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The race for California’s 10th Congressional District seat is a crowded one with one incumbent seeking to continue the work he has been doing for the past 12 years, while six other challengers seek to unseat him and challenge the status quo that they say has not been working.
Voters from San Ramon, Danville and Alamo, along with others in portions of Contra Costa and Alameda counties, have just a couple weeks to decide who they want to represent them in Congress starting next year. The top two candidates with the most votes will move on to a runoff election during the November general election.
Mark DeSaulnier
Incumbent Mark DeSaulnier is looking to secure yet another term as California’s District 10 representative.
The Concord resident and longtime politician states in his campaign website that he continues to be honored and grateful to represent the people of his district and he wishes to continue doing so because of his commitment to do what’s right for residents in the East Bay.
Originally born in Massachusetts, DeSaulnier originally worked as a probation officer, a truck driver and a hotel services employee before moving to California in the early ’70s. According to his website, DeSaulnier went on to become a small business manager and owner of several Bay Area restaurants.
Most of his life was also spent as a public servant. He has served on the Concord City Council, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and several local boards and associations before he was elected to the State Assembly in 2006. Following that, he was elected to the California State Senate in 2008 and later to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014.
Since he was elected to represent the 10th Congressional District in 2023 — it was previously numbered the 11th District for his first eight years in office — DeSaulnier said he has done everything he could to fight for key issues affecting his constituents, something he hopes to continue.
“I want to continue delivering results for our region and to move our nation forward by growing our economy, creating good paying jobs, ensuring America’s students receive a quality education without being shackled by debt, investing in our nation’s infrastructure, protecting Medicare and Social Security, promoting health care for all, safeguarding the environment, creating sensible gun laws that protect all of us, and making the United States a leader in innovation around the globe,” DeSaulnier stated in his website.
To learn more about DeSaulnier and his campaign, visit www.desaulnierforcongress.com.
Jeff Frese
Even though Republican candidate Jeff Frese doesn’t have much information about who he is, his background and his qualifications for the congressional seat, his website has plenty of policies and ideas he wishes to implement if elected.
“My focus is on California families and the real challenges we face here — affordability, secure elections, and an economy that works for people who live and work in CA-10,” Frese stated in his website. “While my opponent often engages in national and international issues, I’m running to keep the focus where it belongs: on Californians.”
According to his campaign website, Frese wants to make living in California affordable again by cutting “federal red tape that drives up housing, energy, and food costs” and by reducing insurance and rebuilding costs by “fixing federal failures upstream”. He also wants to make it easier to live, work and raise a family in California, which means making housing affordable.
He said he plans on doing that by fighting inflation and reckless spending that keeps mortgages high; opposing “one-size-fits-all mandates” that delay housing projects; and supporting responsible building that allows communities to expand faster.
He also said he is committed to addressing insurance premiums that, he said, are “crushing California families”. He said he plans to do so by reducing wildfire risks by fixing federal land and forest management; reforming federal insurance programs and cutting more federal red tape and mandates when it comes to medical costs.
Some of his other top priorities include making sure educators focus on the basics while also teaching students about real-world skills; making sure elections are secure and fair through the use of paper ballots and requiring identification for federal elections; implementing eight-year term limits for members of Congress; and making sure Californians are not taxed on things like traveling.
To learn more about Frese and his campaign, visit www.freseforcongress.com.
Angela Griffiths
Over the past 30 years, Angela Griffiths said she has focused most of her life raising her children, serving families through her healthcare and nonprofit work, and supporting her local community.
But during that time, she said she has seen her fellow Californians struggle with rising costs, declining affordability and poor leadership. So now that her children are grown, she decided to answer the call to public service and run for the 10th Congressional District seat.
“I decided to run because I love California and believe the people of our communities deserve better leadership, greater accountability, and a government that once again prioritizes families, safety, affordability, and opportunity,” Griffiths told DanvilleSanRamon.
Griffiths said she comes from a long background in healthcare, public health, nonprofit leadership, education and small business. Because she has worked directly with families and communities who deal with real-world challenges, Griffiths said she understands the needs of Californians and those who she seeks to represent in Congress.
If elected, the Republican candidate said she will “move beyond partisan politics, listen to the people, restore accountability, strengthen families and small businesses, and help make California a place where future generations can once again afford to live, work, raise children, and thrive”.
Her top priorities include affordability, public safety, healthcare transparency and access, water and infrastructure security, election integrity and restoring accountability in government.Â
“I believe voters in the Tri-Valley and Contra Costa County should choose me because I will bring an independent, practical, solutions-focused perspective to Congress,” Griffiths told DanvilleSanRamon. “I am not running for personal gain or political status. I am running because I genuinely care about the future of our communities and believe we need leadership that is ready to move beyond partisan politics and unite around real solutions and real change.”
To learn more about Griffiths and her campaign, visit www.drgriffithsforcongress.com.
Josh Hamilton
Josh Hamilton is one of the younger Democratic candidates running for the 10th Congressional District seat.
A small business owner, Hamilton said he is running because “the American Dream is broken for my generation, and the people in Washington who broke it have no plan to fix it.”
“I’m a working person who got tired of watching both parties treat the problems facing East Bay families as fundraising opportunities instead of things to fix,” Hamilton told DanvilleSanRamon. “It is time to pass the torch to a new generation of leadership that has a plan and the courage to execute it.”
