Election 2026 · State of California

California Assembly District 57

Published September 29, 2026 · Updated October 2, 2026

Sade Elhawary (incumbent) and Constance Jewel Menzies are the candidates for California Assembly District 57 on the November 3, 2026 ballot.

The State Assembly is one of the two houses of the California Legislature, which holds the state's lawmaking power. The Assembly has 80 members. Its members write and vote on state laws and, with the Senate, pass the state budget, which the Constitution requires by June 15 each year.

Summary by CityHallPass, not the official text or legal advice. The official text controls: LA County's official election information.

What it means for the City of LA

About 89% of the district's voting precincts and 87% of its land are in the City of Los Angeles, including South LA, Exposition Park and much of Downtown. The rest is unincorporated Florence-Graham. State laws bind the City, and the state budget funds programs the City runs. Example: state law requires the City to plan housing for all income levels and update that plan on a set schedule (Government Code sections 65580 and 65588).

Primary results, June 2, 2026

Two candidates, both advanced to November 3. Total votes: 46,861. Certified results

The candidates

The job

Powers. The California Constitution gives the state’s lawmaking power to the Legislature, which is the Senate plus the 80-member Assembly (art. IV, sec. 1). A bill needs a majority of each house to pass (art. IV, sec. 8). The Legislature can override a Governor’s veto with two-thirds of each house (art. IV, sec. 10). Tax increases need two-thirds of each house (art. XIII A, sec. 3). The Legislature can put constitutional amendments on the ballot by a two-thirds vote of each house (art. XVIII, sec. 1). Five of the 14 statewide measures on this ballot (Props 1, 2, 4, 5 and 43) were placed there by the Legislature (Secretary of State voter guide).

Budget. The Legislature must pass the budget bill by midnight on June 15, and a majority vote is enough (art. IV, sec. 12). CalMatters reported that the 2026-27 budget deal totaled $352 billion. It added taxes, including a sales tax on some computer software, and gave counties $900 million for homelessness (CalMatters).

The district.

• About 498,000 people live in the 57th District. The Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 survey estimates the population as 74% Latino, 14% Black, 5% white and 4% Asian, with a median household income of $56,565 (Census Reporter).
• LAist describes it as straddling the 110 Freeway into Downtown, including South LA, Florence-Graham and Green Meadows. Voter registration is 59.3% Democratic, 24.3% no party preference and 8.5% Republican (LAist).
• Of the district’s 1,064 LA County voting precincts, 944 are in the City of LA and 120 in unincorporated Florence and Walnut Park (County Registrar precinct map).
• City neighborhoods, by share of the district’s land (Neighborhood Council map): Empowerment Congress Southeast (11%), Downtown (11%), South Central (10%), CANNDU (9%), Empowerment Congress North (9%), Voices (8%), Empowerment Congress Central (7%), Zapata-King (7%), Empowerment Congress Southwest (6%) and Central Alameda (5%).
• City Council districts, by share of land (Council district map): CD 9 (Curren Price, 47%), CD 8 (Marqueece Harris-Dawson, 27%), CD 14 (Ysabel Jurado, 10%) and small parts of CD 15 and CD 1.
• Land shares come from laying the County’s Assembly district map over the City’s Neighborhood Council and Council district maps. They measure area, not people.

Records

Sade Elhawary

Office and roles. Her standing committees are Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism; Business and Professions; Elections; Human Services; and Labor and Employment. She also sits on select committees including the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Downtown Recovery and Social Housing, and belongs to the Black, LGBTQ and Progressive caucuses (committee page).

Bills, 2025-26 session. The Legislature’s bill data as of Oct 1, 2026 lists Elhawary as a lead author of 34 bills in their final form: 31 as the lead author and 3 jointly with other members (AB 812, AB 1790 and AB 2599). After the Governor’s Sept 30 deadline to act on bills (Constitution, art. IV, sec. 10), 14 had become law, 4 were vetoed and 16 did not pass (bill data; Governor’s Sept 30 update).

• Laws: AB 822, which extends the Commission on the State of Hate (LA Sentinel); AB 812 (resentencing for incarcerated firefighters; Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal’s bill, which she co-led); AB 1275 (regional housing needs and transportation plans); AB 681 (DREAM Loan limits); AB 896 (foster care transitions); AB 952 (a youth offender camp pilot); and AB 1037 (substance use disorder). Signed Sept 27, 2026: AB 2483, a certification and hiring program for formerly incarcerated firefighters, AB 1843 on hepatitis C and AB 1932 (Governor’s office). Signed Sept 29: AB 2318, on law enforcement facilitating medical care (Governor’s office).
• Vetoed: AB 742, on state licensing for applicants who are descendants of enslaved people. On Sept 27 the Governor also vetoed AB 2551, on campus “time, place and manner” rules for protests, AB 2247 on services for youth exposed to violence and AB 2593 on treatment of prisoners (Governor’s office). The University of California had opposed AB 2551 (Daily Californian).
• Signed Sept 30, 2026: AB 1331 on workplace surveillance, with a signing message (Governor’s office); AB 1886 (the bill data lists its subject as “Wards: probation”); and AB 2599 on corporate disclosure of ties to slavery (Governor’s Sept 30 update). AB 2599 is Assemblymember Isaac Bryan’s bill; she is one of six members listed with him as joint authors (bill data).

Key floor votes. From the Assembly’s recorded votes:

Source: Assembly floor vote records on leginfo, linked for each bill above.

