Thirteen legislative races are up for grabs in Orange County this year — and for most of them, it’s the general election in November that will be more competitive than the June primary.
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Six Assembly races only have two candidates vying for the seats, which meant both candidates advanced to the general election runoff. But for three contests — Assembly District 67, Assembly District 68 and Assembly District 72 — the June 2 primary was needed to winnow the field.
As for the four state Senate races in Orange County, all had only two candidates vying for those spots as well, which made for a bit of a lackluster primary season.
California’s secretary of state has until July 10 to certify primary election results statewide — or in other words, make it officially official. But registrars in Orange and Los Angeles counties have already certified their election results, so voters have a fairly clear picture of who will be on their ballots in the fall.
Here’s a look at Orange County’s legislative races.
Assembly District 59
Assemblymember Phillip Chen, R-Yorba Linda, is set to face Victor Hernandez, a Green Party candidate from Brea, in the fall.
Chen was first elected to the Assembly in 2016, after serving as a school board member for Walnut Valley Unified School District. He is also a former health policy advisor for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Born in Santa Ana, Hernandez works as an account sales manager. Hernandez is a volunteer at community mutual aid events, according to his campaign website, and an activist who participates in local demonstrations.
California’s 59th Assembly District includes portions of Orange and San Bernardino counties, including Anaheim Hills, Brea, Placentia, Villa Park and Yorba Linda.
Assembly District 64
In this two-person contest, Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco, D-Downey, and Republican Raul Ortiz Jr., are vying for the seat that represents communities in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
Ortiz, of La Mirada, is a branch pest control manager and a minister. Ortiz, who has unsuccessfully run against Pacheco for this seat in previous elections, is also a father of eight.
Pacheco was first elected to the Assembly in 2022 and is the former mayor of Downey, where she was the first Latina elected to that position, her Assembly biography notes. The UCLA alumna is also a former president of the League of California Cities Los Angeles Division.
California’s 64th Assembly District includes La Habra in Orange County.
Assembly District 67
This was part of the trio of competitive — and expensive — Assembly races in Orange County this year, and former Cypress Mayor Paulo Morales and Cerritos Councilmember Mark Pulido took the top two spots in the primary.
Morales, a Republican and former member of the Cypress City Council, spent more than two decades working for the Cypress Police Department in various roles, including in patrol operations and on the West Orange County SWAT team, according to his campaign.
A Democrat, Pulido is in the midst of his third term on the Cerritos City Council, where he’s served since 2011 (albeit, with a break between 2020 and 2025). He is also a former member of the ABC Unified School District.
Republican Adrian Oscar Ayub and Democrats Ada Briceño, Paul Gonzales and Ali Taj lost the primary.
California’s 67th Assembly District encompasses Los Angeles and Orange counties, including Cypress, Buena Park and Fullerton.
Assembly District 68
Like its numerical predecessor, this was also an expensive and competitive Assembly race in the 2026 primary. Here, two members of the Santa Ana City Council are poised to fight for the seat in the general election: Mayor Pro Tem David Penaloza and Councilmember Jessie Lopez.
Lopez, a Democrat, is a community health worker and has also served as the City Council’s mayor pro tem. Her City Council bio notes the Cal State Long Beach alumna led campaigns to address sexual assault on campus in college.
Also a Democrat, Penaloza serves as director of regulatory affairs for Color Science, Inc., a Santa Ana-based company; his campaign website notes he’s worked at the company for nearly two decades. Penaloza is also the vice president for the League of California Cities-Orange County Division.
Republican Mayra Ruiz and Democrat Shannon Wingfield also ran for this seat.
California’s 68th Assembly District is only in Orange County, and includes Anaheim, Orange and Santa Ana.
Assembly District 70
Only Assemblymember Tri Ta, R-Westminster, and Democrat Paula Swift faced off for this seat.
Swift, a Seal Beach resident, is the CEO of her own consulting firm where she “partners with government agencies, schools, small businesses, and community organizations to address inequities, improve operations, and expand access to essential resources,” according to her campaign website. Swift is also a foster care advocate.
A former Westminster mayor, Ta was first elected to the Assembly in 2022. Before elected office, Ta worked as an employment counselor, where he connected his clients to training and jobs as well as helped them find childcare, housing and transportation, his legislative bio notes. He made history in 2012 as the first Vietnamese American elected mayor in the U.S.
Only in Orange County, California’s 70th Assembly District represents Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Los Alamitos and Westminster.
Assembly District 71
Assemblymember Kate Sanchez, R-Rancho Santa Margarita, and Democrat JJ Galvez of Silverado are the only two candidates vying for this district that includes communities in Orange and Riverside counties.
Galvez is a strategy and operations manager who also serves on the Silverado-Modjeska Recreation and Park District board of directors. Galvez was raised in Honduras, coming to the U.S. to attend college in California, according to his campaign website, and has worked in technology and consulting.
First elected to the Assembly in 2022, Sanchez has worked for former GOP Rep. Ed Royce and the conservative California Policy Center, a nonprofit that aims to eliminate “public-sector barriers to freedom,” according to its website. Sanchez is also the former executive director of the California Women’s Leadership Association.
California’s 71st Assembly District includes Ladera Ranch, Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita.
