may be what holds this seat in a non-presidential year, and a Democrat who loses the general is worse for the district than an Irwin who holds it. The case for Espinosa is that the district can win with a progressive Democrat if the organizing is real, and the case for Irwin is that the seat is too close to risk on a less-tested candidate, and both reads are defensible.
I support George Whitesides because his first term has been on the right side of the votes on veterans' healthcare, on disaster recovery for the wildfire-affected SCV communities, and on the procedural fights that have come up in this Congress, and the California Democratic Party endorsed him for re-election.
The reservation, named plainly, is that Whitesides came to Congress from a private space-industry background as a former CEO of Virgin Galactic, which makes him a professional-class Democrat whose instincts on labor and corporate accountability are not the instincts of a movement organizer. He has voted with the caucus on labor and housing but he has not led on either, so this is a hold-the-seat vote, and a primary vote for the progressive challenger Roberto Ramos is a legitimate way to register a push-from-the-left signal.
I support Judy Chu because she is one of the most consistent progressive votes from Southern California, with scorecard ratings near 100 percent from the AFL-CIO and from immigration and LGBTQ+ groups across the past decade, and her chairing of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus has meant real work on AAPI hate-crime response and on the long fight against racist scapegoating of Asian-American communities.
I want to name two reservations honestly. Chu has been on the more cautious side of the caucus on Palestine, including a vote against the most recent ceasefire resolution in committee, and her response to the post-Eaton Fire Altadena recovery has been the constituent-services response of a long-tenured incumbent rather than the structural-housing-policy fight the recovery actually needs. Both are reservations rather than disqualifications, and a vote for Chu is still the clearest hold of a reliably progressive vote in the SGV.
chu.house.gov · Ballotpedia CA-28
I lean Luz Rivas because her first-term voting record has been progressive on the votes that matter on housing, immigration, and labor, and her background as an engineer who founded DIY Girls, a STEM education nonprofit for girls in the NE Valley, gives her a grounded community-builder profile that the district responds to.
The reservation is that Angélica Maria Dueñas, the longtime DSA-LA-aligned challenger who has run for this seat repeatedly from the left, makes a genuine case, and the honest version of supporting Rivas means naming that her record so far is good-not-great on the questions Pacoima and Sun Valley organizers have raised on policing, on environmental-justice enforcement at the rail corridor, and on Palestine. A vote for Dueñas in the primary is a legitimate push-from-the-left signal.
I support Laura Friedman because her first term has been on the right side of the votes on housing, on labor, on reproductive rights, and on the procedural fights under the current Congress, and the California Democratic Party endorsed her for re-election along with much of the labor and environmental coalition that backed her in 2024.
The reservation, named plainly, is that Friedman came to Congress from a Glendale City Council and state legislature background that was more establishment-Democrat than movement-aligned, and her record on Israel-Palestine has been the AIPAC-endorsed record, which is the issue where the most organized constituent pressure has come from in CA-30. A reader who weighs Palestine heavily will see this as a real reservation, and I would rather name it directly than write a clean endorsement.
lauraforcongress.org · Ballotpedia Friedman
I support Gil Cisneros because his first term back in Congress has been on the caucus's progressive side on the votes that matter for an SGV district where the AAPI and Latino populations are both large. He has been a vocal critic of Trump-era deportation enforcement, he has worked on veterans' housing, and the California Democratic Party has endorsed him.
The honest reservation is the wealth question itself. Cisneros came to wealth by a Mega Millions lottery win, not by inheritance or industry, and he is not a billionaire, but the dynamic of self-funding Democratic campaigns at scale is a real thing to name in any honest profile, and a reader who has thought about that question for other races deserves to see it raised here too.
I cannot in good faith write a clean Brad Sherman endorsement. He has been the AIPAC-endorsed incumbent on Israel-Palestine, he has voted against ceasefire resolutions and against conditioning military aid, and the Westside-Valley organizing on Palestine has named him as the central target for primary pressure this cycle, and he has also been weak on housing and tenant protections in a district where the housing crisis is acute.
