Maxine Waters
Maxine Waters, a Democrat who has served in the U.S. House since 1991 and is ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, faces Republican manufacturing executive Cristian Morales for California's 43rd congressional district in 2026.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Maxine Waters.
- Born
- August 15, 1938
- Birthplace
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Education
- Vashon High School
Los Angeles State College, now California State University, Los Angeles (bachelor's degree in sociology, 1971)
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Maxine Waters was born on August 15, 1938, in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Remus Carr and Velma Lee (née Moore) and the fifth of 13 children.
She was raised by her single mother after her father left the family when she was two, and she graduated from Vashon High School in St. Louis before moving with her family to Los Angeles in 1961.
There she worked in a garment factory and as a telephone operator before being hired in 1966 as an assistant teacher with the Head Start program in Watts.
She later enrolled at Los Angeles State College, now California State University, Los Angeles, where she received a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1971.
Career
Maxine Waters went to work in 1973 as chief deputy to City Councilman David S. Cunningham Jr., and in 1976 she was elected to the California State Assembly, where she served seven terms.
In the Assembly she worked for the divestment of state pension funds from businesses active in South Africa under apartheid and rose to the position of Democratic Caucus Chair.
Upon the retirement of Augustus F. Hawkins in 1990, she was elected to the U.S. House from California's 29th congressional district with over 79% of the vote, and she has been reelected from the district, renumbered the 35th in 1992 and the 43rd in 2012, with at least 70% of the vote.
Waters chaired the Congressional Black Caucus from 1997 to 1999. She became ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee upon Barney Frank's retirement in 2012, chaired the committee from 2019 to 2023, and has been its ranking member since 2023. She is in her 18th House term and is the most senior member of the California congressional delegation.
2026 race
Maxine Waters is the Democratic incumbent in the 2026 election for California's 43rd congressional district, having been re-elected with 75.1% of the vote in 2024. She advanced from the top-two primary together with Republican Cristian Morales, a manufacturing executive, while two Democrats, nonprofit executive Myla Rahman and aerospace sales engineer David Sedlik, were eliminated. Waters and Morales face each other in the general election on November 3, 2026.