Shirley Weber, the Democratic incumbent, is running for re-election as California Secretary of State in November 2026 against Republican challenger Don Wagner, an Orange County Supervisor. Weber, California’s first Black Secretary of State, was appointed in 2021 and elected to a full term in 2022; no Republican has won a statewide office in California since 2006, and she is heavily favored to win re-election. She is campaigning on further expanding vote-by-mail access, modernizing voter outreach for formerly incarcerated Californians newly eligible to vote, strengthening election cybersecurity, and increasing transparency in campaign-finance and lobbyist reporting, and has been endorsed by the California Democratic Party and the California Teachers Association. Wagner has been endorsed by former Governor Pete Wilson and two former Secretaries of State.
