# Member of the State Assembly, District 20 Compare records and positions simply between Liz Ortega or Patricia Muga for Member of the State Assembly, District 20 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: California Legislature - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-20 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: September 24, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 98 out of 100 (Very strong), across 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Liz Ortega** — Assemblymember · Democratic · Incumbent - **Patricia Muga** — Real Estate Appraiser · Republican Assemblymember Liz Ortega took 75.1% of the June 2 vote and Republican Patricia Muga took 24.9%; they were the only two candidates on the primary ballot. The district covers Hayward, Union City and southern Alameda County. The winner holds one of 80 Assembly seats for a two-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. An Assemblymember authors bills, sits on the policy committees that decide which bills advance, and argues for the district's share of the annual state budget. A member two terms in has committee standing that a newcomer would spend years building. June's margin tells you where this district's registration sits. The incumbent's funding profile is the most union- and committee-weighted on this part of the ballot, which is either the point or the problem depending on how you read the relationship between organized labor and this seat. Weigh that alongside a challenger about whom little has been published. ## Liz Ortega Liz Ortega, a Democrat, is the sitting Assemblymember for District 20 and chairs the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee (assembly.ca.gov). She was the first Latina executive secretary-treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council and describes herself as a "longtime labor and community leader" (Pleasanton Weekly). She has passed legislation on worker protections, child labor prevention and public safety (Pleasanton Weekly). She says, "My top priority is ensuring that every Californian who works hard has a chance at a good life" (Pleasanton Weekly). She promises to keep expanding "access to jobs, healthcare, and education" (Pleasanton Weekly), work she ties to her chairmanship of the Assembly's Labor and Employment Committee. **Strengths:** Chairs the Assembly's Labor and Employment Committee and built her career leading the Alameda Labor Council before this seat. **Trade-offs:** Her record is closely tied to organized labor, so her legislative agenda reflects those roots more than a broader coalition. **Keep in mind:** Two terms in, judge her by the committee standing and bills described above rather than by a primary result that reflects district registration as much as her record. ## Patricia Muga Patricia Muga, a Republican, is the only other candidate on District 20's ballot. A real estate appraiser who lives in Dublin, she grew up in the Inland Empire, graduated from UCLA and moved to the Bay Area in 2014 (Pleasanton Weekly). Her career has included telecommunications, sales, work as an emergency medical technician and government relations (Pleasanton Weekly). She was previously registered as a Democrat and later with no party preference before registering as a Republican (Pleasanton Weekly); she did not respond to the paper's interview requests for its article on the race. Her platform calls for restoring "a middle class working economy," keeping natural gas and nuclear power plants open, and increasing water storage (Pleasanton Weekly). She supports mandatory proof of citizenship for voter registration and what her platform calls "vagrancy laws" for homeless individuals (Pleasanton Weekly). **Strengths:** She gave this district a contested race and brings a private-sector career in appraisal, telecommunications and EMT work. **Trade-offs:** She has no record in any office, and she did not respond to the local paper's interview requests for its story on this race. **Keep in mind:** Her party registration has moved from Democrat to no party preference to Republican; how you weigh that shift is a judgment this profile leaves to you. ## Record in office Liz Ortega (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 33 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 6 of them signed into law. Patricia Muga has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Ortega — AB 2156 (2026): Holidays: Farmworkers Day. Ortega — AB 339 (2025): Local public employee organizations: notice requirements. Ortega — AB 815 (2025): Vehicle insurance: vehicle classification. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Liz Ortega** - Primary: $553,694 raised (Small donors: $718; Individuals: $51,058; PACs & committees: $469,218; Businesses & other orgs: $32,700) - November: $27,700 raised (Individuals: $11,800; PACs & committees: $15,900) Patricia Muga has no contributions reported to Cal-Access for this race. Figures are CA Form 460 filings through June 30, 2026 by committees controlled by each candidate, and can include transfers from a candidate's earlier committees. Semi-annual reports covering January–June 2026 were due July 31, 2026, so some totals lag a period behind. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-09-21. Patricia Muga has no itemized contributions dated after the June 2, 2026 primary reported to Cal-Access yet. Total is itemized (Schedule A) contributions and self-funding loans dated after the June 2, 2026 primary, through June 30, 2026 — small-dollar unitemized (under $100) contributions aren't independently dated in Cal-Access's raw export, so they aren't reflected here and this may undercount true small-donor activity since the primary. This also doesn't include money reported only on 24-hour late-contribution reports (Form 497) that haven't yet appeared in a periodic Form 460 filing. Per the California Secretary of State's Cal-Access raw data export, retrieved 2026-08-30. ## Sources 1. [CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)](https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/prior-elections/statewide-election-results/primary-election-june-2-2026/statement-vote) 2. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [California State Assembly — Liz Ortega member page (committee assignments)](https://www.assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers/20) 4. [Pleasanton Weekly — "Ortega v. Muga in race for State Assembly District 20" (used for both candidates)](https://pleasantonweekly.com/news/2026/05/20/ortega-v-muga-in-race-for-state-assembly-district-20/) 5. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 6. [Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State](https://www.sos.ca.gov/campaign-lobbying/helpful-resources/raw-data-campaign-finance-and-lobbying-activity) ## The rest of the ballot Member of the State Assembly, District 20 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Member of the State Assembly, District 20 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-20 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.