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

California’s 51st District

U.S. House · CA-51

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 26.4 points.

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

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 63.2%

    Sara Jacobs, incumbent

  • Republican 36.8%

    Ricardo Cabrera

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

Compared with the average

Democrat Republican
CA-51 63.2%36.8%
National averageUnited States 54.5%+8.7 44.2%−7.4

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

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Current member

Sara Jacobs · Democrat

Primary results

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

Top-two primary Sara Jacobs · Advanced to the general election 57.7% 111,765 votes
Top-two primary Ricardo Cabrera · Advanced to the general election 37.0% 71,692 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    Sara Jacobs

    source
  • Republican Open seat

    Ricardo Cabrera

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Republicans won by 19.3 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 26.4 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 48 85%
  • Former district 51 12%

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • CA-52 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-50 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-48 Democrat, competitive
  • CA-49 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-25 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-40 Republican, toss-up

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