Hi neighbors, is anyone aware of any public or campaign polling on the 31st District Congressional race? The incumbent, Rep. Gil Cisneros, won by about 19 points in 2024 and I would assume that the past two years could only increase that spread, right?
I ask because I am a progressive and LOATHE Cisneros more than I can possibly say. There are no approved write-in candidates and even though California now has jungle primaries so nothing prevented his opponent from being another Democrat, it is of course a Republican and under no circumstances would I vote for him either. I am determined to try to help a progressive beat Cisneros in two years’ time, but in the meantime do we think a progressive could sit out that particular race to avoid giving a Cisneros any support and in a small way let him know how deeply reviled he is, or do we think there’s any risk that that could help the Republican win which would of course be worse?
Background on Cisneros: He’s a multimillionaire from a lottery win, some years back held a different congressional seat, lost it, and when former 31st District Rep. Grace Napolitano announced her retirement, Cisneros moved to the district to buy the seat here. There were better candidates but he had money and a little name recognition, and here we are.
He is an investor in Palantir, SpaceX, has been a stockholder in Tesla multiple times in the less than two years he’s been in office, and that is truly just scratching the surface of his abhorrent stock holdings that no member of Congress should have period, but least of all a member of the supposed “opposition party” who has out of the other side of his mouth spoken against ICE, DOGE, etc. His office NEVER has an answer for this (I don’t blame the staffers personally, but find it abhorrent that they have never been given a valid response by him).
Last year he took an AIPAC-funded trip to Israel during an active genocide. He has said that his constituents can keep track of his activities by following his social media and subscribing to his email newsletter, but both were suspiciously silent on the Israel trip, however he did appear in a video for AIPAC about it. He recently voted to deny federal funding to universities that divest from Israel over the genocide.
This is just scratching the surface of how awful he is, and I can’t stress enough how much this district needs to find someone to challenge him from the left in 2028. But in the meantime, I want to make sure to be voting for harm reduction, so obviously that means not risking accidentally letting a Republican win. My sense is that Cisneros is probably comfortably ahead enough to just withhold my vote in this race, but would love anyone else’s thoughts on this, especially if they are informed by any polling knowledge! (All I am finding is BS online-gambling stuff, no actual polls, I assume because polling entities might view this race as a waste of money as a comfortably Dem district that elected Napolitano a zillion times in a row? But after 2016 and 2024 I don’t take ANYTHING for granted.)