US Midterms 2026
Type two letters or more. Arrow keys move through the results, Enter opens one, Esc closes.
Juan Vargas, a Democrat who has served in the U.S. House since 2013 and is the incumbent in California's 52nd congressional district, faces Republican business owner Jeff Belle in his 2026 re-election race.
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Juan Vargas.
Recent media coverage for Juan Vargas.
The article covers U.S. Senator Adam Schiff and several California Democrats, including Rep. Juan Vargas (CA-52), visiting a San Diego school to discuss immigration enforcement near schools.
Context: Vargas joined San Diego school leaders and other lawmakers to condemn ICE arrests near schools in San Diego, calling for arrests to be refrained from near educational campuses.
The Episcopal Community Services (ECS) in California reports active Head Start advocacy in Washington, D.C. during Head Start Awareness Month.
The article reports on Point Loma High School students having an opportunity to question U.S. Senator (likely addressing a visit involving Rep.
No story this week names this candidate.
Juan Vargas was born on March 7, 1961, on a chicken ranch in National City, California, the third of ten children of Tomas and Celina Vargas, who had immigrated from Mexico in the late 1940s under the Bracero program.
He graduated magna cum laude from the University of San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts and earned a Master of Arts in humanities from Fordham University. Vargas then joined the Jesuit Novitiate in Santa Barbara and, as a Jesuit, served in an orphanage in El Salvador during its civil war.
After leaving the order he attended Harvard Law School, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 1991.
After losing the 1992 Democratic primary in the 50th congressional district, Vargas served on the San Diego City Council from 1993 to 2000, where he created "Operation Restore" to employ homeless people in graffiti removal and home rehabilitation.
He represented the 79th district in the California State Assembly from 2000 to 2006, serving as assistant majority leader and chairing the Insurance Committee, and he challenged Bob Filner in Democratic congressional primaries in 1996 and 2006.
After working for an insurance company, he won the 40th district seat in the California State Senate in 2010 by 22 votes over Mary Salas.
In 2012, when Filner left Congress to run for mayor of San Diego, Vargas won the 51st district seat, defeating Republican Michael Crimmins 71% to 29%, and he was sworn in on January 3, 2013. In the 119th Congress he serves on the Committee on Financial Services.
Juan Vargas is the incumbent in California's 52nd congressional district, where he was re-elected in 2024 with 66.3% of the vote. In the top-two primary he finished first with 56.48%, and Republican Jeff Belle, a business owner, placed second with 33.20%, ahead of Democrat Deborah Calhoun Rhodes with 9.52%. Vargas and Belle meet in the general election on November 3, 2026.
