# State Senator, District 28 Compare records and positions simply between Joe Lisuzzo or Lola Smallwood-Cuevas for State Senator, District 28 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-28 - 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: 92 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Joe Lisuzzo** — LA Neighborhood Councilmember · Republican - **Lola Smallwood-Cuevas** — State Senator · Democratic · Incumbent Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas took 77.5% of the June 2 vote and Republican Joe Lisuzzo took 16.2% to claim the second slot. The district covers South Los Angeles and neighbouring communities. 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. A 61-point primary margin against an opponent with no reported funding means the practical question is what the incumbent does with a seat Smallwood-Cuevas holds comfortably for the next four years, not who holds it. ## Lola Smallwood-Cuevas Lola Smallwood-Cuevas spent more than two decades as a labor organizer and civil-rights advocate, including co-founding the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, before their election to the State Senate in 2022 (senate biography). Smallwood-Cuevas chairs the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee and has authored bills on apprenticeships, workplace-surveillance disclosure and worker safety. In October 2025, Governor Newsom vetoed their SB 75, which would have created a pilot program helping workers move into apprenticeships through alternative pathways (Governor's legislative update, October 2025). Their office frames their Senate work around building "a more equitable economy for working families" (senate biography), and they are running for reelection on that record. Smallwood-Cuevas promises to keep expanding job training and apprenticeship pipelines, tighten workplace-safety and surveillance rules, and support Black-owned and other small businesses in the district, along with continued "Coffee with the Senator" town halls and immigrant-rights resources (senate biography). **Strengths:** Two decades organizing before office, a Senate committee chairmanship, and a legislative focus that matches their pre-Senate work on wages and safety. **Trade-offs:** Facing only token opposition this cycle, which supplies little outside pressure on how they use the seat. **Keep in mind:** Not every bill they propose becomes law. A 2025 apprenticeship pilot program they authored was vetoed, a reminder that a committee chair does not guarantee a bill's fate. ## Joe Lisuzzo Joe Lisuzzo co-owned and operated AL Gelato, a Los Angeles restaurant and ice-cream manufacturing company, for 32 years before retiring; he holds a bachelor's degree from California State University, Northridge, a master's from UCLA, and serves on a Los Angeles neighborhood council (Yo! Venice). This is not his first run for this seat: a 2022 Yo! Venice interview covered his campaign for the same California State Senate district (Yo! Venice). "I love Los Angeles and I'm tired of seeing its overall decline and people suffering on the streets," Lisuzzo has said (Yo! Venice). He has proposed amending Proposition 47 to lower the dollar threshold for felony theft charges, arguing the current 950 dollar threshold has let shoplifting go unpunished and hurt businesses (Yo! Venice). He promises increased police funding, new "Homeless Wellness centers" combining mental-health treatment, addiction services and job placement, a temporary gas-tax holiday, and new water reservoirs and desalination projects for the region (Yo! Venice). **Strengths:** Three decades running a manufacturing business and current service on a neighborhood council, plus a second run at this seat that shows persistence. **Trade-offs:** No record in state office, and a previous run for this same seat in 2022 that also did not lead to a Senate term. **Keep in mind:** Coverage of Lisuzzo is limited mostly to his own campaign materials and one detailed 2022 interview; independent reporting on his record is thin. ## Record in office Joe Lisuzzo has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (Democratic) is the sitting State Senator for this district and is lead author of 33 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 6 of them signed into law. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Smallwood-Cuevas — SB 1100 (2026): Grand juries: final reports. Smallwood-Cuevas — SB 1316 (2026): Employment. Smallwood-Cuevas — SB 464 (2025): Employer pay data. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Lola Smallwood-Cuevas** - Primary: $705,039 raised (Small donors: $2,608; Individuals: $81,399; PACs & committees: $455,181; Businesses & other orgs: $161,233) - November: $27,400 raised (Individuals: $6,000; PACs & committees: $13,000; Businesses & other orgs: $8,400) Joe Lisuzzo 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. Joe Lisuzzo 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 - Joe Lisuzzo for State Senate 28th District may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide 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. [Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas — official site (biography, priorities)](https://sd28.senate.ca.gov/) 4. [Governor of California — Legislative update 10.13.25 (SB 75 veto status)](https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/10/13/governor-newsom-issues-legislative-update-10-13-25/) 5. [Joe Lisuzzo for State Senate 28th District — campaign site (biography, priorities)](https://www.joelisuzzo.com/) 6. [Yo! Venice — Yo! Venice Sits With California State Senate Candidate Joe Lisuzzo (R) (biography, quotes, 2022 candidacy)](https://yovenice.com/2022/05/26/yo-venice-sits-with-california-state-senate-candidate-joe-lisuzzo-r/) 7. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 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 28 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 28 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/state-senate-28 (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.