# United States Representative, District 37 Compare records and positions simply between Sydney Kamlager-Dove or Samantha Mota for United States Representative, District 37 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-37 - 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: 87 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 - **Sydney Kamlager-Dove** — U.S. Representative, 37th District · Democratic - **Samantha Mota** — Community Advocate · Democratic Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove took 55.2% of the June 2 vote and fellow Democrat Samantha Mota took 11.7%, so November is a contest between two members of the same party. The district covers Culver City and part of central and south Los Angeles. 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. Seniority governs committee standing, so a longer-serving member carries influence a newcomer cannot. With two Democrats on the ballot, party is not the axis. The incumbent has sponsored 35 bills this Congress with none becoming law, and her challenger has raised $9,934. Weigh a second-term federal record against a challenge with almost no resources behind it. ## Sydney Kamlager-Dove Sydney Kamlager-Dove represents California's 37th District in Congress. She previously served in the California State Assembly (2018-2021) and State Senate (2021-2023), where she worked on criminal justice, housing and climate legislation. She authored the CRISES Act, which created "trained, community-led teams to respond to non-violent 911 calls, instead of police" (campaign site), and helped create emergency shelter and transitional housing in Culver City during the pandemic. She says she wants to build consensus while still fighting hard, because "we don't have time for divisiveness and dysfunction" (campaign site). In April 2024 she was one of 44 House members, including one Republican, to vote against a resolution declaring the phrase "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" antisemitic; she said House Republicans "didn't bring it to the Floor to actually address or condemn antisemitism," while adding that the phrase "is, understandably, viewed as a hurtful phrase by many in the Jewish community" (Jewish Journal). She promises to keep working on reproductive rights, housing, health care and climate change. Her campaign cites her work on the CROWN Act banning hair discrimination, the co-authored single-payer bill AB 1400, and the state's Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, and lists free universal preschool, two years of free community college and gun safety measures among her priorities (campaign site). **Strengths:** Fifteen years in elected office, from community college board to Congress, with bills she authored on criminal justice, housing and plastics that became state law. **Trade-offs:** None of her 35 bills sponsored this Congress have become law yet, and her vote on the antisemitism resolution drew scrutiny in a district with many Jewish voters. **Keep in mind:** Enacted-bill counts undercount House influence, which often runs through committee work. Weigh her long record in Sacramento against how you read that one vote. ## Samantha Mota Samantha Mota describes themselves as "an activist, advocate, and organizer," not a career politician (campaign site). Raised in a rent-controlled unit in Los Angeles County, they relied on WIC, SNAP and Medicaid growing up. At Santa Monica College they joined Climate Action Santa Monica, started a guerilla-gardening project to reclaim vacant lots, and successfully pushed the city to adopt Assembly Bill 551 on urban agriculture, for which they won a 2021 Premio de Orgullo award. From 2021 to 2022 they served as a commissioner on Santa Monica's Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission, working on law enforcement reform proposals after the 2020 protests (campaign site). Mota says they are running because "there has been a lack of new, bold, and transparent government," and that "I could never and would never sell my soul for some cash all the while leaving the people in the dust" (campaign site). They have not held elected office; their most concrete record is that commission service and their advocacy in Santa Monica, rather than any vote or bill. Mota promises to fight for economic security, universal health care, "housing for all," and immigration reform, and their campaign also lists student loan forgiveness, environmental justice, small-business support and democracy reform among their priorities (campaign site). They brand the run "new, bold, fierce energy" for the district. **Strengths:** Mota turned personal experience with food and rent assistance into local organizing, including a city ordinance and a police reform commission seat. **Trade-offs:** No experience in elected office means no votes or bills to judge, only campaign promises and past advocacy work. **Keep in mind:** Mota is challenging an incumbent from their own party on a message of outsider status. Whether that experience is enough is the call this profile leaves to you. ## Record in office Sydney Kamlager-Dove (Democratic) has served in the U.S. House since 2023 and has sponsored 35 bills in the 119th Congress; none of their bills have become law so far. Samantha Mota 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 Kamlager-Dove — Committees: Foreign Affairs; Judiciary Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Sydney Kamlager-Dove** — $1,150,468 raised (Individuals: $764,660; PACs & committees: $383,842; Party: $1,392) - **Samantha Mota** — $9,934 raised (Individuals: $3,826; Self-funding: $6,108) 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 - Kamlager-Dove for Congress and Mota 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. [Kamlager-Dove for Congress — campaign site (biography, priorities, accomplishments)](https://www.sydneykamlager.com) 4. [Jewish Journal — LA Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove Votes Against Resolution Declaring 'From the River to the Sea' Is Antisemitic](https://jewishjournal.com/los_angeles/370491/la-congresswoman-sydney-kamlager-dove-votes-against-resolution-declaring-from-the-river-to-the-sea-is-antisemitic/) 5. [Mota for Congress — campaign site (biography, why running, priorities)](https://motaforcongress.com) 6. [congress-legislators — current members of Congress (unitedstates project)](https://unitedstates.github.io/congress-legislators/legislators-current.json) 7. [Congress.gov — member sponsored legislation (Library of Congress)](https://api.congress.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 37 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 37 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-37 (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.