Former Vice President Kamala Harris has two California campaign stops on her calendar, both in newly redrawn congressional districts that could help decide control of Congress. She will headline a fundraiser in San Diego on September 26, 2026, and then campaign in the Sacramento area on October 2.
The San Diego fundraiser will benefit Marni von Wilpert, a Democratic city councilmember running in the newly redrawn 48th Congressional District. Richard Pan, a pediatrician and former California state senator, is the beneficiary of the October 2 appearance; he is challenging Rep. Kevin Kiley in the 6th District.
Invitations to both events have surfaced, laying out the plans. These are the first midterm campaign appearances Harris has announced in her home state, and they come as Democrats look to press their advantage on a congressional map redrawn in 2025.
The Open Seat in the 48th District
Rep. Darrell Issa is giving up the seat von Wilpert is chasing. The redistricting prompted the longtime Republican to announce his retirement. Issa has held the 48th District since 2023, and he held the 50th from 2021 to 2023. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was his to chair from January 2011 to January 2015, during an earlier stretch in the House that ran from 2001 to 2019.
Her Republican opponent on November 3 is San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, who carries President Donald Trump’s endorsement. The district reaches across parts of San Diego and Riverside counties and takes in the Palm Springs area.
A Pediatrician Runs in the 6th
Pan was born October 28, 1965, in Yonkers, New York, and now lives in Sacramento. The California State Senate held him from 2014 to 2022, and his 6th Senate district took in parts of Sacramento and Yolo counties; he practices pediatrics and teaches at the University of California, Davis. On October 14, 2025, he announced his intention to seek a House seat; once Proposition 50 passed, he declared his candidacy in the 6th District on November 5, 2025.
A second-place finish in the June 2 primary put him on the general election ballot alongside Kiley. Kiley occupies an unusual position for an incumbent. He has represented California’s 3rd Congressional District, and he changed his voter registration to no party preference once redistricting reshaped that former district. Rather than take on fellow Republican Rep. Tom McClintock in another redrawn seat, he chose the 6th. Parts of Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties make up the district.
How Proposition 50 Redrew the Map
California voters approved Proposition 50 on November 4, 2025, answering the new congressional maps Texas lawmakers adopted ahead of the 2026 elections. The measure — formally titled “Authorizes Temporary Changes to Congressional District Maps in Response to Texas’ Partisan Redistricting. Legislative Constitutional Amendment” — traded the state’s existing congressional lines for maps drawn by the Legislature.
Supporters delivered 7,453,339 votes in favor, or 64.42 percent, and the opposition mustered 4,116,998 against, or 35.58 percent. Of the state’s 23,093,274 registered voters, 11,584,393 cast ballots, a turnout of 50.16 percent. Backers framed it as the state’s reply to Texas’ mid-decade redistricting; opponents countered that it eroded California’s independent redistricting system. Those legislative lines govern the 2026 elections and are set to hold through 2030; the California Citizens Redistricting Commission is then due to take up congressional maps again following the 2030 census.
Turnout or Persuasion? A Consultant’s Read
Matt Klink, a political consultant who works out of California, told The California Post that the appearances are designed to boost Democratic turnout rather than to convert undecided voters. “Gavin Newsom’s Prop 50 redistricting already rigged these districts to make Democrats’ job easier,” Klink said.
“Nationalizing these two Congressional races around Kamala Harris hands vulnerable Democrats a gift-wrapped attack ad,” Klink said, adding that in his view the strategy pulls attention away from Trump.
The former vice president has also been working the voter rolls. On September 15 she posted a video on social media urging voters to check their registration status, an effort to turn out Democratic voters in the midterm elections and make them, in her words, “too big to rig.”
As of September 15, voter mobilization is the role Harris has taken on in the 2026 elections, and she frequently turns up with Democratic candidates to encourage turnout. Not everyone in the party wants it: some Democrats have opposed her campaign help, seeing her role in the Biden administration as potentially polarizing.
Her 2024 presidential campaign ended in defeat, but she remains a prominent figure in the Democratic Party. A virtual roll call on August 2, 2024, sealed the Democratic nomination for Harris, who had announced her 2024 candidacy on July 21, 2024. Voters elected her to the U.S. Senate in 2016, and she served as California attorney general from 2011 to 2017 and as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011.
Stumping for down-ballot Democrats is familiar work for her. Women candidates in Democratic strongholds anchored the travel schedule then-Vice President Harris kept as the 2022 midterms wound down, and she dropped into contests that had grown tighter than expected.
Her own state hosts the stops this time, and observers have read the schedule as an early signal of how she may approach the run-up to 2028. She has not announced a campaign for any office. Two dates sit on the calendar for now — September 26 in San Diego and October 2 near Sacramento — with voters deciding both House races on November 3.
