The Winner

Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-CA) will represent California’s 16th Congressional District for a second term after defeating Republican Peter Sundin Soulé. The Associated Press called the race at 9:36 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday, Nov. 3, according to KQED’s election results. ​

Liccardo has 152,047 votes (77.0%) to Soulé’s 45,538 (23.0%), a margin of about 54 points, with about 63% of the vote counted, according to KQED’s count of AP and county data. California counts mail ballots for weeks, so the totals will keep climbing.

The Race

Liccardo, a former San Jose mayor, was first elected to Congress in 2024. In the Tuesday, June 2 top-two primary, where all candidates share one ballot, he took 75.6%, the Palo Alto Ledger reported. Soulé, a Republican investor, edged fellow Republican Kevin Johnson for second place, 10.8% to 10.2%.

Cook Political Report and Inside Elections rated the race Solid Democratic, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rated it Safe Democratic, according to Ballotpedia). The district was redrawn under Proposition 50, the redistricting measure California voters approved in November 2025.

Under the new lines, the district takes in part of Santa Clara County and part of San Mateo County, according to the California Senate Office of Demographics. It includes about 297,000 San Jose residents, plus all of Mountain View, Palo Alto, Campbell and Pacifica.

About 746,500 people live in the district, the median age is about 41 and the typical household earns about $175,100 a year. About 63% of adults hold at least a bachelor’s degree. Residents are about 44% white, 31% Asian, 20% Hispanic and 2% Black. Unemployment is about 4.6%, and about 7% of residents live below the poverty line.

What’s Next

Liccardo’s second term begins Sunday, Jan. 3, 2027, and the results stay unofficial until California certifies them. He has said that when Congress returns Monday, Nov. 9, he plans to use a discharge petition to force a House vote on the Afghanistan TPS Act of 2026, The Mercury News reported. A discharge petition brings a bill to the floor if a majority of House members sign it.

The bipartisan bill, which Liccardo co-led with Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Don Bacon (R-NE) and María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), would restore Temporary Protected Status through July 1, 2029. That status protects people from deportation, and the bill would cover more than 8,000 Afghans living in the U.S. The bill has been stuck in committee since it was introduced in July.

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