2016 United States Senate election in California


The 2016 United States Senate election in California was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of California, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Under California's nonpartisan blanket primary law, all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. In the California system, the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election in November, even if a candidate receives a majority of the vote in the primary election. Washington State and Louisiana have similar nonpartisan primary style processes for senators, though Louisiana will end its jungle system for specific offices including senator in 2026.
Incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer decided to not run for election to a fifth term.
This was the first open seat Senate election in California since 1992, when Boxer was first elected. In the primary on June 7, 2016, California Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez, both Democrats, finished in first and second place, respectively, and contested the general election. For the first time since direct elections to the Senate were mandated after the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, no Republican appeared on the general election ballot for the U.S. Senate in California. The highest Republican finisher in the primary won only 7.8 percent of the vote, and the 10 Republicans only won 27.9 percent of the vote among them.
In the general election, Harris defeated Sanchez in a landslide, carrying 54 of the state's 58 counties, including Sanchez's home county of Orange, although Sanchez held Harris to a margin of less than 1% in the Central Valley counties of Kern and Merced.
Harris did not serve her full term in the Senate, as she resigned on January 18, 2021 after being elected Vice President of the United States in 2020. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed Alex Padilla, the incumbent Secretary of State of California, to serve the rest of her term.

Background

Barbara Boxer was reelected with 52.1% of the vote in 2010 against Republican Carly Fiorina. Toward the end of 2014, Boxer's low fundraising and cash-on-hand numbers led to speculation that she would retire. On January 8, 2015, she announced that she would not run for reelection.

Candidates

Democratic Party

Advanced to general

Republican Party

Eliminated in primary

Green Party

Declared

  • Pamela Elizondo

    Libertarian Party

Declared

  • Mark Matthew Herd, community organizer
  • Gail Lightfoot, retired nurse and perennial candidate

    Peace and Freedom Party

Declared

  • John Thompson Parker

    Independent

Declared

Fundraising

The following are Federal Election Commission disclosures through the reporting period ending March 31, 2016.
Candidate ReceiptsDisbursementsCash on handDebt
$9,749,024$4,759,048$4,989,977$78,900
$3,251,186$921,291$2,329,895$209,217
$316,560$238,612$77,946$74,465
$532,638$475,415$57,222$181,640
$48,900$11,761$30,737$40,000
$38,916$21,554$17,361$25,000
$21,205$13,396$7,809$9,575
$6,305$4,860$1,444$0
$4,864$4,351$762$4,742
$7,246$6,988$290$0
$2,783$2,442$241$0