Democrats target four California GOP members of Congress in effort to retake control of the House
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- Four GOP members of California’s congressional delegation are on the list of top targets announced by a prominent liberal group on Wednesday.
- Congressional races in the state are widely expected to be crucial in determining which party wins control of the House of Representatives next year.
Four California Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are on the target list of a liberal Democratic group preparing for the 2026 election, another indication of how pivotal the state’s congressional races will be in determining control of Congress.
EMILYs List, a group dedicated to electing Democratic women who support access to abortion, announced Wednesday morning that four Republicans in the state were put on its list of 46 “on notice” GOP members of Congress.
The liberal group said that Reps. Kevin Kiley of Rocklin, David Valadao of Hanford, Young Kim of Anaheim Hills and Ken Calvert of Corona have wholeheartedly supported President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s agenda, and that flipping their districts is crucial to Democratic efforts to take power in the House.
“People all across the country are feeling the pain. The chaos and cruelty has no bounds — from slash-and-burn cuts to critical programs for veterans and farmers, to voting to strip millions of health care, to their continued assault on our fundamental rights and freedoms,” said EMILYs List President Jessica Mackler. “In 2026, we must take back the majority in the U.S. House to create a federal check on Donald Trump.”
California, Pennsylvania and Florida have the most Republicans on the group’s target list.
A dozen of the state’s members of Congress are on the nonpartisan Cook Political Report’s list of competitive races, easily the most of any state in the nation. The state’s importance in the midterms is due to several reasons. Even after losing a congressional seat earlier this decade after the U.S. census, California still has the largest congressional delegation in the nation with 52 members.
The U.S. Census Bureau released apportionment data, but the pandemic-induced lag has already caused ripple effects on redistricting and 2022 races.
The state’s voters also took the drawing of congressional district boundaries out of the hands of state legislators and created a panel of Republicans, Democrats and nonpartisans to shape district lines, in an effort to end gerrymandering and create more competitive races.
The state’s congressional races have been a mixed bag in recent cycles. Republicans were shellacked in 2018 but picked up seats in 2020 and 2022 that helped former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) briefly become speaker of the House.
But last year, while the GOP outperformed expectations in much of the country, three of its incumbents in California lost, which state Republican leaders blamed on the tightness of the districts as well as strong funding from Democratic leaders and donors. And Republicans will probably face headwinds next year because the party that controls the White House often sees setbacks in the congressional elections two years later.
Democrats flipped Republican-held congressional seats in Orange County, the Central Valley and northern L.A. County, helping lead the party in narrowing the GOP House majority.
“Next November … in the House, we have seats to win back, incumbents to defend and more pickup opportunities to play in,” former state GOP Chair Jessica Millan Patterson told reporters at the party’s convention in Sacramento this month. “The road to the House majority will once again come right through California.”
