Former Vice President Kamala Harris will return to the campaign trail in her home state, with two appearances scheduled in newly redrawn California congressional districts that could help decide control of Congress. Harris is set to headline a fundraiser in San Diego on September 26, 2026, and to campaign in the Sacramento area on October 2.
The San Diego event will benefit Marni von Wilpert, a Democratic city councilmember running in the newly redrawn 48th Congressional District. On October 2, Harris is scheduled to appear on behalf of Richard Pan, a pediatrician and former California state senator who is challenging Rep. Kevin Kiley in the 6th District.
Invitations to both events have surfaced, laying out the plans. The two stops are Harris’ first announced midterm campaign appearances in California, and they come as Democrats look to press their advantage on a congressional map redrawn in 2025.
An Open Seat in the 48th District
Von Wilpert is chasing a seat that Rep. Darrell Issa is giving up; the longtime Republican announced his retirement after the redistricting. Issa has held the 48th District since 2023 and the 50th from 2021 to 2023, and he spent an earlier stretch in the House from 2001 to 2019, chairing the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee from January 2011 to January 2015.
On November 3, von Wilpert will face San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican carrying President Donald Trump’s endorsement. The district stretches across parts of San Diego and Riverside counties and takes in the Palm Springs area.
A Pediatrician Takes On the 6th
Pan, born October 28, 1965, in Yonkers, New York, and now a Sacramento resident, spent 2014 to 2022 in the California State Senate, where his 6th Senate district took in parts of Sacramento and Yolo counties. He practices pediatrics and teaches at the University of California, Davis. Pan announced his intention to seek a House seat on October 14, 2025, and declared his candidacy in the 6th District on November 5, 2025, after Proposition 50 passed.
He advanced to the general election by finishing second in the June 2 primary, alongside Kiley. The incumbent’s standing is unusual: Kiley, who has represented California’s 3rd Congressional District, switched his voter registration to no party preference after redistricting reshaped his former district. He landed in the 6th after passing on a challenge to fellow Republican Rep. Tom McClintock in another redrawn seat. The district covers parts of Sacramento, Placer and Yolo counties.
What Proposition 50 Did to the Map
California voters approved Proposition 50 on November 4, 2025, a response to the new congressional maps Texas lawmakers adopted ahead of the 2026 elections. Formally titled “Authorizes Temporary Changes to Congressional District Maps in Response to Texas’ Partisan Redistricting. Legislative Constitutional Amendment,” the measure swapped out the state’s existing congressional lines for maps drawn by the Legislature.
It passed with 7,453,339 votes in favor, or 64.42 percent, to 4,116,998 against, or 35.58 percent, out of 11,584,393 ballots cast — a turnout of 50.16 percent among the state’s 23,093,274 registered voters. Supporters pitched the measure as California’s answer to Texas’ mid-decade redistricting, while opponents argued it weakened the state’s independent redistricting system. The Legislature’s lines govern the 2026 elections and are set to stay in force through 2030, after which the California Citizens Redistricting Commission is due to resume responsibility for congressional maps following the 2030 census.
Turnout or Persuasion? A Consultant Weighs In
In remarks to The California Post, political consultant Matt Klink, who works out of California, said the appearances are designed to boost Democratic turnout rather than to convert undecided voters. “Gavin Newsom’s Prop 50 redistricting already rigged these districts to make Democrats’ job easier,” Klink said.
“Nationalizing these two Congressional races around Kamala Harris hands vulnerable Democrats a gift-wrapped attack ad,” Klink said, adding that in his view the strategy pulls attention away from Trump.
Harris remains a prominent figure in the Democratic Party after her unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign. She announced her 2024 candidacy on July 21, 2024, and sealed the Democratic nomination through a virtual roll call on August 2, 2024. She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016, served as California attorney general from 2011 to 2017 and was San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011.
Campaigning for down-ballot Democrats is familiar work for her. In the closing days of the 2022 midterms, then-Vice President Harris built her travel schedule around women candidates in Democratic strongholds, dropping into contests that had grown tighter than expected.
This time the stops are in her own state, and the schedule is being read as an early signal of how she may approach the run-up to 2028. She has not announced a campaign for any office. For now, two dates sit on the calendar: September 26 in San Diego and October 2 near Sacramento, with both House races going before voters on November 3.