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

California’s 33rd District

U.S. House · CA-33

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 29.7 points.

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

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 64.9%

    Pete Aguilar, incumbent

  • Republican 35.2%

    Stephanie M. Vargas

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

What Orbit says

Orbit, our experimental model, picks the same favourite as our main forecast: the Democrat, with a 94% chance (> 99% according to Harfang des neiges).

ModelFavouriteChance
Harfang des neigesDemocrat> 99%
OrbitDemocrat94%
50/50 blendDemocrat97%

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-33 64.9%35.2%
National averageUnited States 54.9%+10.0 43.9%−8.7

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

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Current member

Pete Aguilar · Democrat

Primary results

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

Top-two primary Pete Aguilar · Advanced to the general election 53.5% 64,068 votes
Top-two primary Stephanie M. Vargas · Advanced to the general election 17.5% 20,952 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    Pete Aguilar

    source
  • Republican Open seat

    Stephanie M. Vargas

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Democrats won by 17.5 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 29.7 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 33 78%
  • Former district 39 9%
  • Former district 23 8%

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • CA-39 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-35 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-40 Republican, toss-up
  • CA-31 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-28 Democrat, safe seat
  • CA-38 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