Before the Legislature. Her office credits her work at Community Coalition with helping set up the Fremont High School Wellness Center and win a School Climate Bill of Rights, and with helping found the Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice (Assembly biography).

Ethics and court records. No complaints or enforcement actions found in FPPC, City Ethics Commission or FEC records (FEC searched Oct. 1, 2026), and no license in her name at the State Bar. The Assembly Legislative Ethics Committee posts no complaint decisions. No court case naming her as a party was found in CourtListener federal dockets and opinions or in web searches of Justia and PacerMonitor (searched Oct. 1, 2026).

Constance Jewel Menzies

Career and record. Her ballot designation is In-Home Care Provider (certified list). No other career information or public office was found.

Ethics and court records. No complaints or enforcement actions found in FPPC, City Ethics Commission or FEC records (FEC searched Oct. 1, 2026), and no license in her name at the State Bar. No court case naming her as a party was found in CourtListener federal dockets and opinions or in web searches of Justia and PacerMonitor (searched Oct. 1, 2026).

Where they stand

No 2026 questionnaire answers from either candidate were found, and Menzies has no website or public statements on record. Elhawary’s entries come from her bills and her answers to the LA Times in 2024.

On the other ballot measures

State propositions are listed in the Secretary of State’s voter guide. For measures the Legislature placed on the ballot, the incumbent’s floor vote is shown. A vote to place a measure on the ballot is not the same as an endorsement.

Source: measure titles from the Secretary of State’s voter guide; floor votes linked in each row.

Endorsements

Sade Elhawary

Her endorsement page is from her 2024 campaign; its footer reads “Paid for by Sade Elhawary for Assembly 2024.” It lists Mayor Karen Bass, Supervisors Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, then-Sen. Laphonza Butler, Reps. Judy Chu and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, Attorney General Rob Bonta, Treasurer Fiona Ma and the Legislative Black, LGBTQ, Progressive and Women’s caucuses, among others (endorsement page). It says the LA Times endorsed her; that endorsement was in 2024 (LA Times). No 2026 party, union or newspaper endorsement list was found.

Constance Jewel Menzies

• Party: The California Republican Party lists her among its 2026 endorsements for Assembly District 57 (CAGOP).
• Others: None found.

Polls

No public polls of this race were found.

Money

Source: Form 460 summary pages in the Cal-Access bulk data, downloaded Sept 29, 2026: Elhawary committee, latest report, July 1 to Sept 19, 2026, late contribution reports. No Cal-Access committee for Menzies was found; candidates who raise or spend less than $2,000 do not have to form one (Government Code sec. 82013). The Assembly contribution limit for 2025-26 is $5,900 per person per election (FPPC). Elhawary’s committee gave $5,000 to LA For All of Us, the LA County Federation of Labor committee backing Mayor Bass (see the Mayor page), and $5,900 each to the campaigns of Isaac Bryan and Fatima Iqbal-Zubair (Cal-Access expenditures).

Who is giving

Method: itemized contributions (money and in-kind) on Elhawary’s Form 460s from Jan 1, 2025, plus late contribution reports filed after the last Form 460 (Cal-Access contributions). A donor is a normalized name plus ZIP code for people, or a normalized name for organizations. A ZIP counts as City of LA if at least half its area is in the City.

Sade Elhawary. 258 donors gave $794,288 in itemized contributions: 78 people and 180 organizations. Organizations gave 90% of the money. Forty-four donors gave at least one $5,900 maximum gift, totaling $403,179 (50.8%). Donors giving under $250 in total gave 0.6%. Unitemized gifts were $2,222 (Cal-Access contributions).

Source: Cal-Access contributions to Sade Elhawary for Assembly 2026, grouped by donor type. Union and public-employee committees whose names do not say “union” count as unions here: the Association of California School Administrators PAC ($18,100, filed under two spellings), the California Association of Highway Patrolmen PAC ($8,000), the Teamsters’ DRIVE Committee ($4,000), the Professional Engineers in California Government PAC ($3,500), UAW Region 6 ($3,500), the California IATSE Council ($2,000), Sprinkler Fitters Local 709 ($1,000) and United Steelworkers District 12 ($500). The Personal Insurance Federation of California Agents & Employees PACs ($8,000), an insurers’ group, and the California Credit Union League PAC ($1,500) count as business PACs.

• Geography. 13.4% of itemized dollars came from City of LA ZIP codes, 13.5% from the rest of LA County, 58.3% from elsewhere in California and 14.8% from out of state. Among individual donors, 26.3% of dollars came from the City (Cal-Access contributions).
• Largest donors. The United Domestic Workers Action Fund gave $23,600 and the California Nurses Association PAC $14,500. Donors giving $11,800 each include the Realtors’ CREPAC, CVS Health, Edison International, the California Teachers Association, the California Faculty Association, SEIU Locals 721, 1000 and 2015, the SEIU State Council, the LGBT Caucus Leadership Fund and the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians. Two individuals gave $11,800 each (Cal-Access contributions).
• Real estate and development: 4 donors, $18,800 (2.4%), led by CREPAC ($11,800) (Cal-Access contributions).
• Lobbying interests. 43 donor organizations, giving $152,489, are registered state lobbyist employers (Cal-Access lobbying).
• Shared employers. No group of five or more donors from one employer gave within three days of each other.

Outside spending

No outside spending for or against either candidate in 2025 or 2026 was found in Form 496 reports. In her 2024 race, the Coalition to Restore California’s Middle Class, a committee of energy and oil companies, reported spending on mailers and polling against her (Cal-Access).

Key moments

Debates and forums

No debates or candidate forums for this race were found.