# State Senator, District 12 Compare records and positions simply between William Brown Jr. or Nathan Magsig for State Senator, District 12 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the California State Senate (4-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/state-senate-12 - 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: 86 out of 100 (Strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **William Brown Jr.** — Social Worker/Businessman · Libertarian - **Nathan Magsig** — County Supervisor/Businessman · Republican This is an open seat. Republican Nathan Magsig led the June 2 primary with 59.5% and Libertarian William Brown Jr. took 26.5% — so no Democrat advanced, and the November choice is between a Republican and a Libertarian. The district covers the central Sierra and eastern San Joaquin Valley. The winner holds one of 40 State Senate seats for a four-year term, inside a 12-year lifetime cap on service in Sacramento. Senate districts are twice the size of Assembly districts, terms run twice as long, and the Senate confirms the Governor's appointments. Whoever wins here enters the minority, where moving legislation requires majority-party support. Neither candidate has held state office and no Democrat is on the ballot, so the choice is between two candidates who would both sit outside the majority. One assembled a million-dollar campaign with substantial individual backing; the other has reported no funding. Weigh whether you are choosing a legislator or registering a preference. ## Nathan Magsig Nathan Magsig, a Republican, is a Fresno County supervisor for District 5. He is a former Clovis mayor running for this open seat. He spent sixteen years on the Clovis City Council, including two terms as mayor. He joined the county board in 2016 (county biography). He holds a Master of Science in criminology and an MBA from Fresno State. He is also a licensed general contractor (county biography). He points to bringing "a medical school and hospital to Clovis" by cutting development fees as a signature win (Sun-Gazette). He describes himself as "a leader for the Central Valley who's ready to fight for us" (campaign site). As county supervisor, he wrote an op-ed defending a Second Amendment resolution the Fresno County Board of Supervisors adopted. He argued that "the right to keep and bear arms is more than an abstract principle" and called it "a cornerstone of our way of life." He pointed to rural areas with long police response times (GV Wire). He promises to "stand against big government and wasteful spending" (campaign site). He wants to "loosen the regulation on our water supply" for farmers (campaign site). He also calls for more oil production. He wants "adequate forest management, fuel reduction, and lower insurance costs" (Sun-Gazette). He says he will "fight against anti-law enforcement policies" (campaign site). **Strengths:** Sixteen years on a city council and two terms as mayor, plus a current county supervisor seat, the deepest local record in this race. **Trade-offs:** No experience in the state Legislature, and a deregulation-heavy platform whose statewide effects are untested at his level of office. **Keep in mind:** He led the June primary outright. Whether that local record translates to Sacramento is the decision this profile leaves to you. ## William Brown Jr. William Brown Jr., a Libertarian, is a social worker and Marine Corps veteran running for this open seat from Visalia (campaign site). He calls himself "a middle-class dad" running on individual liberty and fiscal responsibility (campaign site). He says he is running because "tax dollars vanish into a bureaucratic black hole while our roads crumble and schools struggle" (campaign site). Drawing on his social-work career, he argues that "bloated bureaucracies often hurt the people they're meant to help" (campaign site). He frames the race as "not about right versus left" but "the bottom versus the top" (campaign site). He has not held elected office. He promises to reduce "LLC fees or corporation fees for small businesses, especially those making less than 250,000 dollars a year" (Sun-Gazette). He wants to roll back Assembly Bill 5 restrictions on independent-contractor work and deregulate licensing so more out-of-state health care providers can practice in the Central Valley (Sun-Gazette). **Strengths:** A documented platform of specific deregulation ideas for small businesses and health care licensing, unusual detail for a minor-party candidate. **Trade-offs:** No experience in elected office, and Libertarian candidates rarely win statewide legislative seats in California. **Keep in mind:** He is on the ballot only because no Democrat qualified here. How you weigh a protest vote against a governing choice is left to you. ## 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 - **Nathan Magsig** - Primary: $1,084,673 raised (Small donors: $6,117; Individuals: $357,860; PACs & committees: $246,150; Businesses & other orgs: $476,806) - November: $16,775 raised (Individuals: $3,875; PACs & committees: $6,500; Businesses & other orgs: $6,400) William Brown Jr. 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. William Brown Jr. 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. ## Review notes - William Brown for California's 12th Senate District and Nathan Magsig for State Senate may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources. ## 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. [Fresno County — Board of Supervisors, District 5, Supervisor Nathan Magsig biography](https://www.fresnocountyca.gov/Departments/Board-of-Supervisors/Supervisor-Nathan-Magsig) 4. [Nathan Magsig for State Senate — campaign site](https://www.nathanmagsig.com/) 5. [GV Wire — op-ed, "Nathan Magsig: Why Our Second Amendment Resolution Matters to the People of the Central Valley"](https://gvwire.com/2025/07/09/nathan-magsig-why-our-second-amendment-resolution-matters-to-the-people-of-the-central-valley/) 6. [The Sun-Gazette — "Senate District 12 candidates emphasize deregulation"](https://thesungazette.com/article/news/2026/05/14/senate-district-12-candidates-emphasize-deregulation/) 7. [William Brown for California's 12th Senate District — campaign site](https://williambrownsd12.com/) 8. [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 State Senator, District 12 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, "State Senator, District 12 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/state-senate-12 (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.