# United States Representative, District 12 Compare records and positions simply between Jamie Joyce or Lateefah Simon for United States Representative, District 12 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (2-year term). - Jurisdiction: Federal - 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/us-rep-12 - 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: 89 out of 100 (Strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Jamie Joyce** — Nonprofit Executive Director · Democratic - **Lateefah Simon** — U.S. Representative · Democratic Representative Lateefah Simon took 84.2% of the June 2 vote and fellow Democrat Jamie Joyce took 15.6%, so November is a contest between two members of the same party. The district covers Oakland and the inner East Bay. The winner holds one of 435 seats in the U.S. House for a two-year term. A member introduces bills, sits on committees that shape federal legislation, votes on the federal budget and on war powers, and handles casework between constituents and federal agencies. A first-term member is at the bottom of the seniority ladder that governs committee assignments. An 84% primary against a same-party challenger with $31,247 means the practical question is what the incumbent does with a secure seat in her first full term, not who holds it. Her funding is heavily individual, which is worth noting on its own terms. ## Lateefah Simon Lateefah Simon, a Democrat, has represented California's 12th District in the House since January 2025, succeeding longtime Rep. Barbara Lee. She spent her earlier career running Bay Area nonprofits focused on racial justice and helping young people leave the criminal-legal system, including years leading the Akonadi Foundation, and she served on the BART Board of Directors, including a term as its president (campaign site; Oakland Voices). Born congenitally blind, she has centered much of her public life on disability rights and transit access. She says she ran for Congress because she has "spent my life fighting for folks without a voice" and wants to bring "the shared stories and experiences of this community to the halls of Congress" (campaign site). In September 2025 she voted against the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act, saying: "I will not vote to fund war. Not now, not ever, and especially not when our government can't find money to eliminate homelessness and poverty, give kids a free lunch at school, or ensure health care for our veterans" (Rep. Simon press release). She promises to keep working on disability rights and accessible public transportation, and has publicly opposed cuts to federal health funding, ICE and CBP appropriations, and reauthorization of Section 702 surveillance authority (Rep. Simon press release). She describes her approach to governing as refusing "to be a part of a dichotomy that points fingers" (Oakland Voices). **Strengths:** A documented career leading Bay Area racial-justice and anti-recidivism groups before Congress, plus a specific, on-the-record vote against war funding. **Trade-offs:** Less than one term in the House is a short federal record, and her public materials highlight only a handful of votes and bills so far. **Keep in mind:** She succeeded a 25-year incumbent in a heavily Democratic district. Judge her on the specific votes and priorities described here, not the size of her primary win. ## Jamie Joyce Jamie Joyce, a Berkeley-based nonprofit executive, researcher and activist, was previously chief operating officer of an international aid group working in more than 20 countries (campaign site). They later founded a nonprofit devoted to "making democratic systems survive the 21st century." They helped launch Democracy's Library, a partnership with the Internet Archive that preserves government records (campaign site). Joyce is challenging incumbent Lateefah Simon because, they say, "Congress keeps making missteps" on artificial intelligence and lacks the expertise to address its risks (campaign site). They wrote the Mass Accountability in Democracy (MAD) Act, a roughly 650-page bill on AI regulation, surveillance and government accountability. It has not been introduced in Congress (campaign site). Joyce promises comprehensive AI regulation and an end to what they call current immigration enforcement operations. They also promise campaign-finance reform and further release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein (campaign site). They say they want to build a bloc of lawmakers willing to break from "business as usual" in Washington (campaign site). **Strengths:** A specific, publicly posted legislative proposal on AI and government accountability, in a field where most candidates name no policy details at all. **Trade-offs:** No record in any office, and their platform rests on a bill they wrote themselves rather than one introduced in Congress. **Keep in mind:** Coverage of this race beyond their own campaign materials was not found; that gap is about available coverage, not their candidacy. ## Record in office Jamie Joyce has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Lateefah Simon (Democratic) has served in the U.S. House since 2025 and has sponsored 12 bills in the 119th Congress; none of their bills have become law so far. Per Congress.gov and the public-domain congress-legislators roster, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Simon — Committees: Oversight and Government Reform; Small Business Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Jamie Joyce** — $31,247 raised (Individuals: $31,000; Self-funding: $247) - **Lateefah Simon** — $1,449,191 raised (Individuals: $1,127,684; PACs & committees: $261,421) Total raised is all receipts for the 2026 cycle; the breakdown lists direct contributions, so the pieces can sum below the total. Figures are FEC filings through June 30, 2026, per the FEC bulk campaign-finance summaries, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Review notes - Jamie Joyce for Congress and Lateefah Simon for Congress may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides 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. [Lateefah Simon for Congress — campaign site (home and About page, used for biography and mission)](https://www.lateefahsimon.com/) 4. [Rep. Lateefah Simon — press release on her vote against the FY2026 NDAA (used for her documented vote and quote)](https://simon.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-simon-votes-against-fy2026-national-defense-authorization-act) 5. [Oakland Voices — "New Congresswoman Lateefah Simon" (used for her swearing-in, biography and governing-approach quote)](https://oaklandvoices.us/2025/01/29/new-congresswoman-lateefah-simon/) 6. [Jamie Joyce for Congress — campaign site (used for biography, motivation and the MAD Act platform)](https://www.jamiejoyce.com/) 7. [congress-legislators — current members of Congress (unitedstates project)](https://unitedstates.github.io/congress-legislators/legislators-current.json) 8. [Congress.gov — member sponsored legislation (Library of Congress)](https://api.congress.gov/) 9. [FEC — 2026 House & Senate current-campaign financial summaries (bulk data)](https://www.fec.gov/files/bulk-downloads/2026/webl26.zip) ## The rest of the ballot United States Representative, District 12 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, "United States Representative, District 12 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-12 (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.