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

California’s 52nd District

U.S. House · CA-52

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 40.3 points.

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

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 70.2%

    Juan Vargas, incumbent

  • Republican 29.9%

    Jeff Belle

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

What Orbit says

Orbit, our experimental model, picks the same favourite as our main forecast: the Democrat, with a 98% chance (> 99% according to Harfang des neiges).

ModelFavouriteChance
Harfang des neigesDemocrat> 99%
OrbitDemocrat98%
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-52 70.2%29.9%
National averageUnited States 54.9%+15.3 43.9%−14.0

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

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Current member

Juan Vargas · Democrat

Primary results

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

Top-two primary Juan Vargas · Advanced to the general election 56.9% 71,608 votes
Top-two primary Jeff Belle · Advanced to the general election 33.5% 42,090 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    Juan Vargas

    source
  • Republican Challenger

    Jeff Belle

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Republicans won by 21.4 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 40.3 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 79%
  • Former district 52 20%

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • CA-51 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-2Democrat55%5.7-point gap
  2. VA-1Republican55%5.7-point gap
  3. MI-4Republican56%5.8-point gap
Forecast updated