Who's In the Race

Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) faces fellow Democrat Mai Vang in the November 3 general election in California's 7th District. California's voter-nominated system sends the top two primary finishers to the general election regardless of party. ​

Matsui has represented Sacramento and surrounding areas in the U.S. House since 2005 and is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She finished second in the June 2, 2026 top-two primary with about 29 percent of the vote, behind Vang's about 31 percent. Vang led Matsui by 4,501 votes, 65,606 to 61,105, out of 210,062 cast. Vang has served on the Sacramento City Council since 2020, previously served on the Sacramento City Unified School District board, and teaches in Sacramento State's Ethnic Studies Department; she is the daughter of Hmong refugees who grew up in Sacramento.

What They Stand For

Matsui has supported building on the Affordable Care Act to expand coverage and lower marketplace premiums, according to her official House website. She's also supported expanding access to telehealth, including in Medicare, and improving access to mental-health care, federal negotiation of prescription-drug prices and limits on Medicare beneficiaries' out-of-pocket costs, clean-energy investment, emissions reductions and a more resilient electric grid; and flood protection through stronger levees and dams and efforts to reduce flood-insurance costs.

Vang has proposed Medicare for All, saying she will be "a relentless advocate" for the program, along with reducing medical debt and prescription costs, according to her campaign website. She's also supported expanding affordable housing construction, limiting corporate purchases of single-family homes, and a federal renters' bill of rights, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ending its funding and creating a pathway to citizenship, raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation, along with paid family leave and workers' right to organize, and a moratorium on new data centers, with developers required to cover the electricity-rate increases caused by their energy use.

The Money Behind the Race

Through June 30, Doris Matsui had raised about $3.2 million, nearly three times Mai Vang's $1.1 million, but she owed $1.4 million in debt, nearly three times her $467,456 in cash on hand, while Vang had about $106,000 in cash against about $20,000 in debt. Matsui's debt exceeds her cash on hand by about $933,000.

Outside groups have spent about $511,000 supporting Vang, with National Nurses United for Patient Protection as the largest single backer at $300,000, or about 59 percent of that total. Outside groups have also spent about $140,000 opposing Matsui, led by Justice Democrats PAC at $120,000; that same PAC spent $30,000 supporting Vang.

Race Outlook: Ratings and Betting Markets

Cook Political Report rated the race Solid Democratic as of Oct. 9; Sabato's Crystal Ball rated it Solid Democratic as of Oct. 11; and Inside Elections rated it Solid Democratic as of Oct. 2. On Kalshi's market, Democrats had a 94.66 percent chance of winning California's 7th District House race as of Sept. 5, and Republicans had 5.34 percent.

Matsui won the district with about 68 percent in 2022 and about 67 percent in 2024, a decline of about 1.5 percentage points across the two cycles. Democrats have dominated California's congressional delegation, winning 40 of the state's 52 U.S. House seats in 2022 and 43 in 2024. In the 2024 presidential race, Democrat Kamala Harris carried California with about 58 percent of the vote.

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