Riding profile

CA-16

US House district — CA · Mixed · us ca

The question

CA-16: a safe seat for the Democrats?

Current forecast

Democrat

Safe

Probability
100%
Mean margin (pts)
59.9
P(close race)
0%

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 80.0%

    Sam T. Liccardo incumbent

  • Republican 20.1%

    Peter Sundin Soulé

Watch list

The tightest races

Smallest projected margin. Open one for the numbers.

  1. FL-22Democrat68 %1.1 pt margin
  2. AZ-2Republican57 %1.1 pt margin
  3. OH-10Democrat60 %1.1 pt margin

In context

How this riding stacks up

Democrat Republican
HereCA-16 80.0%20.1%
National averageUnited States 54.3% +25.6 44.9% −24.9

Nationwide averages computed across the 435 riding-level projections (unweighted mean).

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Editorial read

CA-16, a mixed riding in CA, elected a member with the Democrats in the previous cycle, with a 99-point margin. The Vote-Scope model projects the Democrats ahead at 80% vote share, against 20% for the Republicans, and the probability of a close race is negligible.

Sitting member

LICCARDO, SAM T.

Sits with Democrat

Primary race

Primary results

Held Jun 2, 2026 · Certified official result

Top-two primary

Advanced to the general election

Sam Liccardo 75.6%

139,399 votes

Advanced to the general election

Peter Sundin Soulé 10.8%

19,841 votes

Official source →

Who's running

The candidates

Declared and on-ballot candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    Liccardo, Sam T.

  • Republican Open seat

    Peter Sundin Soulé

Previous election · 2024

Won by
Democrat
Margin
99.2 pts
Margin shift vs current projection
-39.3 pts
Last model run
Cycle
us_house_2026