A prominent Democratic committee on Wednesday formally targeted the congressional seat held by Rep. Darrell Issa as a major pick-up opportunity in the 2026 mid-term elections.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added the 48th District as one of its “2026 Districts in Play,” contests to which the committee will dedicate resources in an effort to flip the House of Representatives.Success in 2025 special elections, and the passage of Proposition 50 last month, led the DCCC to expand their battleground map from 35 districts earlier this year to 39 now.
Republicans currently hold a three-seat majority in the House and Democratic leaders see 2026 as a must-win opportunity to counter the agenda of President Donald Trump with his approval ratings hovering around 40% after nearly a year in office.
California has been positioned as a battleground thanks to Prop. 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s effort to gerrymander congressional districts in an attempt to guarantee more blue seats in the House.
The measure, which voters overwhelmingly embraced last month, came in response to Texas’ own gerrymandering push, which last week survived a Supreme Court challenge.
Issa’s seat quickly came to the forefront of the Prop. 50 debate. He currently represents inland communities in parts of North and East County, along with parts of southern Riverside County and mountain and desert areas along the San Diego and Imperial county line.
Under Prop. 50, the 48th District includes less of the backcountry, with new additions in San Marcos and Vista, and far to the east, Palm Springs, where voters reliably support Democrats.
The DCCC’s declaration formalizes what political observers expected for months – that as DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said, “Democrats are going all-in to defeat Issa.”
“Issa’s addition to the DCCC’s Districts in Play,” the committee said in a news release, “sends the clear message that Democrats know California voters are souring on Issa’s wildly unpopular record of raising costs, attacking affordable health care, and hurting workingfamilies.”
Three other California races will be a focus for the DCCC, including two others in Southern California – the Riverside County district represented by Ken Calvert, and Rep. Young Kim’s Orange County seat.
Issa has represented the 48th District since 2023, and is a staunch Trump ally, but he has served as a member of Congress for more than two decades. He formerly held a seat that included parts of North County and Orange County, then hopped to the 50th District. In an earlier round of redistricting, he shifted again, this time to the 48th.
He is keenly aware of the Prop. 50 threat, but said last week that he rebuffed an effort to recruit him to run for a seat in Texas, a GOP stronghold. He expects “to stay in Congress,” he said, “and I don’t need to go to Texas for that.”
The primary race already is packed with 11 Democratic hopefuls, including City Council members from San Diego and Vista and one independent, vying for a shot at unseating Issa.
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