I also cannot name a clean primary challenger, because the challenger lane has not consolidated. Marena Lin is the climate-and-housing progressive whose case is strongest on policy, and Jake Levine has the policy background and the fundraising to build a real campaign, although his establishment-Democrat lineage cuts against the movement-aligned framing. So the honest call is no clear pick, with the case against Sherman named directly and a primary protest vote for Lin or Levine named as a defensible alternative.
I lean Jimmy Gomez because his roll-call record is one of the strongest progressive records from any LA Democrat. He was one of the few CA Democrats to vote against the most recent supplemental that included unconditional military aid to Israel, and he has been a vocal voice on Medicare for All, on universal childcare, on tenant protections, and on protecting Medicaid and SNAP, and his Boyle Heights and East LA base is real organizing infrastructure.
The reservation I have to name plainly is that the 2024 cycle revealed real bruising in Gomez's relationship with movement organizers, around the early DACA-recipient deportations and around the encampment-sweep coordination questions, so his record on the votes is strong while his presence as an organizer's ally has been more uneven. The David Kim challenge from the left is the one with progressive backers in the district, and if DSA-LA has named Kim, that is the signal that could legitimately flip this pick.
I support Norma Torres because of her record on Central American foreign policy, since she was the first Central American immigrant elected to Congress and has used that platform on Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador in ways that matter to Pomona's substantial Central American community, along with her work on immigration legalization and her solid labor record.
The reservations I want to name are two. Torres has been more centrist on certain economic and procedural questions than her district might prefer, including votes for some of the more law-enforcement-expansive provisions of recent appropriations bills, and her response to Trump-era ICE enforcement in Pomona itself has been more cautious than the local organizing has wanted. The case for her is hold-the-seat in a competitive district, and the reservation is that the hold has come with trade-offs.
I support Ted Lieu as the hold-the-seat case for an effective communicator in caucus leadership, with a strong record on technology policy, on civil rights, and on the procedural fights against the Trump-era authoritarian moves, and the California Democratic Party along with the labor and civil-rights groups that backed him in past cycles have stayed with him.
The reservation, named honestly, is that Lieu has been more cautious on Israel-Palestine than the movement organizing in his district has wanted, and his record on housing has been the establishment-Democrat record rather than the tenant-defense record a beach-cities district with a real affordability crisis could be electing. The case against from the left is real, but I cannot in this draft point to a consolidated challenger who is making it.
lieu.house.gov · Ballotpedia Lieu
I support Sydney Kamlager-Dove because her record on housing through federal tenant protections, on policing accountability through the police-misconduct registry language she carried, on environmental justice in the diesel-emissions and Inglewood Oil Field fights, and on standing with Black Lives Matter organizing in her district has been the strongest from any new LA Democrat in this Congress, and she has not accepted law-enforcement or real-estate PAC contributions in a district where developers have been gentrifying for decades.
The reservation I have to name honestly is on Palestine, because Kamlager-Dove has been on the more cautious side of the caucus and has not endorsed conditioning military aid, which has disappointed the Free Palestine organizing in her district. It is a real reservation, but it has not become disqualifying for most of her district-based progressive support, and the honest version names it without flattening the rest of the record.
I support Mark Takano for his deep record on veterans' issues in a district where the March Air Reserve Base and the Riverside veterans community are central, his work on LGBTQ+ rights and on the Equality Act, and his consistent labor and progressive scorecard ratings.
The reservation is the same one I have for most CA Democrats in this batch. Takano has been more cautious on Palestine than the movement organizing in his district has wanted, though his record on this is somewhat better than the caucus median. For our readers, this district is not in our core coverage area, and I am naming it plainly so nobody mistakes it for a local race.
takano.house.gov · Ballotpedia Takano
I lean Anuj Dixit because his background as a lawyer with public-interest and voting-rights litigation experience is the most movement-aligned of the Democratic field I could verify, and he has built a campaign that names Calvert's votes against the Affordable Care Act expansion and against tenant protections in district-specific terms.
The reservations are real. The Democratic field is splitting the vote in a way that may advance two Republicans, Calvert and Cody Wiebelhaus, to November, which would be a worst-case outcome for a flip-the-seat strategy, and my information on Dixit is thinner than I would want before naming him as a clean pick. If a county labor council or a local organizing group has named a specific Democratic primary pick, that signal should override my lean.
