United States Representative, District 10

Mark DeSaulnier has represented this district in Congress since 2015, after years in the California Assembly and Senate and on the Concord City Council. Before politics he worked as a probation officer, a truck driver and a restaurant manager. In the House he has focused on transportation safety and workers' rights, including a bill meant to prevent deadly truck underride crashes.

In 2020 he broke several ribs and injured his spleen after a fall while running in Washington DC. The injury led to pneumonia, and he spent nearly five weeks in intensive care, four of them on a ventilator, before recovering. He says his work is guided by one idea: that he works for the people of this district.

He promises to keep fighting for affordable housing and lower costs for working families. He says he will protect funding for medical research and defend reproductive rights. His campaign also promises stronger worker protections as artificial intelligence changes the economy.

Jeff Frese is a small business owner from Moraga who has never held elected office. He says he built a national snack food brand from his kitchen and later sold it, then went on to run other consumer companies. He describes his approach as practical, saying he has made payroll and answered to customers rather than donors.

This is his first run for office. He says his focus is on Contra Costa families and the everyday things that affect their lives, like schools, safety, bills and jobs. Local reporting found little independent detail about his background beyond his own campaign materials.

He promises to cut federal rules that he says drive up housing, energy and food costs, and to reduce wildfire risk through better forest management. He supports voter ID rules, an Election Day holiday and paper ballot audits. He also promises to protect Social Security and Medicare without raising the retirement age.