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Member of the State Assembly, District 37

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State of California

Member of the State Assembly, District 37

This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term).

Assemblymember Gregg Hart took 62.5% of the June 2 vote. Republican Sari Domingues took 37.5%. They were the only two candidates on the primary ballot. The district covers Santa Barbara and the surrounding coast.

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. Committee assignment is where most of the leverage sits, and it is handed out by the majority's leadership.

The incumbent authored 32 bills and had 5 signed into law, a lower conversion rate than most of his colleagues on this ballot — worth weighing alongside the fact that he faces a challenger with almost no campaign at all. This district's real question is what it is getting from a safe seat, not who will hold it.

Gregg Hart

Gregg Hart has spent more than 30 years in Santa Barbara public service. He was a planning commissioner, a city council member and a county supervisor. Before that he worked as a legislative aide and ran a family preschool for two decades. Voters sent him to the Assembly in 2022.

In Sacramento, Hart has focused on accountability for deaths in county jails. Santa Barbara County's grand jury found a conflict of interest when sheriffs investigate deaths in their own custody. Hart wrote a bill to fix it, requiring an outside medical examiner instead. Governor Newsom signed it into law in 2025. Hart says it should give grieving families more confidence in the truth.

Hart's site lists protecting the coast and its economy as a top priority, including opposing the restart of oil pipelines tied to a past spill near Refugio. He also promises to keep working on health care access, wildfire and disaster preparedness, and support for local nonprofits. He backed a state lawsuit against a federal attempt to override California's authority on the coast.

Sari Domingues

Sari Domingues is a retired business analyst from Santa Maria. She spent more than a decade each working for Monterey County and Santa Barbara County as a computer specialist. She raised three sons and later returned to school for more degrees before retiring to care for her mother and mother-in-law.

Domingues got into local politics after she retired, and in 2023 she founded a Santa Barbara County chapter of Moms for Liberty. She has spent the past three years studying Hart's voting record. She says she disagrees with more than eight in ten of the votes he has cast, and that disagreement is why she is running.

Domingues promises to focus on schools, safety and family finances. She wants higher test scores and would remove ethnic studies and LGBTQ topics from elementary classrooms. She also wants less crime so children can play outside more freely.

Record in office

Gregg Hart (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 32 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 5 of them signed into law. Sari Domingues 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.

Financial info

Gregg Hart

Primary — $676,628

$676,628raised
  • Individuals$166,70025%
  • PACs & committees$326,95049%
  • Businesses & other orgs$174,85026%

November — $40,650

$40,650raised
  • Individuals$18,80046%
  • PACs & committees$14,45036%
  • Businesses & other orgs$7,40018%

Sari Domingues

Primary — $4,854

$4,854raised
  • Small donors$84917%
  • Individuals$4,00583%

November

No itemized funding reported yet.

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.

Sari Domingues 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.

Your pick

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