Mike McGuire
Mike McGuire, a Democratic California state senator who served as president pro tempore of the State Senate from 2024 to 2025, faces Republican incumbent James Gallagher for California's 1st congressional district in 2026.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
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- Born
- July 21, 1979
- Education
- Sonoma State University (Bachelor of Arts in political science, 2002)
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Mike McGuire was born on July 21, 1979, into a family of farmers who grew grapes and prunes for more than 50 years. In 1998, at age 19, he became the youngest person ever elected to the Healdsburg School Board. He attended Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California, and received a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2002.
Career
Mike McGuire was elected to the Healdsburg City Council in 2004 and spent six years there, including a period as the city's youngest mayor, before joining the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in 2010. In 2014 he ran to succeed Democratic senator Noreen Evans in the California State Senate's 2nd district, which covers the North Coast from Marin County to Del Norte County, and defeated Republican Lawrence Weisner with 70% of the vote.
In the Senate, McGuire introduced a 2015 bill to legalize and regulate the medical marijuana industry, saw his bill establishing a statewide emergency alert protocol for all 58 California counties signed into law in 2018, and authored the bill that established the Great Redwood Trail.
He served as assistant majority leader from 2018, as majority leader from 2022 to 2024, and as president pro tempore from February 5, 2024, until 2025.
After raising money for a 2026 run for state insurance commissioner, he announced by November 2025 that he would instead run for Congress in the newly redrawn 1st district.
2026 race
California's 1st congressional district is held by Republican James Gallagher, who won a special election to finish the term of Republican Doug LaMalfa.
Mike McGuire also ran in that special election, held on June 2, 2026, under the district boundaries in place before Proposition 50, and lost to Gallagher by a wide margin.
In the top-two primary for the redrawn district, Gallagher placed first with 42.15% of the vote and McGuire second with 41.76%, ahead of Democrat Audrey Denney, a consultant and runner-up for the seat in 2018 and 2020, who took 14.22%.
McGuire faces Gallagher, a former minority leader of the California Assembly, in the general election on November 3, 2026.