Cara Brown McCormick
The well-publicized midterm battles between democratic socialists and moderate Democrats are mostly over nationwide. Closed primaries have determined the winners: whoever turned out the most committed sliver of Democrats won, and in many places it's been the candidate backed by the DSA.
California does its elections differently. Every voter got the same ballot on June 2; the top two finishers advanced regardless of party, and all voters will decide the general election.
This November, the county that launched Ronald Reagan and named its airport after John Wayne, and its 68,000 independents, will decide between the DSA-recommended Jessie Lopez and David Penaloza, a moderate Democrat,
Assembly District 68
David Penaloza (D) vs. Jessie Lopez (D)
The pair of Democrats finished the June 2 primary fewer than a thousand votes apart, Penaloza at 33 percent and Lopez at 31 percent.
The California Democratic Socialists of America recommend Lopez over Penaloza.
SEIU California, UFCW 324, NUHW, the Working Families Party, Our Revolution, and US Senator Bernie Sanders have all endorsed Lopez.
Lopez also has the endorsement of CAIR-CA PAC, a political action committee funded by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and led by Hussam Ayloush.
Because this election pits two current Santa Ana councilmembers against one another, voters can compare their voting records side by side. Lopez and Penaloza have voted on different sides of economic and voting bills for the past six years.
In her first year on the council, Lopez was the deciding vote for the rent stabilization and just cause eviction ordinance, which passed 4-3, making Santa Ana the first city in Orange County with its own rent control law. The DSA advocates for universal rent control and strong tenant protections as part of its platform, treating housing as a human right rather than a for-profit commodity.
Penaloza voted against the 2021 rent control ordinance, calling it rushed and saying its $300,000 allocation came from one-time money that would deepen city debt.
Lopez supported Measure DD allowing noncitizens to vote in Santa Ana local elections. The DSA’s platform, unveiled in 2026, supports noncitizen voting. Penaloza opposed Measure DD.
“Shall the City of Santa Ana City Charter be amended to allow, by the November 2028 general municipal election, noncitizen City residents to vote in all City of Santa Ana municipal elections?” (Measure DD, Failed 40-60)
Lopez was harshly criticized before the June 2 primary for her vote in favor of putting Measure FF on the ballot: a 556 percent council pay raise for herself and other elected officials in Santa Ana.
"The proposed amendment would increase the salary of Councilmembers and the Mayor from $12,000 a year ($1000 per month) to $78,698.07 a year ($6558.17 per month)..."
Penaloza voted against raising his own pay.
Lopez created Santa Ana’s Police Oversight Commission to investigate police misconduct. In late 2023, California DSA chapters actively campaigned to help Lopez survive a highly contentious recall election. The DSA celebrated the successful defense of her seat as a major win in Southern California. Voters rejected it 56-44.
Matthew Cunningham
Penaloza is supported by the California Democratic Party, California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, retiring Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, former Representative Katie Porter, the California Teachers Association, and nearly all of California’s public safety unions.
Lopez is 37 and was born and raised in Santa Ana. She is the daughter of immigrants and worked two jobs to put herself through school. She earned an associate's degree from Santa Ana College and a bachelor's in sociology from Cal State Long Beach. In 2020, she won the Ward 3 seat on the Santa Ana City Council and was elected to the Orange County Central Committee the same year. She was reelected to the council in 2024.
David Penaloza was born January 6, 1988, and has lived in Orange County his entire life. His father was tragically killed by a drunk driver when he was three, and he credits his mother and the surrounding community with holding the family together. His website says he learned to swim and played baseball at the Memorial Park Community Pool, and swam and played water polo for Saddleback High. He earned a bachelor's degree in English language and literature from Cal State Los Angeles in 2011.
While still a student, Penaloza started working part-time in the office for Color Science, Inc., an Orange County manufacturer. He worked at the company for 16 years, moving through shipping and receiving, sales, payroll, project quality, and regulatory compliance, and became director of regulatory affairs in 2019.
Penaloza won a seat on the Santa Ana City Council in 2018 and won again in 2022. His current term ends on December 8, 2026.
He is president of the League of California Cities Orange County Division and chair of the Transportation Corridor Agencies.
He previously served as the large city representative for the Orange County Housing Finance Trust.
His campaign credits him with more than 2,000 new housing units, five new parks, street and infrastructure repairs, the city's first new library in sixty years, and a refinancing of the city's pension debt.
Among the repairs he led was restoring the same Memorial Park pool where he learned to swim, which had not been renovated since 1965.
He is a member of Elks Lodge #794 and has volunteered with the Children's Resource Center through the Illumination Foundation. He lives in Santa Ana with his wife, former Garden Grove councilmember Kim Nguyen-Penaloza, who ran for Congress in 2024 and lost, and their two children, Penelope and Lucas.
Democrats hold 48 percent of the district's registration and Republicans 22 percent, leaving 68,000 voters, or 30 percent, registered with neither party, including 54,000 No Party Preference.
The district lies entirely within Orange County: half in Santa Ana, roughly 30 percent in Anaheim, and 20 percent in the city of Orange. It is majority Latino, with Latinos comprising 56 percent of voting-age citizens. Fifty-seven percent of households rent at a median of $2,050, while the median home value is $709,000, which is why rent control has been an issue; 36 percent of residents are foreign-born, and 20 percent are noncitizens, which is why Measure DD reached the ballot. Angel Stadium, the Honda Center, Chapman University, Santa Ana College, and the Bowers Museum fall inside its lines.