I support Maxine Waters because her record on housing and financial regulation is the most aggressive of any senior Democrat in Congress, including her use of the Financial Services gavel to interrogate Wells Fargo on the fake-accounts scandal, her bills on predatory lending and on tenant protections, her decades of work on HIV/AIDS funding for South LA, and the fact that she is one of the most vocally pro-Palestine senior members of the House, with votes on conditioning military aid that almost no other senior CA Democrat has matched.
The reservation I want to name plainly is that Waters is in her mid-80s and has represented the seat for more than three decades, and the question of generational succession in a Black congressional seat is one her district has been raising for several cycles. There is no challenger in this field running the campaign that would carry that succession argument credibly, which makes a vote for Waters the practical answer for 2026, even though the generational question is real.
The case for Nanette Barragán is real and direct. She chairs the House Environmental Justice Caucus, she has carried legislation on port pollution and on the diesel-emissions corridor that runs through our entire coverage area, she has been a vocal critic of ICE enforcement and an early co-sponsor of the New Way Forward Act on immigration reform, and she has not accepted fossil fuel money. For an SELA district where the 710 freeway, the port, and the freight corridor are the largest single determinant of public health, an environmental-justice chair who has carried the actual bills is the representative the district needs.
The reservation I want to name plainly is on Palestine, the same pattern I have named for almost every other senior CA Democrat. Barragán's record on Israel-Palestine has been the caucus-median record, more cautious than the movement organizing in her district has wanted, and the South Bay and SELA Free Palestine organizing has named her as a target for primary pressure. The case for her on every other issue is strong, the Palestine reservation does not change the pick for me, but it should be named.
barragan.house.gov · Ballotpedia CA-44
The reservations here are real and I have to name them plainly. Lou Correa is one of the most centrist Democrats in the California delegation, he has voted for Republican-backed border enforcement bills including the Laken Riley Act in early 2025, and in a district where Santa Ana is the most immigrant-dense city in OC those votes have created a real organizing pushback from CHIRLA-aligned and Working Families-aligned groups, so the case against him from the left is one of the cleanest in the state.
The case for Correa, despite that, is one I cannot make enthusiastically. He is the incumbent in a seat that does not have a consolidated challenger with the campaign infrastructure to win, and the realistic alternative in a top-two primary may not be a more progressive Democrat but a Republican advancing to November. I am writing this as support with serious reservations, and if one of the challengers consolidates serious movement support before June 2, the pick could legitimately flip.
I support Dave Min because his first term has been on the caucus's progressive side on the votes that matter for a coastal OC district, with work on consumer-protection legislation drawing on his State Senate record, on environmental protections for the coastal zone, and on reproductive rights, and the California Democratic Party along with the labor and environmental groups that backed him in 2024 have stayed with him.
The reservation, named honestly, is that Min is a moderate-Democrat profile by background, a former Asian-American Studies professor and Senate Banking Committee staffer, and his movement-organizing credentials are thin. The case for him is hold-the-seat in a swing district, which is real, but a reader looking for a movement-aligned Democrat is not going to find one in this race.
davemin.com · Ballotpedia Min
I am writing this as still researching, because the open-seat dynamic and the late filing mean the field has not stabilized in the sources I can verify, and naming a clean primary pick on thin information is exactly the overreach I will not do.
The honest answer for our coverage area, which only marginally touches CA-48, is that this race should hold for a late-May refresh once the certified field and the major endorsements are locked, and the lean once the field consolidates is toward the Democratic candidate with the strongest local organizing record.
I support Mike Levin for his consistent climate record, since he has been one of the leading House voices on federal action against offshore oil drilling along the California coast, which is the central issue for the coastal communities in his district, along with his work on the San Onofre nuclear waste storage question and his reliable progressive scorecard on labor, on housing, and on reproductive rights, and the California Democratic Party has endorsed him.
The reservation, named honestly, is that Levin's record on Israel-Palestine has been the caucus-median record, more cautious than the movement organizing in his coastal-Democrat district has wanted. It is worth knowing that Jim Desmond, the San Diego County Supervisor who had announced a challenge to Levin, switched to running in CA-48 after Prop 50 redrew the lines, which removes the strongest Republican challenger and explains why Levin's November scenario is much better than it looked at the start.
