# United States Representative, District 51 Compare records and positions simply between Ricardo Cabrera or Sara Jacobs for United States Representative, District 51 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-51 - 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: 99 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Ricardo Cabrera** — Business Owner · Republican - **Sara Jacobs** — U.S. Representative · Democratic Representative Sara Jacobs took 57.7% of the June 2 vote and Republican Ricardo Cabrera took 37.0%. The district covers part of San Diego and its eastern suburbs. 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. The incumbent has served since 2021 and raised $1.64 million, a portion of it her own money. Her opponent reported no funding and still took 37% of the vote. The practical question is what this district gets from a seat held comfortably. ## Sara Jacobs Sara Jacobs, a third-generation San Diegan and graduate of Torrey Pines High School and Columbia University, has represented California's 51st District since 2021 and is now in her third term (her House website). Before Congress she worked in international conflict prevention, including at the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UNICEF's Innovation Unit and the State Department's Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and advised Hillary Clinton on foreign policy during the 2016 campaign (her House website). She founded Project Connect, a nonprofit that mapped global school internet connectivity and became a UNICEF program, and started San Diego for Every Child, a local child-poverty initiative, in 2018 (her House website). She sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she is ranking member of the Africa Subcommittee, and on the House Armed Services Committee (her House website). In August 2026 she was the only San Diego Democrat in Congress to vote for an amendment cutting U.S. funding tied to Israel's war in Gaza, saying the war had "led to the indiscriminate destruction of civilian infrastructure"; the amendment failed (Voice of San Diego). She has also called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to cancel a congressional recess to pass AI safety legislation, and led a letter from 26 Democrats urging AI-related dialogue with China (her House website, press releases). She promises continued work on foreign assistance reform and oversight of the State Department (her House website). Her office also lists child poverty, civil rights and AI safety legislation among her priorities. **Strengths:** Three terms and seats on the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, plus a documented vote for cutting war funding others in her delegation opposed. **Trade-offs:** Her vote broke with every other San Diego Democrat in Congress on Israel funding, a position not everyone in her own party shares. **Keep in mind:** Weigh a foreign-policy background and committee seniority against a Gaza funding vote that put her alone among San Diego's Democrats. ## Ricardo Cabrera Ricardo Cabrera is the Republican candidate for this seat, listed on the ballot as business Owner. They have not served in elected office. No campaign website, interview or news coverage of their reasons for running could be located, and no vote, lawsuit or other public incident is on record. With no published platform to draw on, their promises cannot be listed here in their own words. That is a gap in what is public, not a comment on their candidacy. **Strengths:** Cabrera is giving this seat a contested general election rather than an uncontested one. **Trade-offs:** No record in office and no published platform leave little for a voter to judge beyond party and occupation. **Keep in mind:** No campaign website or news coverage of their candidacy could be located; that gap is what is public, not a comment on them. ## Record in office Ricardo Cabrera has not served in the California Legislature or U.S. Congress; these records cover only those offices. Sara Jacobs (Democratic) has served in the U.S. House since 2021 and has sponsored 32 bills in the 119th Congress; 1 of their career bills have become law. Per Congress.gov and the public-domain congress-legislators roster, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Record details Jacobs — Committees: Armed Services; Foreign Affairs Jacobs — HR 9308 (2022): To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 6401 El Cajon Boulevard in San Diego, California, as the "Susan A. Davis Post Office". Committee assignments and the most recently signed-into-law bills each record-holder lead-authored, from the official legislative record. ## Financial info - **Sara Jacobs** — $1,639,893 raised (Individuals: $414,676; PACs & committees: $207,250; Self-funding: $929,347) Ricardo Cabrera has no fundraising on file with the FEC. 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. ## 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. [Rep. Sara Jacobs — official House biography (career, committee work)](https://sarajacobs.house.gov/about) 4. [Rep. Sara Jacobs — official House Media Center press releases (AI diplomacy, STEM funding)](https://sarajacobs.house.gov/news) 5. [Voice of San Diego — reporting on the San Diego House delegation's vote on Israel/Gaza war funding](https://voiceofsandiego.org/2026/08/04/one-san-diego-congressional-rep-voted-against-funding-israeli-war/) 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 51 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 51 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/us-rep-51 (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.