# United States Representative, District 26 Compare records and positions simply between Jacqui Irwin or Sam Gallucci for United States Representative, District 26 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-26 - 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: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Jacqui Irwin** — California State Assemblymember · Democratic - **Sam Gallucci** — Business Executive/Pastor · Republican This is an open seat. Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin led the June 2 primary with 41.3% and Republican Sam Gallucci took 20.9%. Irwin currently serves in the State Assembly and is seeking this House seat rather than re-election. The district covers Ventura 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. Because this seat is open, whoever wins starts at the bottom of the seniority ladder. One candidate brings a strong state legislative record — 15 bills signed into law from 35 authored — earned in a chamber with a different remit. The other is largely self-financing. Neither has federal experience. Weigh a documented state record against the fact that the job on offer is a different one. ## Jacqui Irwin Jacqui Irwin is "a mother, engineer, and community leader with two decades of leadership in our community" (campaign site). She was first elected to the Assembly in 2014. Before that she served as Mayor of Thousand Oaks. She now chairs the Legislature’s climate change policy committee and co-chairs a national task force on cybersecurity. After the 2018 Borderline shooting in Thousand Oaks, she wrote laws to strengthen gun violence restraining orders, extending them up to five years. Her laws also require police agencies to adopt clear rules for using them (campaign site). "My energy and passion for public service has never been stronger," Irwin says. "I am ready to stand up for our district and state in Congress," she says, "fighting Trump’s assault on our democracy and values while prioritizing public safety, affordability, and the needs of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties" (campaign site). She says Congress "refuses to stand up to Trump, even to assert its constitutional authority." She says she will fight "to restore and improve access to quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans" (OC Register). Irwin’s stated priorities are affordability, "fighting to maintain our democracy and civil rights," and health care costs and access (OC Register). She says she will hold utilities accountable "through policies that hold polluters accountable and reduce rates for Californians." She also says she will fight to restore health care cuts she attributes to Republicans in Congress (OC Register). **Strengths:** A decade in the Assembly plus a prior term as Thousand Oaks mayor, with authored state laws on gun violence restraining orders and cybersecurity. **Trade-offs:** Her record was built in Sacramento, not Washington, and the two legislatures differ in what they can actually do. **Keep in mind:** She led a crowded primary with well under a majority, which says as much about a multi-candidate field as about her support. ## Sam Gallucci Sam Gallucci began his career in 1981 at IBM and "rose to Executive Vice President and General Manager of PeopleSoft," a major customer-relationship-management software maker. Gallucci later decided that "material wealth left him unfulfilled" and retired to found nonprofits (campaign site). He is "Founder and CEO of The Kingdom Center," which his campaign says has provided shelter to "over 3000 women and their children" in sixteen years. He later founded Treasured Harvest, serving farm worker families, and Revive Academies, a low-cost K-12 alternative (campaign site). He was "most recently the senior pastor of Embrace! Church" and has written three books, including one on homelessness policy (campaign site). "The issue on everyone’s mind right now is affordability," Gallucci says. "What was once an aspiration to owning a home and starting a family has turned into everyday Californians struggling to survive" (OC Register). He has not previously held elected office. His campaign’s slogan describes "bringing business efficiency and pastoral care to government" (campaign site). Gallucci says he has "promised to champion landmark immigration reform" that would let long-settled, law-abiding immigrants stay while deporting "criminals who flaunt our laws" (OC Register). His platform calls for banning stock trading by members of Congress and protecting Social Security and Medicare. He also wants to lower prescription costs through "direct-to-consumer and most-favoured-nation pricing alternatives" (campaign site). **Strengths:** A corporate career at IBM and PeopleSoft followed by two decades running homelessness and food-assistance nonprofits he founded. **Trade-offs:** No record in any office to judge; what voters can weigh is his nonprofit work and his campaign's own account of it. **Keep in mind:** His biography comes mainly from his own campaign; independent local coverage of his record could not be located beyond his own campaign materials. ## Record in office This seat is open — no candidate on the November ballot currently holds it. Jacqui Irwin (Democratic) is a sitting Assemblymember and is lead author of 35 bills in the 2025–2026 session, 15 of them signed into law. Sam Gallucci has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Per the California Legislature's public bill data (leginfo bulk download), retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Irwin — AB 2298 (2026): Pupil instruction: computer science: content standards. Irwin — AB 2249 (2026): Cannabis: labels, packaging, and advertising. Irwin — AB 2692 (2026): Common interest developments: reinstatement of terminated declarations: County of Los Angeles. Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Jacqui Irwin** — $822,382 raised (Individuals: $651,832; PACs & committees: $164,050) - **Sam Gallucci** — $377,078 raised (Individuals: $144,557; Self-funding: $232,520) 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 Gallucci for Congress and Jacqui Irwin 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. [Jacqui Irwin for Congress — campaign site (home, About Jacqui)](https://jacquiirwin.com/about-jacqui) 4. [Orange County Register — Jacqui Irwin, CA-26 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/04/jacqui-irwin-ca-26-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 5. [Sam Gallucci for Congress — campaign site (Newsroom/press biography)](https://www.samgallucci.com/newsroom) 6. [Orange County Register — Sam Gallucci, CA-26 candidate, 2026 primary election questionnaire](https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/04/sam-gallucci-ca-26-candidate-2026-primary-election-questionnaire/) 7. [California Legislative Information — public bill data (bulk download)](https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/) 8. [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 26 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 26 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-26 (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.