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State Senator, District 4

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State of California

State Senator, District 4

This person holds your district's seat in the California State Senate (4-year term).

This is an open seat. Democrat Jaron Brandon led the June 2 primary with 41.3%, raising $293,282. Republican Alexandra Duarte took 32.1% after raising more than $1 million. The money and the votes pointed in opposite directions. The district covers the northern San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra foothills.

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 also means the winner will not face voters again until 2030.

Neither candidate has held state office, so there is no legislative record on either side. What distinguishes them is the shape of their support: one built a small-dollar base of $16,326 — among the largest on this ballot relative to campaign size — while the other raised $569,480 from individuals at much higher average amounts. Weigh breadth of support against scale of it.

Jaron Brandon

Jaron Brandon is a Tuolumne County supervisor, representing District 5 on the board. He led the June primary field for this open State Senate seat, winning nearly every county in the Sierra foothills part of the district.

He says he wants to work with members of both political parties to solve problems facing the region. On the Board of Supervisors, he voted to spend reserve funds to reopen a shuttered fire station for another year after its federal grant ran out. The measure failed on a 3 to 2 vote, and the station stayed closed.

He promises to keep working on water access and wastewater treatment in the region's smaller communities. He also supported a statewide ballot measure this year that he said would fund education, even as he defended budget cuts and layoffs at home as hard but necessary choices.

Alexandra Duarte

Alexandra Duarte is a farmer and a mother in the Central Valley. She is married to John Duarte, a former member of Congress. She has not held elected office.

She says the rising cost of living in California is the issue driving her campaign. She opposed a statewide ballot measure this year that would have raised money for schools, saying it was another attempt to raise taxes and that higher taxes will not fix the state's problems.

She promises business-friendly policies instead of new taxes. She says lower costs and less regulation, not higher taxes, are the way to fix the state's problems.

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

Alexandra Duarte

Primary — $1,045,931

$1,045,931raised
  • Small donors$1,083<1%
  • Individuals$569,48056%
  • PACs & committees$41,7004%
  • Businesses & other orgs$331,30033%
  • Self-funding$71,5007%

November — $33,050

$33,050raised
  • Individuals$18,75057%
  • PACs & committees$14,30043%

Jaron Brandon

Primary — $293,282

$293,282raised
  • Small donors$16,3265%
  • Individuals$106,17833%
  • PACs & committees$100,57831%
  • Party$5,5002%
  • Businesses & other orgs$14,1004%
  • Self-funding$80,00025%

November — $7,479

$7,479raised
  • Individuals$2,47933%
  • PACs & committees$5,00067%

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.

Your pick

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