# Member of the State Assembly, District 80 Compare records and positions simply between David A. Alvarez or Alejandro Galicia for Member of the State Assembly, District 80 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-80 - 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 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **David A. Alvarez** — Assemblymember · Democratic · Incumbent - **Alejandro Galicia** — Business Owner/Commissioner · Republican Assemblymember David A. Alvarez took 59.1% of the June 2 vote and Republican Alejandro Galicia took 34.2% to claim the second slot. The district covers Chula Vista and the South Bay of San Diego 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. Committee assignment is where most of the leverage sits, and it is handed out by the majority's leadership. The incumbent has a solid enacted record and took 59.1% against an opponent with no reported funding — a middling hold by the standards of this ballot. The practical question here is what this district is getting from a safe seat. ## David A. Alvarez David A. Alvarez, the youngest of six children of Mexican immigrants, grew up in Barrio Logan and was the first in his family to earn a college degree, a B.A. in psychology from San Diego State University (official site). Before his Assembly election he served eight years on the San Diego City Council and ran a small business; he now chairs the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance and the Select Committee on California-Mexico Binational Affairs (official site). Asked why he is running, he told the San Diego Union-Tribune, "South San Diego deserves a fighter with a proven record...I'm running again because the work isn't finished." In 2026 he authored AB 1732, extending CEQA streamlining to student and faculty housing at UC, CSU and community college campuses, saying "students are sleeping in their cars, couch-surfing, or dropping out because they can't find an affordable place to live near campus" (official site). The bill passed both chambers in late August 2026 and awaits the governor's signature. He promises to keep expanding higher education in the South Bay, including a new SDSU nursing school and "a new university" campus in Chula Vista, and to win "full funding" to fix the Tijuana River sewage crisis (San Diego Union-Tribune Q&A). He also promises new bachelor's degree programs at Southwestern College and a cleaner, cheaper E15 fuel blend to lower gas prices statewide. **Strengths:** A CEQA streamlining bill for student housing passed the Legislature this term, and he chairs two Assembly committees. **Trade-offs:** Most of the housing and river-cleanup wins he cites took years and other lawmakers' votes too, not his alone. **Keep in mind:** He has a documented eight-year council and Assembly record. Whether his newest bill gets signed is still pending. ## Alejandro Galicia Alejandro Galicia, a Republican, owns BPI Plumbing in Chula Vista and served 24 years in the Army, active and reserve combined (San Diego Union-Tribune, 2024). A 1992 UCLA graduate, he was commissioned an Army officer and, per a 2022 Union-Tribune questionnaire, "led 160 U.S. soldiers into Operation Iraqi Freedom" between April 2003 and July 2004, completing a 15-month deployment. He has not served in the California Legislature or in county or city office; he previously ran for state Senate in 2022 and for county supervisor in 2024 and lost both races. Galicia has not answered candidate questionnaires for this Assembly race, and no 2026 campaign site could be found. In his 2024 run for county supervisor, he told the Union-Tribune, "I've seen a disturbing trend of community leaders not fulfilling their duty regarding routine and emergency county services. Instead, they focus on political pet projects to reward their donors and to pander for re-election." He has not held elected office, so there is no voting or council record to check. In that same 2024 questionnaire, he named the Tijuana River Valley sewage flow, housing regulations that raise costs, and the county's disaster response as his top three issues, and said he would build "a nonpartisan brain trust of experts from diverse backgrounds," adding, "I don't care who gets the credit." **Strengths:** A documented record of military leadership and decades running a small business, and two earlier campaigns for higher office. **Trade-offs:** No campaign material exists yet for this specific race, and he has never held elected office. **Keep in mind:** What is known about him comes from two earlier campaigns, not this one. Whether his views have changed since is not documented. ## Record in office David A. Alvarez (Democratic) is the sitting Assemblymember for this district and is lead author of 32 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 9 of them signed into law. Alejandro Galicia 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 Alvarez — AB 2056 (2026): Teachers: exchange programs: local educational agencies. Alvarez — AB 35 (2026): Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024: Administrative Procedure Act: exemption: program guidelines and selection criteria. Alvarez — AB 662 (2025): Postsecondary education: mixed-use intersegmental educational facility in the City of Chula Vista: South County Higher Education Planning Task Force. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **David A. Alvarez** - Primary: $727,218 raised (Small donors: $910; Individuals: $49,800; PACs & committees: $343,961; Businesses & other orgs: $322,205) - November: $25,900 raised (PACs & committees: $8,000; Businesses & other orgs: $17,900) Alejandro Galicia 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. Alejandro Galicia 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. [Official Website of Assemblymember David Alvarez — biography and press releases (AB 1732, AB 2056)](https://alvarez.asmdc.org/about/biography) 4. [California Legislature — AB 1732 official bill status](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1732) 5. [San Diego Union-Tribune — Q&A: Meet David Alvarez, candidate for California State Assembly District 80](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/05/10/qa-meet-david-alvarez-candidate-for-california-state-assembly-district-80/) 6. [San Diego Union-Tribune — Meet the candidates for San Diego County supervisor in District 1: Q&A with Alejandro Galicia](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/09/24/meet-the-candidates-for-san-diego-county-supervisor-in-district-1-qa-with-alejandro-galicia/) 7. [San Diego Union-Tribune — Nov. 2022 Election: Q&A with Alejandro Galicia, candidate for California state Senate District 18](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2022/09/12/nov-2022-election-qa-with-alejandro-galicia-candidate-for-california-state-senate-district-18/) 8. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 9. [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 80 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 80 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/assembly-80 (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.