The 2026 Primary election will be held on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. In Santa Clara County, there are a number of races that will be on your ballots. Congressional seats and State assembly seats are every two years. County and San Jose City Council seats are staggered every four years.
Here’s what you can expect on your ballot:
We are in the middle of what is called the filing period, where everyone who wants to be on the ballot must acquire paperwork from the registrar of voters (or for a city, a city clerk’s office) and turn them in before the deadline. This period started on Monday, February 9 and ends on Friday, March 6. In a special case, when an incumbent who is eligible to run for re-election does not file by the deadline, the deadline is extended for new candidates to Wednesday, March 11.
For the federal level, there are 4 congressional seats within the boundaries of Santa Clara County that have incumbents eligible for re-election: Sam Liccardo (CD-16), Ro Khanna (CD-17), Zoe Lofgren (CD-18), and Jimmy Panetta (CD-19). There are no term limits for members of Congress. On the state level, many executive leadership positions have current members termed out. The open seats are Governor, Lt. Governor, Controller, Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner and State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Two executive state level seats, Secretary of State and Attorney General, have incumbents running for re-election: Shirley Weber and Rob Bonta, respectively. District two of the State Board of Equalization covers all of Santa Clara County (and more) has the incumbent, Sally Lieber, running for re-election. There are six state assembly seats within the borders of Santa Clara County and they all have incumbents eligible for re-election: Marc Berman (AD-23), Alex Lee (AD-24), Ash Kalra (AD-25), Patrick Ahrens (AD-26), Gail Pellerin (AD-28), Robert Rivas (AD-29).
Although eligible for re-election, State Senator Aisha Wahab (SD-10) has chosen to instead run for Congress in the seat currently held by Eric Swallwell, who has opted to run for governor instead. This is the only state senate seat on the ballot in Santa Clara County. It also shares a large portion of the district with Alameda County, which covers nearly 75% of the district. We will not know all the candidates running in this race until the extended deadline on March 11. However, it may have implications in the city of San Jose since one of the candidates is currently a San Jose District 4 Councilmember, David Cohen. Should that councilmember get elected to the State Senate seat, he will need to vacate that seat leading to a possible appointment or special election next year.
There are three countywide seats on the ballot this year and they all have eligible incumbents seeking re-election: Bob Jonson (Sheriff), District Attorney (Jeff Rosen), and (Neysa Fliger (elected Assessor in the special election last year). Two seats on the board of supervisors have incumbents up for re-election: Sylvia Arenas (District 1) and Susan Ellenberg (District 4). You can view a tentative list of candidates from the registrar of voters website under the “Unofficial List of Local and State Candidates.” The list will be finalized after the filing deadline.
In the City of San Jose, the odd number districts for the city council will be on the ballot. There is only one open seat that has no eligible incumbent, District 9. The other districts have incumbents defending their seats: Rosemary Kamei (D1), Anthony Tordillos (recently elected in a special election for D3 last year), Peter Ortiz (D5), and Bien Doan (D7). You can view candidates who “Pulled Papers”, meaning they began the process to be on the ballot, for the San Jose City Council on the city’s election website, under “candidate list.”
Both lists from the County Registrar of Voters and San Jose City Clerk are updated every day until the filing deadline March 6 (or extended filing deadline March 11, if applicable).