# State Senator, District 20 Compare records and positions simply between Tony Rodriguez or Caroline Menjivar for State Senator, District 20 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-20 - 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 6 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Tony Rodriguez** — No Ballot Designation · Republican - **Caroline Menjivar** — State Senator · Democratic · Incumbent Senator Caroline Menjivar took 62.0% of the June 2 vote and Republican Tony Rodriguez took 27.8% to claim the second slot. The district covers the northern San Fernando 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. A four-year term means the winner will not face voters again until 2030. The incumbent has one of the stronger enacted records in the Legislature this session; her opponent has raised under $7,000, more than half of it their own money. The practical question here is what this district is getting from a safe seat over four years. ## Caroline Menjivar Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat, is the sitting State Senator for District 20, first elected in 2022 (sd20.senate.ca.gov). Before politics she served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2009 to 2016, as a radio operator and communications platoon sergeant. She then earned a bachelor's degree at Cal State Northridge while working nights as an EMT in Van Nuys, and a Master of Social Welfare at UCLA (sd20.senate.ca.gov). She later worked as a field deputy and gender-equity fellow in the Los Angeles Mayor's office before her election to the Senate. Her official biography traces her focus in Sacramento to her working-class upbringing in the San Fernando Valley, including working as a cashier at 14 (sd20.senate.ca.gov). In 2025 she authored SB 418, which would have required health plans to cover a 12-month supply of prescription hormone therapy without utilization-management limits. The bill passed both chambers, but Governor Newsom vetoed it in October 2025. He said utilization management is "an important tool to ensure enrollees receive the right care at the right time," and that the bill was "likely to result in an increase in enrollee premiums" (California Legislature bill records). She promises to keep directing state funding to the district, including 19 million dollars her office says it secured for Senate District 20. She also wants to keep working on housing, homeowners'-association reform through bills like SB 1007, and mental health and veteran services, as chair of the budget subcommittee on health and human services (sd20.senate.ca.gov). **Strengths:** Chairs a budget subcommittee on health and human services and has moved a broad range of bills into law this session, from occupational safety to adoption procedure. **Trade-offs:** Not every bill she authors survives the governor's desk; her hormone-therapy access bill passed the Legislature but was vetoed in 2025 over cost concerns. **Keep in mind:** The veto turned on a dispute over insurer cost controls, not the underlying goal of hormone-therapy access, which the governor said he supported. ## Tony Rodriguez Tony Rodriguez is a Republican running for California State Senate District 20, with no ballot designation listed. Rodriguez has not served in the California Legislature or in Congress. No campaign website, candidate questionnaire, news profile or interview for them could be located. Ballotpedia's page and a statewide 2026 voter guide both list them with no biographical text beyond their name, party and ballot status. No source carrying their own words about why they are running, or about their background, could be located. What can be documented is limited to the ballot facts already established for this race. There is no independent reporting on their record or conduct to draw a documented fact from. No stated priorities or promises for Tony Rodriguez could be sourced. This is a case where the profile format cannot do more than the public record allows. What's here reflects a real gap in public information, not an editorial choice to omit it. **Strengths:** No documented record, activity or campaign material could be found to describe or weigh. **Trade-offs:** No record in office to judge, and no coverage of their platform beyond their name and party on the ballot. **Keep in mind:** No record exists to judge, and even the candidate's own campaign materials could not be located. This reflects a real gap in public information, not a shorter write-up by choice. ## Record in office Tony Rodriguez has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Caroline Menjivar (Democratic) is the sitting State Senator for this district and is lead author of 34 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 8 of them signed into law. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Menjivar — SB 20 (2025): Occupational safety: high-exposure trigger tasks on artificial stone. Menjivar — SB 68 (2025): Major food allergens. Menjivar — SB 62 (2025): Health care coverage: essential health benefits. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Tony Rodriguez** - Primary: $6,680 raised (Individuals: $3,000; Self-funding: $3,680) - November: $3,000 raised (Individuals: $3,000) - **Caroline Menjivar** - Primary: $865,362 raised (Small donors: $1,318; Individuals: $123,915; PACs & committees: $391,650; Businesses & other orgs: $345,650) - November: $38,015 raised (Individuals: $13,615; PACs & committees: $8,500; Businesses & other orgs: $15,900) 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. [Ballotpedia — June 2026 California primary](https://ballotpedia.org) 3. [California State Senator Caroline Menjivar — official biography (used for her pre-Senate career and accomplishments)](https://sd20.senate.ca.gov/biography) 4. [California Legislature — SB 418 (Menjivar) bill status and veto message (used for the hormone-therapy bill and governor's veto reasoning)](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB418) 5. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 6. [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 20 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 20 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/state-senate-20 (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.