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

California’s 16th District

U.S. House · CA-16

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

Our forecast gives the Democrats a more than 99% chance of winning, with an average lead of 59.0 points.

Safe seat. Chance of a final gap under 5 points: under 1%.

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 79.5%

    Sam Liccardo, incumbent

  • Republican 20.5%

    Peter Sundin Soulé

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

Compared with the average

Democrat Republican
CA-16 79.5%20.5%
National averageUnited States 54.5%+25.0 44.2%−23.8

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

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Local profile

Latino citizens aged 18 and over15.4% (± 0.5)

Share of all citizens aged 18 and over (ACS 2020–2024 estimate). Not a share of registered or actual voters.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, citizen voting-age population by race and ethnicity, ACS 2020–2024, 119th Congress districts

Current member

Sam Liccardo · Democrat

Primary results

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

Top-two primary Sam Liccardo · Advanced to the general election 75.6% 139,399 votes
Top-two primary Peter Sundin Soulé · Advanced to the general election 10.8% 19,841 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    Sam Liccardo

    source
  • Republican Open seat

    Peter Sundin Soulé

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Democrats won by 99.2 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 59.0 points.

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • CA-15 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-17 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-12 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-14 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-11 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-10 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