Elections for 20 of 40 seats in the California State Senate will take place on November 8, 2022. State senatorial primary elections will be held on June 7, 2022. Democrats hold a 31-9 majority heading into the election.

This article details the five most expensive contested primary elections in the State Senate. 

This information comes from candidate reports to the California Secretary of State covering the period of January 1, 2021, through May 21, 2022.

Five primary elections with the most fundraising

#1 District 8 – $2,162,863

Dave Jones (D) raised $1,348,713, Angelique Ashby (D) raised $793,756, and Rafa Garcia (D) raised $20,394.

#2 District 6 – $2,096,794

Eric Guerra (D) raised $1,256,699, Roger Niello (R) raised $421,575, Paula Marie Villescaz (D) raised $236,141, Tecoy Porter (D) raised $122,828, Michael Huang (R) raised $32,627, and Matt Burgess (D) raised $26,923.

#3 District 38 – $1,429,544

Catherine Blakespear (D) raised $719,999, Matt Gunderson (R) raised $551,670, and Joe Kerr (D) raised $157,875.

#4 District 10 – $1,379,144

Aisha Wahab (D) raised $667,514, Lily Mei (D) raised $598,180, Jamal Khan (D) raised $54,751, Jaime Zepeda (D) raised $33,635, Paul Pimentel (R) raised $14,891, Jim Canova (D) raised $10,173, and Raymond Liu (D) raised $0.

#5 District 30 – $1,338,990

Incumbent Bob Archuleta (D) raised $966,423, Henry Bouchot (D) raised $372,567, Martha Camacho-Rodriguez (D) raised $0, and Mitch Clemmons (R) raised $0.

The data above are based on campaign finance reports that active California PACs submitted to the California Secretary of State. Federal PACs are not required to report to state agencies. Transparency USA publishes campaign finance data following major reporting deadlines. State or federal law may require filers to submit additional reports.

This article is a joint publication from Ballotpedia and Transparency USA, who are working together to provide campaign finance information for state-level elections. Learn more about our work here.