# United States Representative, District 27 Compare records and positions simply between George Whitesides or Jason Gibbs for United States Representative, District 27 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-27 - 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 - **George Whitesides** — U.S. Representative/Father · Democratic - **Jason Gibbs** — City Councilmember/Engineer · Republican The second-closest congressional contest on this ballot, and the sitting member is behind: Republican Jason Gibbs led the June 2 primary with 41.0% and Representative George Whitesides took 40.6% — a gap of 0.4 points. Whitesides raised more than ten times what Gibbs did and still finished second. The district covers the Antelope Valley and northern Los Angeles 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. This is one of the most genuinely competitive seats in the state, and the money did not decide June: $3.96 million against $379,440, and the smaller campaign finished ahead. Neither candidate has a long record — one is in his first federal term with no enacted bills, the other has held no state or federal office. Weigh incumbency and resources against a primary result that went the other way. ## Jason Gibbs Jason Gibbs earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He then worked in the aerospace industry "through roles on the Delta II, Delta IV, and Atlas V rocket launch systems" (campaign site). He was elected to the Santa Clarita City Council in 2020 and chosen by his peers to serve as Mayor in 2023. On the council he has been "a champion for public safety, local control, job creation" (campaign site), and he presided over the opening of the Vista Canyon Metrolink station and transit hub (Streetsblog Los Angeles). "I’m running for Congress because Washington is broken," Gibbs says. "I believe in common sense, accountability, and putting our community ahead of politics" (campaign site). In July 2026, cities in his subregion elected Gibbs as their nominee for the county transit agency’s board. The full countywide selection committee then declined to ratify the appointment, after public commenters argued a vote for Gibbs was effectively "a vote for Trump [and] ICE." The decision went back to his subregion to reconsider (Streetsblog Los Angeles). Gibbs’s platform calls for lowering the cost of living by "opposing new taxes" and "supporting energy affordability." He also backs law enforcement against "catch-and-release" policies and calls for securing the border (campaign site). He argues that "local communities — not state or federal politicians — know best how to manage housing, schools, and public safety" (campaign site). **Strengths:** An aerospace engineering career plus six years on the Santa Clarita council, including a term as mayor and work on a new transit hub. **Trade-offs:** No federal record to judge, and a countywide vote recently declined to confirm him for a separate regional transit board seat. **Keep in mind:** The transit board vote happened while he was already running for Congress, and critics tied their opposition explicitly to his congressional campaign. ## George Whitesides George Whitesides is serving his first term representing California’s 27th District and sits on the House Armed Services Committee (campaign site). He served as "Chief of Staff at NASA during the Obama administration," earning the agency’s Distinguished Service Medal. He then became "the first CEO of Virgin Galactic." Over a decade there he "created over 700 jobs in the Antelope Valley" and "oversaw the first woman to reach space aboard a commercial space vehicle" (house.gov). He also co-founded Megafire Action, a nonprofit devoted to the wildfire crisis, and co-chaired the Antelope Valley COVID-19 Task Force (campaign site; house.gov). Whitesides says he is "committed to working across the aisle to solve problems" for the district (campaign site). On February 25, 2025, he voted against a Republican budget resolution. "The so-called ‘budget’ proposed by Congressional Republicans guts health care and food assistance that more than 300,000 families across my district rely on to survive," he said (KHTS Radio). The resolution, which would have cut Medicaid and SNAP funding nationally, did not become law in that form. Whitesides’s campaign lists lowering daily costs, making housing more affordable, and defending Social Security and Medicare among his priorities. He also lists tackling the wildfire crisis and "getting rid of the corruption in Washington" (campaign site). He has introduced bipartisan bills on wildfire detection technology and on protecting seniors from wire fraud (KHTS Radio). **Strengths:** Two decades leading NASA and Virgin Galactic programs, plus a documented vote against Medicaid and food-assistance cuts in his first term. **Trade-offs:** Only one term in office, and he finished behind his opponent in a June primary despite a large financial advantage. **Keep in mind:** This is a genuinely competitive seat; his first term is a short record to judge a sitting member on. ## Record in office George Whitesides (Democratic) has served in the U.S. House since 2025 and has sponsored 23 bills in the 119th Congress; none of their bills have become law so far. Jason Gibbs 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 Whitesides — Committees: Armed Services; Science, Space, and Technology Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **George Whitesides** — $3,963,530 raised (Individuals: $2,806,001; PACs & committees: $629,088; Party: $6,895) - **Jason Gibbs** — $379,440 raised (Individuals: $366,712; PACs & committees: $10,000) 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 - Jason Gibbs for Congress and George Whitesides 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. [George Whitesides for Congress — campaign site (home)](https://www.georgewhitesides.com/) 4. [Representative George Whitesides — About (NASA and Virgin Galactic career, committee assignments)](https://whitesides.house.gov/about) 5. [KHTS Radio — Rep. Whitesides Votes Against Budget Bill Cutting Nearly One Trillion Dollars From Medicaid](https://www.hometownstation.com/santa-clarita-news/rep-whitesides-votes-against-budget-bill-cutting-nearly-1-trillion-from-medicaid-521321) 6. [Jason Gibbs for Congress — campaign site (Meet Jason, Issues)](https://www.jasongibbsforcongress.com/) 7. [Streetsblog Los Angeles — Selection Committee Fails to Approve Santa Clarita Councilmember Jason Gibbs for Metro Board](https://la.streetsblog.org/2026/07/30/selection-committee-fails-to-approve-santa-clarita-councilmember-jason-gibbs-for-metro-board) 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 27 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 27 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-27 (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.