Elections for 20 of 40 seats in the California State Senate will take place on Nov. 8, 2022. Democrats hold a 31-9 majority heading into the election.

This article details the five most expensive contested general elections in the State Senate.

This information comes from candidate reports to the California Secretary of State covering the period of Jan. 1, 2021, through Sept. 24, 2022.

Five general elections with the most fundraising

#1 District 38 – $4,260,142

Catherine Blakespear (D) raised $2,539,930 and Matt Gunderson (R) raised $1,720,213.

#2 District 16 – $3,252,151

Incumbent Melissa Hurtado (D) raised $2,638,943 and David Shepard (R) raised $613,208.

#3 District 8 – $3,143,724

Dave Jones (D) raised $1,904,729 and Angelique Ashby (D) raised $1,238,995.

#4 District 36 – $2,090,100

Janet Nguyen (R) raised $1,666,980 and Kim Carr (D) raised $423,120.

#5 District 10 – $1,921,005

Aisha Wahab (D) raised $1,047,863 and Lily Mei (D) raised $873,142.

The data above are based on campaign finance reports that active California PACs submitted to the California Secretary of State. Political expenditures that are not controlled by candidates or their campaigns, known as satellite spending, are not included in candidate totals. Federal PACs are not required to report to state agencies.

Transparency USA publishes campaign finance data following major reporting deadlines. State or federal law may require filers to submit additional reports. Data from additional reports due in between the deadlines below are published along with the reports listed here.

This article is a joint publication from Ballotpedia and Transparency USA, who are working together to provide campaign finance information for state-level elections. Learn more about our work here.