# Member of the State Assembly, District 78 Compare records and positions simply between Chris Ward or Payton Galvez for Member of the State Assembly, District 78 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-78 - 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: 97 out of 100 (Very strong), across 7 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Chris Ward** — Member of the State Assembly, 78th District · Democratic · Incumbent - **Payton Galvez** — Constituent Services Manager · Republican Assemblymember Chris Ward took 68.5% of the June 2 vote and Republican Payton Galvez took 28.4% to claim the second slot. The district covers central San Diego. 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 has one of the stronger enacted records on this ballot and raised less than most of his colleagues doing it. His opponent has reported no funding. The practical question here is what this district is getting from a safe seat. ## Chris Ward Chris Ward, the Democratic Assemblymember for California's 78th District (San Diego and El Cajon), was first elected in 2020 after two terms on the San Diego City Council, where he authored the city's Equal Pay Ordinance and chaired its Land Use and Housing Committee and the county's Regional Task Force on the Homeless (official Assembly biography). He previously served as chief of staff to state Senator Marty Block, and in the Assembly he has held leadership posts including Speaker pro Tempore; he now chairs the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism and the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus (official Assembly biography). Ward has made "surveillance pricing" a signature issue: after Consumer Reports found that Instacart had used AI-driven pricing experiments on shoppers, he introduced Assembly Bill 2564 to bar companies from setting prices based on a person's private data (official Assembly press release). "The right to fair pricing should not be a privilege for the few but a fundamental protection for all," he said. "One product, one price" (official Assembly press release). He promises to keep working on housing access, homelessness, climate resilience, water and consumer privacy (official Assembly biography). He also co-authored the Community NEWS Act, Assembly Bill 2222, to help local newsrooms retain and hire journalists, which the Legislature sent to the governor in September 2026 (official Assembly website). **Strengths:** A multi-term record with committee chairs, plus a current bill answering a real, documented pricing practice at a major retailer. **Trade-offs:** A safe seat means voters get less contested debate over his choices than a competitive district would produce. **Keep in mind:** Judge him on specific bills, like the surveillance pricing and local news measures, not just on his committee titles. ## Payton Galvez Payton Galvez is a Republican candidate for California's 78th Assembly District (central San Diego). Galvez's ballot designation lists their occupation as constituent services manager; they have not served in the California Legislature or in Congress (ballot designation). Cal-Access shows no contributions reported for their campaign committee. No campaign website or news coverage of their platform could be located. No documented statement of their priorities or promises could be located. **Strengths:** Galvez gave this district's voters a contested November ballot rather than an uncontested one. **Trade-offs:** No campaign website, no news coverage and no record in office leave almost nothing to evaluate beyond party and ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** No campaign website or news coverage of their platform could be located. What is known comes from their ballot designation. ## Record in office Chris Ward (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 8 of them signed into law. Payton Galvez 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 Ward — AB 2559 (2026): Solid waste: construction debris: diversion: deposits. Ward — AB 82 (2025): Health care: legally protected health care activity. Ward — AB 253 (2025): California Residential Private Permitting Review Act: residential building permits. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Chris Ward** - Primary: $519,685 raised (Small donors: $655; Individuals: $32,575; PACs & committees: $278,200; Businesses & other orgs: $202,950) - November: $43,225 raised (Individuals: $17,825; PACs & committees: $9,000; Businesses & other orgs: $16,400) Payton Galvez 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. Payton Galvez 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. [Assemblymember Chris Ward — official Assembly biography page (council and Assembly career, committees)](https://a78.asmdc.org/biography) 4. [Assemblymember Chris Ward — official Assembly homepage (news of the Community NEWS Act heading to the Governor)](https://a78.asmdc.org/) 5. [Assemblymember Chris Ward — press release reintroducing surveillance-pricing legislation (his quotes and the Consumer Reports finding on Instacart)](https://a78.asmdc.org/press-releases/20260223-assemblymember-ward-reintroduces-legislation-ban-surveillance-pricing) 6. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 7. [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 78 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 78 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-78 (sources last retrieved September 24, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. 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