# United States Representative, District 16 Compare records and positions simply between Sam Liccardo or Peter Sundin Soulé for United States Representative, District 16 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-16 - 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 10 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Sam Liccardo** — United States Representative · Democratic - **Peter Sundin Soulé** — Investor · Republican Representative Sam Liccardo took 75.6% of the June 2 vote and Republican Peter Sundin Soulé took 10.8% to claim the second slot. The district covers the Peninsula and part of Santa Clara County. 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. The gap in resources here is close to total: $3.49 million against $400. That shapes how much either candidate has been able to say publicly, and therefore how much there is for a voter to weigh. The practical question is what this district gets from a safe seat. ## Sam Liccardo Sam Liccardo, a Democrat, represents California's 16th District after two terms as mayor of San Jose from 2015 to 2023. As mayor he says the city "pioneered converting motels into housing" and left office with "11% fewer homeless residents living on the street" and the "lowest homicide rate of any major U.S. city," by his campaign's account (samliccardo.com). Before that, he was a federal prosecutor. He "prosecuted felony sexual assault and child exploitation cases" (samliccardo.com). He says he is running because "we need a Congress that understands how we can leverage technology to tackle America's greatest challenges" (samliccardo.com). In February 2022, San José Spotlight and the First Amendment Coalition sued Liccardo and the city. They alleged he used a private email account to conduct city business, and once wrote, "I'm going to delete this from my public account" (CBS News). His chief of staff, Jim Reed, said the city had spent "hundreds of hours reviewing and producing thousands of pages" of records, and had "mistakenly missed two emails" in one request, which it later provided (CBS News). He promises to focus on "lowering costs," "upholding the rule of law," climate resilience and housing (liccardo.house.gov). In his first term he has worked on bipartisan housing legislation and a wildfire resilience partnership he says will "protect our community from wildfires" (liccardo.house.gov). **Strengths:** Two terms as San Jose mayor is a substantial record in local government, including a documented drop in street homelessness and lower crime. **Trade-offs:** One term in Congress is a short federal record, and a 2022 lawsuit alleged he used a private email account to avoid public records law as mayor. **Keep in mind:** The records lawsuit centered on his conduct as mayor, not in Congress, and his office says it responded with thousands of pages of documents. How much that matters to a federal vote is your call. ## Peter Sundin Soulé Peter Sundin Soulé, a Republican, is a fourth-generation steel businessman whose family founded Soule Steel in San Francisco in 1911, "founded by my grandfather, Edward Lee Soule, Sr.," after the 1906 earthquake (souleforcongress.com). They hold a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara and an M.B.A. from Golden Gate University, and have worked in commercial property management and steel fabrication, including work on the Pruneyard Towers in Campbell; they served on San Jose's Civil Service Commission from 2007 to 2011 (souleforcongress.com). They say "our area needs an advocate in Congress that will stand up for the interests of taxpayers and the next generation," and their campaign frames their run as continuing their grandfather's rebuilding work (souleforcongress.com). They have not held elected office, so there is no voting record, lawsuit or other documented conduct to evaluate here beyond their campaign's own statements. They promise to withhold federal funds from "sanctuary cities," reform the Federal Endangered Species Act to lower farmers' water costs, remove restrictions on drilling and refining, and reform the H-1B visa program "to favor the hiring of Americans over foreigners" (souleforcongress.com). They also call for parental school choice and "fair and balanced teaching of American history" (souleforcongress.com). **Strengths:** They have civic experience on San Jose's Civil Service Commission and decades of family business management, and gave the district a contested general election. **Trade-offs:** No record in elected office to judge, and coverage of this race carries little beyond their own campaign materials. **Keep in mind:** Their platform is closely tied to national politics, including explicit support for President Trump's agenda, more than to specific local issues in this district. ## Record in office Sam Liccardo (Democratic) has served in the U.S. House since 2025 and has sponsored 17 bills in the 119th Congress; none of their bills have become law so far. Peter Sundin Soulé has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Per Congress.gov and the public-domain congress-legislators roster, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Liccardo — Committees: Financial Services Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Sam Liccardo** — $3,489,298 raised (Individuals: $1,505,070; PACs & committees: $662,750) - **Peter Sundin Soulé** — $400 raised (Individuals: $300; Self-funding: $100) 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 - Sam Liccardo for Congress and Peter Soule 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. [Sam Liccardo for Congress — Meet Sam (biography and priorities)](https://www.samliccardo.com/about) 4. [Congressman Sam Liccardo — Issues](https://liccardo.house.gov/issues) 5. [San José Spotlight — From San Jose to D.C.: How Sam Liccardo is getting ready](https://sanjosespotlight.com/from-san-jose-to-d-c-how-sam-liccardo-is-getting-ready/) 6. [CBS News San Francisco — Lawsuit accuses San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo of violating public records laws with private email account](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-jose-mayor-sam-liccardo-public-records-lawsuit/) 7. [Peter Soule for Congress — Home, About and Issues](https://souleforcongress.com/) 8. [congress-legislators — current members of Congress (unitedstates project)](https://unitedstates.github.io/congress-legislators/legislators-current.json) 9. [Congress.gov — member sponsored legislation (Library of Congress)](https://api.congress.gov/) 10. [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 16 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 16 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-16 (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.