The county decides half my life. Jails. Public health. Affordable housing. Sanctuary. Here are the big decisions.
Hilda Solis is termed out, open seat. State Senator María Elena Durazo is the heavy favorite.
María Elena is LA's labor giant. Former director of the LA County Federation of Labor. Former Unite Here LA leader. The person who built the immigrant-worker political coalition that elected a generation of progressive Latine leaders. As state senator she's been a tenants' rights champion, immigration leader, worker defender. The closest thing to a movement candidate at this level of power.
durazoforsupervisor.com
Horvath came from West Hollywood Council where she pushed real tenant protections and LGBTQ justice work. On the county she's been a strong vote for housing, homelessness response, reproductive rights. The challengers are mostly to her right (including Tonia Arey, a real estate agent running on Palisades Fire response). Defend this seat.
I know a "progressive" sheriff is almost an oxymoron, but between the real options: Robert Luna (incumbent) has done minimal reforms, body cameras, use-of-force review unit, but Attorney General Bonta had to sue him in 2025 over inhumane conditions in county jails. Rats. Dirty water. Spoiled food. Lack of medical care. That's on Luna.
Eric Strong is ex-Marine, ex-Compton PD, ex-Pasadena PD, made it to lieutenant in LASD; ran in 2022 and came in third. His platform: actually work with the Inspector General and Civilian Oversight Commission, transparency, confront the internal "code of silence." Is he the abolitionist of my dreams? No. But he's the closest viable candidate who understands LASD needs to be dismantled and rebuilt.
The Assessor is a technical role, values property for taxes. Prang has been around for decades, is competent, openly gay, no scandals. His challengers: Stephen Adamus and Sandy Sun (his deputies), Rob Newland (real estate economist, that background gives me a bad feeling), Steven Palty (tax advisor).
None of the challengers run on a clear progressive platform. Their biggest concern is "preserving Prop 13", which is exactly the OPPOSITE of what I'd want. Prop 13 is regressive and protects landlords. I vote Prang because (1) he's not running on an anti-Prop-13-reform platform, and (2) the challengers are worse. Without enthusiasm.
This one costs me. Sales taxes are regressive, those who earn less pay proportionally more. That turns my stomach.
But. But but but. Trump and the Republicans cut Medi-Cal with the 2025 "One Big Beautiful Bill Act." The clinics and hospitals that serve my people in SELA are losing ~25% of their revenue. Without Measure ER, county hospitals and clinics like Clínica Romero, AltaMed, Eisner, the places where my aunt gets her care, will close departments or entire services.
The measure raises county sales tax from 9.75% to 10.25% for 5 years, generates ~$1 billion/year, expires in 2031. I wish we had a billionaire tax. We don't. The real choice isn't "regressive vs. progressive", it's "regressive vs. Medi-Cal collapse in LA." I vote YES and I demand the next measure be a wealth tax.
For Seat 2, I support Steven Veres for re-election, because he has built a record on Latino-student access, on workforce-training programs, and on the part-time faculty pay fight, and he carries the endorsement of AFT 1521, the LACCD faculty union, of the California Federation of Teachers, and of the California Democratic Party. The reservation is that LACCD has a real campus-policing and pepper-spray-policy fight, and Veres has not consistently been on the abolitionist-aligned side of it.
For Seat 6, I support Gabriel Buelna for re-election, because he has been on the more progressive side of the board's internal debates on student-services funding, on adjunct faculty pay, and on the police-presence-on-campus question, and he has carried AFT 1521 endorsement consistently.
For Seat 4, the honest answer is that I am still researching. Sara Hernandez, the current Board President, is running for State Senate in SD-26 instead of for re-election here, which makes Seat 4 an effectively open seat, and I have not been able to pull a clean candidate list with consolidated movement endorsements, so I will not name a pick on this seat until I can do it honestly.
In District 2, I support Rocío Rivas for a second term over teacher Raquel Zamora and education advocate Joseph Quintana, because she has chaired the LAUSD Charter Schools Committee and used that chair to tighten oversight of charter operators on campus co-locations and on the unpaid debt some chains have left behind, and because UTLA endorsed her re-election on that record.
