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2016 United States Senate election in California

The 2016 United States Senate election in California was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of California, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

Under California's nonpartisan blanket primary law, all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. In the California system, the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election in November, even if a candidate receives a majority of the vote in the primary election. Washington State and Louisiana have similar nonpartisan primary style processes for senators, though Louisiana will end its jungle system for specific offices including senator in 2026.

Incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer decided to not run for election to a fifth term.

This was the first open seat Senate election in California since 1992, when Boxer was first elected. In the primary on June 7, 2016, California Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez, both Democrats, finished in first and second place, respectively, and contested the general election. For the first time since direct elections to the Senate were mandated after the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, no Republican appeared on the general election ballot for the U.S. Senate in California. The highest Republican finisher in the primary won only 7.8 percent of the vote, and the 10 Republicans only won 27.9 percent of the vote among them.

In the general election, Harris defeated Sanchez in a landslide, carrying 54 of the state's 58 counties, including Sanchez's home county of Orange, although Sanchez held Harris to a margin of less than 1% in the Central Valley counties of Kern and Merced.

Harris did not serve her full term in the Senate, as she resigned on January 18, 2021 after being elected Vice President of the United States in 2020. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Alex Padilla, the incumbent Secretary of State of California, to serve the rest of her term.

Background

Barbara Boxer was reelected with 52.1% of the vote in 2010 against Republican Carly Fiorina. Toward the end of 2014, Boxer's low fundraising and cash-on-hand numbers led to speculation that she would retire. On January 8, 2015, she announced that she would not run for reelection.

Candidates

Democratic Party

Advanced to general

Eliminated in primary

  • Cristina Grappo
  • Massie Munroe, engineer
  • Herbert G. Peters
  • Emory Rodgers, activist
  • Steve Stokes, small business owner and independent candidate for CA-28 in 2014

Withdrew

  • Stewart Albertson, attorney

Declined

Endorsements

Republican Party

Eliminated in primary

  • Greg Conlon, businessman
  • Tom Del Beccaro, former chairman of the California Republican Party
  • Von Hougo, educator
  • Don Krampe, retiree and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012
  • Jerry J. Laws
  • Tom Palzer, former city planner
  • Karen Roseberry, educator
  • George "Duf" Sundheim, former chairman of the California Republican Party
  • Ron Unz, activist and candidate for governor in 1994
  • Jarrell Williamson, attorney
  • Phil Wyman, former state senator, former state assemblyman, candidate for CA-25 in 1992 and candidate for attorney general in 2014
  • George C. Yang, businessman

Withdrew

Declined

Endorsements

Green Party

Declared

  • Pamela Elizondo

Libertarian Party

Declared

Peace and Freedom Party

Declared

  • John Thompson Parker

Independent

Declared

  • Mikelis Beitiks, climate change activist
  • Eleanor Garcia, factory worker
  • Tim Gildersleeve
  • Clive Grey
  • Don Grundmann, chiropractor, chairman of the Constitution Party of California, and perennial candidate (also sought the Constitution Party nomination for President of the United States)
  • Jason Hanania, attorney and engineer
  • Jason Kraus
  • Paul Merritt
  • Gar Myers
  • Ling Ling Shi, author
  • Scott A. Vineberg

Declined

Primary election

Fundraising

The following are Federal Election Commission disclosures through the reporting period ending March 31, 2016.

Polling

Results

General election

Fundraising

The following are Federal Election Commission disclosures through the reporting period ending March 31, 2016.

Debates

Predictions

Polling

Results

By county

<span style="background:#B0CEFF>Blue</span> represents counties won by Harris. <span style="background:#88F2F2>Cyan</span> represents counties won by Sanchez.

By congressional district

Harris won 47 of the 53 congressional districts, including thirteen held by Republicans. Sanchez won six, including one held by a Republican.

Analysis

This election was the first and as of August 2025, the only US Senate election where two Democratic women of color faced off against one another in a general election. It is also one of only two United States Senate elections in California where both general election candidates were Democrats, the other being the election between former Senator Dianne Feinstein and then-California State Senator Kevin de León in 2018.

Later on after her subsequent victory in the 2020 election as the running mate of former President Joe Biden, Harris resigned on the senate on January 18, 2021, two days before her inauguration as vice president. This makes Harris the first US senator elected to a full six-year term since Barack Obama in 2008 to not finish what would be her sole term. On December 22, 2020, California governor Gavin Newsom appointed California secretary of state Alex Padilla to serve the remainder of Harris' term. Despite this, Harris became president of the Senate on January 20, 2021, by virtue of her election as vice president.

Harris is the second incumbent US senator from this seat to be elected vice president, the first being Richard Nixon in 1952.

See also

References

External links

Official campaign websites