Assembly District 72
In the third competitive Orange County Assembly district, Democrat Chris Kluwe and Republican Gracey Van Der Mark survived the primary in this election.
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Kluwe is a Democrat — and a former NFL punter, playing eight seasons for the Minnesota Vikings — and made headlines in 2025 when he was arrested for disrupting a Huntington Beach City Council meeting, protesting against a proposed library anniversary plaque with a “MAGA” acrostic on it. He is also a coach and resident of Huntington Beach.
A member of the Huntington Beach City Council, where she’s taken a turn as the town’s mayor, Van Der Mark has also served on a bond oversight committee for the Huntington Beach City School District and as a member of the Huntington Beach Finance Commission, her campaign website notes.
Republican Matthew Harper and no party preference candidate Frank Wagoner also ran in the primary.
California’s 72nd Assembly District, in Orange County only, includes Aliso Viejo, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest, Newport Beach and Seal Beach.
Assembly District 73
Only Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, and Republican Urson Russell of Costa Mesa threw their hats in the ring for this seat in 2026.
Petrie-Norris is running for a fifth term in the state Assembly, where she chairs the lower chamber’s Committee on Utilities and Energy. Before becoming an elected official, Petrie-Norris worked in the finance and technology space, the Yale University alumna’s campaign website notes, building businesses and leading teams at a variety of levels, from start-ups to Fortune 500 corporations.
A business owner, Russell notes on his campaign website his own decades-long career leading logistics, operations, production, sales and team management for various businesses. He is a lifelong Southern California resident, his campaign website says.
California’s 73rd Assembly District, only in Orange County, includes Costa Mesa, Irvine and Tustin.
Assembly District 74
Here, only Assemblymember Laurie Davies, R-Laguna Niguel, and San Juan Capistrano City Councilmember Sergio Farias are running.
First elected to the Assembly in 2020, Davies is a former Laguna Niguel City Council member, where she also served as the town’s mayor. Throughout her career, Davies has worked as a general manager in restaurants, handled events at the Monarch Bay Beach Club in Dana Point and has run her own professional wedding-planning business.
Farias is a Democrat who has led San Juan Capistrano as its mayor and runs his own landscape maintenance company. A lifelong San Juan Capistrano resident, Farias worked in the mission parish for several years, his city bio notes.
California’s 74th Assembly District represents communities in San Diego and Orange counties, including Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.
Senate District 32
Sen. Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrieta, is running for reelection against Democrat Tiffanie Tate, a retired OB-GYN physician from Riverside.
Previously an Assembly member, Seyarto was first elected to the state Senate in 2022. He is a former firefighter, a decades-long career that started with the Inglewood Fire Department and ended with the Los Angeles County Fire Department in 2015 with the rank of battalion chief. Seyarto is a previous Murrieta City Council member, where he also served as the city’s mayor.
A U.S. Navy officer, Tate is also an author and ordained minister originally from Compton, her campaign biography notes. Tate served as the general medical officer at the Naval Ambulatory Care Clinic at Port Hueneme with the Seabees. She is also the co-host of the “Doctors in the House” podcast.
California’s 32nd Senate District includes communities in Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Orange counties, including Yorba Linda.
Senate District 34
In this open contest, former Placentia Mayor Rhonda Shader and Assemblymember Avelino Valencia will face off for California’s 34th Senate District.
A Republican, Shader served on the Placentia City Council and sits on the board of Lot 318, which works with at-risk youth. Shader runs a local insurance agency, as well as a life and health coaching practice, according to her campaign website.
Valencia, a Democrat, is a former Anaheim City Council member who was first elected to the Assembly in 2022. There, he chairs the Banking and Finance Committee. Valencia is also a former college football player.
This district includes communities in Los Angeles and Orange counties, including Anaheim, Buena Park, Fullerton and Santa Ana.
Senate District 36
Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, is running against former San Clemente Councilmember Chris Duncan, a Democrat.
Duncan is a former federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, his campaign website notes, including working for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, where he worked to penalize foreign companies for trade violations. An attorney, Duncan works for Squire Patton Boggs, focused on customs and trade issues.
A former Huntington Beach City Council member, Strickland has represented this district since 2025 — and he also previously served in the Assembly and Senate representing communities in the Santa Barbara area. In the Senate, Strickland serves as the vice-chair of both the Transportation and Labor, Public Employment and Retirement committees. He is also a former semi-professional basketball player.
California’s 36th State Senate District encompasses Los Angeles and Orange counties, including Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Westminster.
Senate District 38
Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, is running against Republican Laura Bassett in this district that spans San Diego and Orange counties.
Bassett, who lives in Oceanside, serves on the San Diego County Civil Service Commission and is a licensed professional fiduciary serving as a trust and probate administrator. She is also a licensed real estate broker and is an ambassador for the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. Bassett, her commission bio notes, is involved with the local theater company, as well.
From Encinitas, Blakespear served eight years on the city’s City Council, where she also served as mayor. Blakespear is a former journalist and a lawyer who has worked in estate planning. First elected to the Senate in 2022, Blakespear leads the Environmental Quality Committee as well as a transportation subcommittee focused on the LOSSAN Rail Corridor.
California’s 38th Senate District includes Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and San Juan Capistrano.
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