In District 4, I support Ankur Patel over Nick Melvoin and Benjamin-Shalom Rodriguez, with reservations. Melvoin has spent two terms on the charter-aligned side of the board, going back to the 2017 race where the Walton family and the California Charter School Association spent millions to install the current majority, and the case against him is largely a case against that history. My reservation is honest: UTLA and SEIU Local 99 sat this race out, which is the labor signal I usually lean on for LAUSD, so Patel's base is thinner than I would want. His strongest endorsements are CSEA Los Angeles 500, Westside Young Democrats, and Councilmember Traci Park.
In District 6, the honest answer is that the race has effectively ended. Kelly Gonez is unopposed after J.P. Perron withdrew without turning in signatures, so she is the only name on the ballot. UTLA endorsed her re-election, so even with no contest the labor case for her is on the record.
UTLA endorsements · LAist LAUSD board coverage · LA County Registrar certified candidate list
I do not live in the City of LA, so this is not my ballot, but I am including recommendations here in case it is yours, or a friend's.
Yes, it's on the ballot, the primary is June 2, 2026. Karen Bass leads with ~30% in polls, followed (wild) by reality TV's Spencer Pratt at 22%, Nithya Raman at ~19%, and Rae Huang at ~4%.
Rae Huang is a Presbyterian minister, community organizer, daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, DSA-LA member, deputy director of Housing Now! California. Her platform: housing for all, fast free Metro, climate resilience, REAL safety via care-first models (no more police). She's the voice to the left of Bass.
Bass disappointed me with homeless sweeps and her silence on Gaza. I vote Huang in the primary. If Bass faces a runoff against Pratt, I vote Bass without blinking in November.
Former JusticeLA organizer, defeated Gil Cedillo in 2022, part of the progressive bloc with Hugo and Nithya. Defending tenants, questioning the LAPD budget. Still one of us. Firm vote.
Open seat (Blumenfield termed out). I lean tentatively toward Lehi White for her tenant-rights profile, but this can change. Marisol and Paty are helping me research before June 2.
Vote with an asterisk. LA Forward endorses her for her work on climate and interim housing. Her main opponent with a progressive platform is Henry Mantel (tenant-rights attorney), if he convinces me, I pick him. Yaroslavsky is standard liberal but competent.
Without enthusiasm. One of the more conservative Democrats on the council. But there's no clear progressive alternative. I vote Rodriguez as the lesser evil.
Firm vote. High priority. This is the most important municipal race on my ballot. CD9 leaves Curren Price under corruption scandals.
Mazariegos came from Guatemala at age 3, co-director of ACCE, anti-harassment tenant coalition, endorsed by DSA-LA, CA Working Families Party, Eunisses Hernandez, Kenneth Mejia, Mike Bonin. His main rival Jose Ugarte is a Price staffer, more of the same.
Endorsed by LA Forward, tenants' rights attorney, civil rights defender. Firm vote.
Another DSA-LA, labor organizer, has fought for tenant protections and against the bloated LAPD budget. His challengers (Carlisle, Kendall, Sarian) are irrelevant. Firm vote.
McOsker is former City Attorney, more moderate than progressive, but has worked with Hugo on police accountability. His opponent Jordan Rivers (Green, 22 years old) has zero infrastructure and problematic reports. McOsker is the pragmatic vote.
I have to be brutally honest here. Most SELA cities, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Lynwood, Maywood, South Gate, Downey, do NOT have municipal elections on June 2. Under SB 415 (the California Voter Participation Rights Act), they all moved their elections to November of even years. Bell is the exception.
If you live in Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Lynwood, Maywood, South Gate, or Downey: on June 2 you don't vote for city council. That happens November 3, 2026. What you DO vote on in June is the county-level stuff, Supervisor D1 (María Elena Durazo), Sheriff, and Measure ER.
Don't check out of the ballot. The local fight in your city we'll organize this summer for November.
Bell is the only SELA city with a municipal election on June 2.
