# Treasurer

Compare records and positions simply between Jennifer Hawks or Eleni Kounalakis for Treasurer at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person manages the state's investments and bond sales.

- 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/state-treasurer
- 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 3 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Jennifer Hawks** — Retired Business Executive · Republican
- **Eleni Kounalakis** — Lieutenant Governor of California · Democratic

The Treasurer is California's banker — managing investments and selling the bonds that fund schools, housing, and infrastructure. Statewide, Eleni Kounalakis (D) and Jennifer Hawks (R) advance to November 3. (LA County had Anna Caballero second, but she finished third statewide.)

It's a four-year term with seats on the boards that direct state financing — including the pension funds and the committees that decide when California borrows. Mistimed bond sales or sloppy investment calls cost real money, quietly.

The job is more technical than political: bond timing, investment discipline, and honest bookkeeping. Relevant experience matters a lot here — as does whether a candidate's private interests could ever intersect with public financing decisions.

## Eleni Kounalakis

Democrat; two-term Lieutenant Governor, former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, and former president of a major housing-development firm. She runs on affordable-housing finance and transparency. Development finance is both her expertise and her baggage.

**Strengths:** Executive and development-finance experience relevant to the bond desk; as a UC Regent she repeatedly voted against tuition hikes.

**Trade-offs:** She left the governor's race to run for this office — skeptics read the move as keeping a statewide seat warm.

**Keep in mind:** Her family's real-estate development wealth is a standing conflict-of-interest question for an office that touches housing finance; she has navigated disclosure rules throughout her career (per CalMatters).

## Jennifer Hawks

Republican; retired businesswoman. Hawks consolidated the Republican vote statewide to reach the runoff. Coverage of the race surfaced little detail about Hawks's background or platform.

**Strengths:** A private-sector outsider's frame for a financial office.

**Trade-offs:** A thin public record for a technical job — there is little to evaluate beyond Hawks's ballot statements.

**Keep in mind:** When information is this scarce, the burden is on the campaign to show its homework; check Hawks's official statements before deciding.

## Financial info

- **Jennifer Hawks**
  - Primary: $77,307 raised (Small donors: $557; Individuals: $38,400; Businesses & other orgs: $100; Self-funding: $30,500)
  - November: $4,300 raised (Individuals: $4,300)
- **Eleni Kounalakis**
  - Primary: $9,009,210 raised (Small donors: $13,138; Individuals: $5,576,628; PACs & committees: $1,731,400; Businesses & other orgs: $1,678,151)
  - November: $7,114 raised (Individuals: $2,114; Businesses & other orgs: $5,000)

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. [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

Treasurer 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, "Treasurer — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/state-treasurer (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.