California Democratic Party, County Democratic Parties and Contest Every Race Announce Statewide Candidate Recruitment Initiative

SACRAMENTO – Today, the California Democratic Party in partnership with County Democratic Parties, including the Placer County Democratic Party and Contest Every Race is launching a statewide texting campaign to recruit hundreds of Democrats to run for local office, with a focus in rural areas where GOP incumbents often run uncontested. This is part of a national campaign by Contest Every Race to ensure that no Republican goes unchallenged. 

The California Democratic Party is launching this program again this cycle as evidence continues to build that more Democrats running in local elections boosts Democratic voter turnout and enthusiasm, which is key to ensuring Democrats win targeted congressional races and take back the House of Representatives in November. 

The 2026 candidate recruitment program is targeting 348 local down-ballot races across the following 33 counties: Alameda, Amador, Butte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Mendocino, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Stanislaus, Tehama, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura and Yuba.

"We're thankful for the opportunity to partner with the California Democratic Party in our efforts to recruit Democratic candidates here in Placer County," said Nick Bennett, Chair of Placer County Democratic Central Committee. "These down-ballot races, from school boards to city council, are where Democrats can make a real difference in the day-to-day lives of working people in our community."

Placer County has seen an orchestrated effort to add more “extremists” to school boards in the last several years, severely undermining the traditional public school values of our communities by pushing extreme and minority viewpoints and policies - from book bans to flag bans to anti-abortion videos.

The Placer County Democratic Party supports the over 90,000 thousand registered Democrats in Placer County to build a strong and better community for all.

The California Democratic Party is the largest state party in the nation with more than 10 million members, and helped deliver a resounding victory for Proposition 50 in last year’s Special Election.

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Contact Nick Bennett at chair@placerdems.org for questions