California's primary elections on Tuesday will serve as a crucial barometer for how deeply anti-incumbency sentiment runs through the Democratic base, with three veteran House members facing their most serious threats in decades.
Reps. Mike Thompson, Doris Matsui, and Brad Sherman, all in their 70s or 80s, are running against younger, well-funded Democratic challengers who have made their lengthy Washington tenures the centerpiece of their campaigns. The three contests have drawn intense scrutiny from other House Democrats eager to understand whether voters are ready to turn out sitting members simply because they have held office too long.
"They're watching all of them closely," one senior Democratic official said of the races, which will also provide a window into broader California contests including the mayor's race in Los Angeles and the gubernatorial election.
The specifics of three pivotal races
In California's 4th District, 75-year-old Thompson faces venture capitalist Eric Jones, 35, in what has become an expensive arms race. Thompson has raised just under $3 million as of late March, while Jones has accumulated over $3.2 million, including a personal loan of $364,000. Jones has hammered the incumbent as out of touch, running ads declaring that "too many Democrats have been in Washington so long, they're not up to the fight." Thompson has countered by emphasizing his opposition to Trump and attacking Jones as a corporate lackey.
The 7th District presents an even more contentious matchup. Matsui, 81, faces progressive former Sacramento City Council member Mai Vang, 41, who has earned an endorsement from the Sacramento Bee. The race has drawn controversy over Matsui's use of a red box on her campaign website signaling super PAC support for a Republican candidate, a tactic progressives argue is designed to block Vang from advancing to the general election runoff. An outside group called Inclusion PAC has filed to spend more than $100,000 promoting that GOP candidate.
Sherman, 71, is being challenged in the 32nd District by Jake Levine, 42, a former Biden administration official. Levine has made Sherman's 30-year tenure the dominant theme of his campaign, running multiple ads specifically targeting the incumbent's long service. Sherman's response has been to largely ignore Levine while emphasizing his record fighting Trump and delivering for his district.
California's system allows all candidates for a given office to run together in June, with the top two vote-getters advancing to November regardless of party affiliation. In deeply Democratic districts, this often means two Democrats face off in the general election. This year, an unusually large field of well-funded challengers has seized the opportunity to make generational change a central issue.
Other incumbents below retirement age are also facing serious primary challenges, including Reps. Ami Bera and Jimmy Gomez. Additionally, a slew of open primaries are underway across the state, including a high-profile race in the 11th District to replace former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Author James Rodriguez: "These races could fundamentally reshape how House Democrats think about tenure and generational politics, especially if younger challengers break through on Tuesday."
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