The 2010 corruption scandal, Robert Rizzo's $787,000 salary, the $1.5 million police chief, council members accused of looting a working-class immigrant town, that scandal gave birth to BASTA (Bell Association to Stop the Abuse), one of California's most important community movements. Sixteen years later, the people who built BASTA, Ali Saleh, Ana Maria Quintana, Nestor Valencia, are still in and around city hall. Every Bell council race is a race about whether the reformist legacy survives.
Until I see a candidate who's more progressive and more accountable than the BASTA generation, I'm voting to protect the work ordinary Bell residents fought for. The alternative, a return to machine politics in a town that nearly was lost, is unacceptable.
I'm not pretending Rex is the dreamer I want. He's been close to the LA Fed of Labor and the Mayor Garcia machine, and there are real criticisms about how he's handled the $60 million deficit conversation, police budgets, housing production that falls short.
But he's achieved the first drop in homelessness in a decade, expanded tenant protections, signed sanctuary-strengthening measures. And crucially: the only candidate to his left with a real platform is Lee Goldin, whom I respect for saying he'd "arrest ICE agents as domestic terrorists" but who has no governing experience and is unlikely to win. Joshua Rodriguez is openly pro-Trump, anti-sanctuary, pro-ICE cooperation, that can't win.
Mary is one of the few Latinas with disabilities elected in California, the first wheelchair user elected to the Long Beach Council. She's written real anti-eviction protections (the "substantial remodel" eviction ban), expanded pandemic hero pay, invested in non-displacing affordable housing.
She's not a DSA movement candidate, but on the substance of council fights, tenants' rights, hero pay, sanctuary, she's been there. The coordinated Kahookele/Riggi/Neff challenge is mostly a real estate industry challenge dressed up as "fresh faces." No.
No strong recommendation. Duggan is endorsed by the police union and the Chamber of Commerce, and the challengers are mostly small business candidates and homeowners' associations. One of Long Beach's wealthiest and whitest districts, and the field doesn't include a clear tenants' rights / climate justice candidate.
Kerr is endorsed by the LA County Democratic Party, firefighters, and Mayor Richardson, establishment Democrat but with public education experience (LBUSD school board) and not the worst on tenants' rights. Tara Riggi is part of a coordinated slate of "real estate newcomers" trying to flip the council right. In a district like D5, Kerr is the right hold.
This is the toughest race on my ballot, and the most exciting. My heart goes back and forth between Vivian Malauulu and Jamies Shuford.
If you trust the institutional labor coalition, and in Long Beach I mostly do, vote Malauulu. If you want to push the council further left and interrupt the dynastic feel of the seat, vote Shuford. I lean Malauulu because the ILWU is one of the most progressive port unions in the country.
Dr. Joni is a UCLA epidemiologist (Ph.D.) representing North Long Beach, one of the historically most disinvested parts of the city. Brings rigorous data-and-equity thinking to the council, has been solid on tenant protections, and is part of the progressive bloc. Neff is part of the same coordinated slate of real estate newcomers as Riggi and Kahookele. No to Neff.
Fifteen judge races. I lean on Knock LA Judges Guide, La Defensa, LA Public Defenders Union, and LA Forward. My rule: I prefer public defender / civil rights attorney over prosecutor (DDA).
More sources: Knock LA · La Defensa · LA Public Press
The OC Board of Supervisors is split. Three Democrats (Sarmiento, Foley, Chaffee), two Republicans. Keeping that Democratic majority is what lets progressive work pass.
Vicente is, in the words of multiple OC political reporters, "widely seen as the most progressive member of the Board of Supervisors." Former Santa Ana mayor (2020-2022) who delivered the rent control fight, veteran councilmember, deeply rooted in Latine-immigrant organizing networks. Endorsed by the OC Dem Party, OC Employees Association, OC Labor Federation. The person Santa Ana tenants worked for, and he's delivering. Vote Vicente.
sarmientoforsupervisor.com
Doug Chaffee is termed out, open seat. Traut (Buena Park mayor, Democrat) has the broadest progressive-labor coalition behind him. Endorsed by the three Democratic supervisors (Chaffee, Foley, Sarmiento), National Union of Healthcare Workers, the Dem Party. Fred Jung (Fullerton councilmember, Democrat) is to his right on housing and on the fiscal conservative axis.
