Thursday, October 15, 2026
B.C. votes in 9 days

California’s 1st District

U.S. House · CA-1

Election day November 3, 2026 · forecast of October 15, 2026

Our forecast gives the Democrats a 99% chance of winning, with an average lead of 22.7 points.

Safe seat. Chance of a final gap under 5 points: 2%.

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 61.3%

    Mike McGuire

  • Republican 38.7%

    James Gallagher

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

Compared with the average

Democrat Republican
CA-1 61.3%38.7%
National averageUnited States 54.5%+6.8 44.2%−5.6

Simple average of the 435 districts, not weighted by population.

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Current member

Lamalfa, Doug · Republican

Primary results

Held June 2, 2026 · Certified official result · Official source

Top-two primary James Gallagher · Advanced to the general election 42.1% 92,975 votes
Top-two primary Mike McGuire · Advanced to the general election 41.8% 92,121 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Challenger

    Mike McGuire

    source
  • Republican Challenger

    James Gallagher

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Republicans won by 28.9 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 22.7 points.

Where these voters came from

This district was redrawn in the 2025-2026 redistricting. Share of its voters from each former district:

  • Former district 1 59%
  • Former district 3 20%
  • Former district 2 15%
  • Former district 4 6%

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • CA-4 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-6 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-3 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-7 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-8 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-2 Democrat, safe seat

Watch list

The tightest races

The smallest projected gaps between the top two.

  1. AZ-2Republican52%5.7-point gap
  2. KY-6Republican53%5.8-point gap
  3. VA-1Republican58%5.8-point gap
Forecast updated