# Attorney General Compare records and positions simply between Rob Bonta or Michael E. Gates for Attorney General at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person is the state's top lawyer and chief law enforcement officer. - Jurisdiction: State of California - 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/attorney-general - 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: August 30, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 97 out of 100 (Very strong), across 5 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Rob Bonta** — California Attorney General · Democratic · Incumbent - **Michael E. Gates** — Deputy United States Attorney · Republican California's top lawyer and chief law-enforcement officer. Incumbent Rob Bonta took about 55% statewide; his November 3 opponent is Michael Gates — the former Huntington Beach city attorney who has spent years suing the state Bonta defends. It's the sharpest philosophical contrast on the statewide ballot. The AG runs the state Department of Justice for four years: picking the state's legal fights, representing California in court, and overseeing law-enforcement standards statewide. Bonta's office has sued the Trump administration 54 times since January 2025; Gates built his career suing Sacramento over housing mandates, sanctuary policy, and election rules. Your vote here is less about lawyering skill than about which set of lawsuits you want filed in California's name. ## Rob Bonta Democrat, incumbent since 2021; former East Bay Assemblymember. His office reports 35 preliminary injunctions won against federal actions, and he has sued LA County itself over jail conditions. He runs on continuing that litigation posture. **Strengths:** A prolific, experienced litigator for state policy — from National Guard deployments to the birthright-citizenship order. **Trade-offs:** Critics argue the heavy anti-Washington caseload leaves less bandwidth for bread-and-butter consumer and criminal work. **Keep in mind:** Some signature fights have stumbled — a judge dismissed the state's Huntington Beach voter-ID suit, and rulings in the parental-notification school cases went against the state's position. His opponent was the opposing counsel in both. ## Michael E. Gates Republican; deputy U.S. attorney and a decade as Huntington Beach City Attorney. Gates made their name suing the state — and defending the first local voter-ID law in California. Electing Gates would flip the office's posture entirely. **Strengths:** An experienced courtroom adversary of state government who has won some of those fights. **Trade-offs:** An AG whose record is suing the state would be a hard reversal — exciting or alarming depending on your view of Sacramento. **Keep in mind:** The circumstances of Gates's 2025 U.S. DOJ departure were disputed in press coverage; Gates produced a letter they say confirms they resigned (per LAist). ## Financial info - **Rob Bonta** - Primary: $2,802,406 raised (Small donors: $268,474; Individuals: $1,516,493; PACs & committees: $743,100; Businesses & other orgs: $257,850) - November: $61,368 raised (Individuals: $49,368; Businesses & other orgs: $12,000) - **Michael E. Gates** - Primary: $1,262,318 raised (Small donors: $106,084; Individuals: $1,018,861; PACs & committees: $69,800; Businesses & other orgs: $50,276; Self-funding: $100) - November: $122,145 raised (Individuals: $116,494; PACs & committees: $350; Businesses & other orgs: $5,301) 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. 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. [CalMatters — 2026 primary voter guide and statewide race coverage](https://calmatters.org/california-voter-guide-2026/) 3. [LAist — June 2026 primary voter guides](https://laist.com/news/politics/voter-guides) 4. [CA Attorney General press release — lawsuit over LA County jail conditions (Sept 8, 2025)](https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases) 5. [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 Attorney General 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, "Attorney General — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/attorney-general (sources last retrieved August 30, 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.