Connor is the candidate who can keep this seat in the Democratic column and keep the OC board's Democratic majority intact, which is what allows the progressive work of Sarmiento and Foley to actually pass.
This is the hardest seat to hold on the OC Board, D5 is 38% Republican vs. 33% Democrat in registration. Katrina Foley isn't the most progressive person in OC, but she's been a reliable Democratic vote, has been the county's strongest voice for reproductive rights, climate action, and homelessness response. Diane Dixon is a Trump-axis Republican who'll flip the Democratic majority.
This is a "moderate Democrat in a hard seat" race, Foley, no question. It's defensive retention. If I lose this seat, we lose the progressive majority in OC.
I didn't find a strong progressive challenger. My default: the Democrat with a real platform, per OC Dem Party endorsements. I'll update before June 2.
Santa Ana, Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, all hold their municipal elections in November 3, 2026, not June. The June ballot in OC is County Supervisor. That's the decision that shifts the board balance, where sanctuary, affordable housing, and fire response get decided.
For Santa Ana: the tenants' rights coalition (CITY-SA, OCCORD, Resilience OC) is the progressive base. For Anaheim: the "Disney controls the city" era is finally ending, track that. For Costa Mesa: it flipped to a Democratic council in 2018 and is slowly moving left. For Fountain Valley: look for any candidate who isn't actively hostile to immigrants and tenants.
The biggest upset of June 2 lives here. A Latina teacher against the Simi Valley/Moorpark Republican establishment.
No hesitation. Ruth is a public school teacher, immigration rights advocate, environmental justice organizer who fought for the cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (a real environmental disaster site whose contamination affects Simi Valley families). She doesn't take corporate PAC money.
She's running on protecting county services, expanding mental health care, stronger environmental oversight, immigration protections. As a Simi Valley councilmember 2018-2022, she was the only progressive Latina voice and was repeatedly denied the mayor pro-tem rotation she'd earned.
I cannot in good faith write a clean Jim Fryhoff endorsement, and I also cannot confirm a credible challenger field in the time I had. Fryhoff has built the standard tough-on-crime, Deputy-Sheriff-Association-aligned frame, including an expanding-deputy-force budget request, and his posture on ICE cooperation has not moved Ventura County off its historical pattern of sheriff-jail-to-ICE transfers, even though he has not aligned with the most aggressive ICE-cooperation sheriffs in the state.
This block should hold for a late-May refresh once the certified Sheriff candidate list is locked, and if Fryhoff turns out to be unopposed, the honest thing is to say so plainly and explain what an uncontested Sheriff's race means for accountability.
Jeff Gorell (R-leaning) is the incumbent, challenged by Ashley Orozco (Conejo Recreation and Park District board) and Mark Perryman (consultant). Moderate-to-conservative district (Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Oak Park). The challenge for progressives is consolidating behind an anti-Gorell candidate to force a November runoff.
Ashley Orozco (Latina elected to the Conejo Recreation and Park District board) is the candidate to back on my read, but I have less confidence here than with Luevanos in D4. Verify with CAUSE Action Fund endorsements before voting.
Every Ventura County city, Oxnard, Ventura, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Moorpark, Simi Valley, Port Hueneme, Ojai, holds council elections in November of even years, not June. The only Ventura races on June 2 are Board of Supervisors and county-level offices.
For your Ventura neighbors: organize for November. CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy) is the strongest network of progressive endorsements in the county. Their endorsements are the best compass.
This is personal. It's not Tablero. I'm not telling anyone how to vote. I'm organizing my conscience and sharing it because you asked.
The rule: progressive when possible, Democrat when necessary, ideological vote when there's room to protest without risk.
My mantras:
My top 5 races this cycle: Governor. AD-62 my district. CA-45 Derek Tran defensive. CD-9 Estuardo Mazariegos. LA County Sheriff.
Before June 2 I'll review Knock LA, LA Forward, DSA-LA, La Defensa, Courage California. Any last-minute changes I'll update here. If you have questions, message me. Let's vote thinking, neighbors. Let's vote painfully when we have to, and proudly when we can.
This guide is free. If it helps you, chip in to keep it that way.