Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Brad Sherman was born on October 24, 1954, in Los Angeles, the son of Lane and Maurice Hyman Sherman, who were both of Ukrainian Jewish descent.
He attended Mark Keppel High School and Corona del Mar High School, then received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1974 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1979.
As a certified public accountant at one of the Big Four accounting firms, Sherman helped represent the Philippine government under Corazon Aquino in its successful effort to seize assets of deposed president Ferdinand Marcos, and he was an instructor at Harvard Law School's International Tax Program.
Career
Before his election to Congress, Sherman sat on the California State Board of Equalization, where he served from 1991 to 1997 and chaired the board from 1991 to 1995, resigning in January 1997 to be sworn in to Congress.
When Democratic U.S. representative Anthony C. Beilenson retired from California's 24th congressional district in 1996, Sherman won the seven-candidate Democratic primary with 54% of the vote and defeated Republican Rich Sybert in the general election, 49% to 44%.
He went on to represent the 24th district for three terms, the 27th for five terms and the 30th for five terms.
Redistricting after the 2010 census drew the homes of Sherman and fellow Democrat Howard Berman into the same 30th district, and Sherman defeated Berman in the 2012 general election, 60% to 40%.
In the House he is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and he has advocated banning cryptocurrency in the United States, citing concerns about crime and national security.
His current district includes parts of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and Simi Valley in Ventura County.
2026 race
Brad Sherman is the Democratic incumbent in California's 32nd congressional district, which he won in 2024 with 66.2% of the vote.
In the top-two primary he placed first with 36.77% of the vote, while Republican Larry Thompson, a talent manager and the district's 2024 runner-up, advanced with 32.72%, ahead of Democrat Jake Levine, a former senior director for Climate & Energy at the National Security Council, who took 15.18%.
Sherman and Thompson face each other in the general election on November 3, 2026.
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