Re-elect Congressional Representative Harley Rouda to keep CA-48 on the right track.

About the Position

The United States is divided into 435 congressional districts, each with a population of about 710,000 individuals. Each district elects a representative to the House of Representatives for a two-year term. California has 53 congressional representatives. There is no term limit for this position.  

About the District

California's 48th Congressional District includes parts of Orange County. Republicans typically held this district until 2018, when Harley Rouda won and flipped CA-48 from red to blue. Recent state and federal elections have shown close margins in CA-48. This district voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, with 47.9 percent. However, CA-48 voted in favor of Republican candidate John Cox in the 2018 gubernatorial election, with 52.1 percent.

About the Race

Following the March 3 primary election, Democrat incumbent Representative Rouda is leading Republican challenger Michelle Steel by a margin of 11.8 percent. Rep. Rouda’s campaign is not funded by fossil fuel money or corporate PAC money. While he has not taken the police money pledge, he has not received any donations from police organizations. Rep. Rouda has been financially backed by a variety of progressive organization PACs, including Human Rights Campaign, Indivisible, Equality, and End Citizens United. Challenger Steel’s campaign has not committed to refusing police money, fossil fuel money, or corporate PAC money. She is funded by several right-wing and libertarian organizations, including the Liberty Fund and the Lincoln Club of Orange County. Steel has also donated $1.25 million of her own money to the campaign. Although Rep. Rouda bested challenger Steel by a double-digit margin in the March primary, the four Republican candidates in that race earned a combined total of 50.6 percent of the vote, confirming the likelihood of a close race in November.  

About the Candidate

Rep. Rouda, a former attorney and real estate executive, is from Ohio and has lived in Laguna Beach, CA, since 2007. According to campaign materials, Rep. Rouda is running for re-election to continue his bipartisan efforts to improve life in Orange County by revitalizing the economy, reducing taxation, and improving the affordability of prescription drugs.

Rep. Rouda’s priorities for CA-48 this year have included allocating federal dollars to combat climate change, protections for refugees of the Vietnam War, mental-health services for veterans, and support for homeless individuals and low-income home ownership. He currently sits on two committees: Oversight and Reform (ranks 9th), and Transportation and Infrastructure (ranks 37th). This year, Rep. Rouda has voted 100 percent of the time with Nancy Pelosi and 92 percent of the time with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In contrast to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Rouda voted in favor of passing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act, the conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, and the motion to concur on Senate amendments to the DHS Cyber Hunt and Incident Response Teams Act. Rep. Rouda has sponsored 24 bills about environmental and coastal protections, infrastructure improvements, and small-business support. Of those bills, one has been received in the Senate, and the majority of the others are in committee or referred to committee.

Rep. Rouda is endorsed by a strong majority of progressive groups in the district. The threat of Republican challenger and strong Trump supporter Michelle Steel’s potential policies greatly outweighs the moderating effect of Rep. Rouda’s bipartisan approach to the legislative process. According to our analysis, Rep. Rouda is the strongest choice for representative leadership in office.