Hamilton positions himself as an average working American who delivers propane tanks out of his pickup truck. In his campaign website, he said it’s a physical but honest job that allows him to have a clear understanding of how national policies affect the lives of everyday people.
Hamilton’s three top priorities he plans to implement, if elected, are a working-class tax cut, universal healthcare with $5 prescriptions and free primary care, and a higher investment in public education, starting with six-figure salaries for teachers.
He said he plans to pay for all of that through a framework he dubbed “The New American Dream”, which he said includes several revenue mechanisms like “a Land Value Tax, a rollback of corporate giveaways, and a new tax on AI-generated revenue”.
“The math is itemized line by line, it funds the priorities, and it even eliminates the federal deficit within seven years,” he said.
“Voters here deserve more than slogans,” Hamilton added. “They deserve a representative who shows up with a plan, levels with them on the trade-offs, and is willing to be held accountable for results. That is what I’m offering, and on June 2 I’m asking voters to give me the chance to deliver it.”
To learn more about Hamilton and his campaign, visit www.hamiltonforcongress.com.
Mitchell Maisler
Mitchell Maisler is another young candidate vying for the 10th Congressional District seat, and he is making that particular point known in his campaign website.
“We have too many members of congress over 70, including our own representative, Mark DeSaulnier, who is 73 and running again,” Maisler stated in his website. “We need representatives who understand what it means to fill out an unemployment form or to sign up for Medi-Cal (at least once in the past 25 years).”
According to his website, Maisler graduated from Northgate High School in Walnut Creek in 2013. After having spent some time in college, he quickly decided it wasn’t for him and entered into the workforce. He now brews beer for a living.
It wasn’t until the COVID pandemic that Maisler said he started getting politically active and now, after seeing how his generation is struggling, he decided to bring some fresh ideas to Congress and build a better life for the greater public.
“My generation hasn’t had the same chances to build wealth as previous generations, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change things,” Maisler stated in his website. “That’s why we need representation that actually knows the realities of today’s economic and social landscapes, not someone who is stuck in the past.”
“Most of those in congress aren’t bothered with out-of-pocket medical costs, out-of-control rent hikes, or have to live with fear about where the country will be in 25 to 50 years — you and I do,” he added.
According to his website, some of Maisler’s top priorities are ending insider stock trading for lawmakers and the president, providing Medicare for all, breaking up big corporate monopolies, implementing fair taxes, supporting veterans and active service members and investing in green energy and infrastructure, to name a few.
To learn more about Maisler and his campaign, visit www.maislerforcongress.com
Katherine Piccinini
Katherine Piccinini is no stranger to the political world.
Back in 2024, she ran a grassroots campaign for the same 10th Congressional District seat and received over 122,000 votes (33.5%) while losing to DeSaulnier. And even though she lost at the time, the Republican candidate said it hasn’t stopped her from trying again in order to make her district and the overall state a better place to live.
“I am running for Congress in California’s 10th Congressional District because I believe we are losing our state, and I refuse to sit back and watch it happen,” Piccinini told DanvilleSanRamon.
Piccinini is a Contra Costa County resident who, over the years, has served District 10 in many ways, including through her volunteer work with veterans’ organizations, food banks, prayer groups and as the East Contra Costa Women’s club president for five years. She said she is also a founding member and current President for the California Republican Assembly.
Over the past couple decades, Piccinini said she has witnessed a steady decline in many industries that once supported the local economy. That’s why, if elected, she plans on revitalizing industries, like oil refineries, with the help of the current U.S. administration.
“What concerns me most is the lack of urgency from our current Congressman in addressing the loss of these good-paying jobs and creating new opportunities for working families,” Piccinini said. “California still depends heavily on reliable energy, including fuel produced by our refineries. I would work with President Trump to revitalize California’s oil industry, and bring back those jobs to District 10.”
She also said her goals are to lower costs in every facet of American life, to restore trust in government, and to fight for schools, the medical system, state infrastructure and basic needs such as clean water, safe food and clean air.
To learn more about Piccinini and her campaign, visit www.piccinini4congress.com
Bob Rowland
Bob Rowland is another first-time candidate who said he is running for the 10th Congressional District seat because he feels the country is not on the right track.
“Let’s together get this country back on its feet again demonstrating the honesty and integrity that came from leadership that we are lacking now,” he told DanvilleSanRamon.
According to the Contra Costa County voter information guide, Rowland is a U.S. Army veteran who spent a year in Vietnam as a pilot. He also worked as a commercial land broker for 45 years and as an airline pilot for 39 years.
According to the Contra Costa voter information guide, Rowland is running for the congressional seat because he is concerned about the “downward trajectory our country is on, not only fiscally but morally and ethically”.
“The present administration is playing bully ball with our long-standing friends, allies and our citizens,” Rowland stated in the voter guide. “We are on a slippery slope of losing one of our cornerstones of our democracy, the principle of checks and balances.”
He continued by stating that the erosion of civil liberties, as evidenced by recent ICE and immigration raids, is not the country he grew up in and is not one he wants his grandchildren to grow up in either.
He also said Congress has the power to stop “all of this nonsense” but rather than doing so, many in Congress are letting it slide, which is why he believes it is time for a change.
“I have never been a politician which I view as my advantage,” Rowland told DanvilleSanRamon.Â
If elected, Rowland said he promises to enforce checks and balances on the executive branch and bring ICE under control. Other of his priorities include affordable prices, living wages and jobs.
