California Legislature · Statewide General Election
Member of the State Assembly, District 65
Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.
This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.
On the ballot
- Ayanna Davis — Democratic
- Lydia A. Gutiérrez — Republican
This person holds your district's seat in the California State Assembly (2-year term).
This is an open seat. Democrat Ayanna Davis led the June 2 primary with 46.3% and Republican Lydia A. Gutiérrez took 19.2%. The district covers part of the South Bay and Los Angeles harbour area.
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. Because this seat is open, whoever wins starts without seniority and builds committee standing from scratch.
Neither candidate has held state office, so there is no legislative record on either side and the available evidence is how each campaign was built. The gap is close to total — one raised more than $620,000, the other $4,250, most of it her own. Weigh that against the fact that the leading candidate still fell short of a majority in June.
Ayanna Davis
Democrat, who led the June primary with 46.3% of the vote. She raised $623,901, including $387,950 from PACs and committees and $74,048 from individuals. She has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress.
Strengths
She led a multi-candidate open-seat field by a wide margin and assembled by far the larger campaign.
Trade-offs
More than six of every ten dollars came from PACs and committees, and she has no record in office to be judged on.
Keep in mind
She led with 46.3%, short of a majority, so November depends on where the rest of the June field's support settles.
Lydia A. Gutiérrez
Republican, who advanced with 19.2% of the June vote. She raised $4,250, of which $4,000 is her own money. She has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress.
Strengths
She took nearly a fifth of the vote on a self-funded budget of a few thousand dollars.
Trade-offs
Almost all of her funding is her own, and she has no record in office to be judged on.
Keep in mind
Coverage surfaced almost no biographical or platform detail about her. That gap is what was available to us on 2026-08-10, not a comment on her candidacy.
Record in office
This is an open seat: no candidate on the November ballot currently serves in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress, so there is no legislative record to compare here. These records cover only those offices.
Financial info
- Small donors
- Individuals
- PACs & committees
- Businesses & other orgs
- Self-funding
Ayanna Davis
$623,901 raised
- Small donors$2,826<1%
- Individuals$74,04812%
- PACs & committees$387,95062%
- Businesses & other orgs$154,14925%
- Self-funding$2,111<1%
Lydia A. Gutiérrez
$4,250 raised
- Individuals$2506%
- Self-funding$4,00094%
1Figures 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 2026-08-22.
June 2 primary — how they advanced
Source review: Very strong (94/100) · 3 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.
- sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)CA Secretary of State — Statement of Vote, June 2, 2026 primary (certified 2026-07-10)
- ballotpedia.org (opens in a new tab)Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary
- sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)Cal-Access raw data export — California Secretary of State
Last updated August 10, 2026.