Secretary of State
The secretary of state oversees the administration of all federal and state elections in California, including certifying candidates and initiatives for statewide ballots, issuing voter guides and ensuring votes are properly counted. The office also handles corporate business filings, maintains the state archives and manages a database of lobbyist registration and campaign finance disclosures.
Candidates
Donald P. Wagner
Wagner, an Orange County supervisor, former mayor of Irvine and ex-state assemblymember, is running on a platform of election integrity. As supervisor, he criticized the state’s COVID-19 response, questioned the county’s investment in diversity, equity and inclusion programs and pushed for the release of sensitive voter information to President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice over claims of voting irregularities. He supports requiring voter ID at the polls and criticizes Weber for the state’s slow ballot-counting process.
Shirley N. Weber
Weber, the daughter of Arkansas sharecroppers who fled the Jim Crow south, became the first Black secretary of state in California history by appointment in 2021, after serving eight years in the Assembly. She then easily won a full four-year term in 2022. Weber’s had an eventful tenure, overseeing the state’s permanent implementation of universal mail-in voting, administering high-profile elections such as the recall against Gov. Gavin Newsom, taking local governments to court over voting laws and fielding claims of election fraud. She pledged to expand voting access, improve transparency in election filings and enhance cybersecurity protections in a second term.
Endorsements
Donald P. Wagner
Shirley N. Weber
- California Democratic Party
- California Federation of Teachers
- SEIU California
Campaign finance
Candidate committees
Candidates raise money to run for office through their campaign committees. The committees must identify large donors who give $100 or more. In the tables below, we exclude small donors whose contributions total less than $100 and any transfers from a candidate’s previous campaign committee for a different race. Contribution limits vary by office and type of donor.
- Large donors
- Small donors
- Self-funding
- Difference to opponent
Donald P. Wagner
Shirley N. Weber
Outside spending
Separate from candidate committees, outside groups can pay for ads, mailers and other efforts to influence voters. They can’t coordinate that spending with candidate committees. There is no limit on how much they can spend.
- Support
- Oppose
- Difference to opponent
Donald P. Wagner
