Monday, November 2, 2026
U.S. midterms in 1 day

California’s 18th District

U.S. House · CA-18

Election day November 3, 2026 · forecast of November 2, 2026

Our forecast gives the Democrats a more than 99% chance of winning, with an average lead of 39.5 points.

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

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 69.7%

    Zoe Lofgren, incumbent

  • Republican 30.3%

    Shane Lewis

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

What Orbit says

Orbit, our experimental model, picks the same favourite as our main forecast: the Democrat, with a > 99% chance (> 99% according to Harfang des neiges).

ModelFavouriteChance
Harfang des neigesDemocrat> 99%
OrbitDemocrat> 99%
50/50 blendDemocrat> 99%

Figures as of November 2, 2026. The blend averages the two chances; in replays of the 2018 and 2022 Quebec elections, it beat our main forecast on its own.

Every race according to Orbit

Compared with the average

Democrat Republican
CA-18 69.7%30.3%
National averageUnited States 54.9%+14.8 43.9%−13.6

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

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Current member

Zoe Lofgren · Democrat

Primary results

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

Top-two primary Zoe Lofgren · Advanced to the general election 54.9% 65,291 votes
Top-two primary Shane Lewis · Advanced to the general election 29.3% 34,883 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    Zoe Lofgren

    source
  • Republican Challenger

    Shane Lewis

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Democrats won by 23.2 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 39.5 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 18 77%
  • Former district 13 17%
  • Former district 22 6%

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • CA-19 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-13 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-17 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-14 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-16 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-21 Democrat, safe seat

Watch list

The tightest races

The smallest projected gaps between the top two.

  1. AZ-2Democrat55%5.7-point gap
  2. VA-1Republican55%5.7-point gap
  3. MI-4Republican56%5.8-point gap
Forecast updated