Election 2026 · State of California

California Assembly District 61

Published September 29, 2026 · Updated October 2, 2026

Brian Lockwood and Tina Simone McKinnor (incumbent) are the candidates for California Assembly District 61 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 38% of the district's voting precincts (587 of 1,558) and 45% of its land are in the City of Los Angeles: Westchester, Playa del Rey, Venice, LAX and part of South LA. The rest includes Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Lennox and Marina del Rey. 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

One candidate on the ballot plus one write-in candidate; both advanced to November 3. Total votes: 80,151. 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 473,000 people live in the 61st District. The Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 survey estimates the population as 46% Latino, 25% Black, 18% white and 6% Asian, with a median household income of $84,922 (Census Reporter).
• LAist describes it as including Marina del Rey, Lawndale, Hawthorne and Inglewood. Voter registration is 59.9% Democratic, 21.8% no party preference and 10.9% Republican (LAist).
• Of the district’s 1,558 LA County voting precincts, 587 are in the City of LA. The rest are in Inglewood (358), Hawthorne (250), unincorporated West Athens (122), Lawndale (94), Gardena (59), Lennox (35), Del Aire (33), Marina del Rey (15) and Alondra Park (5) (County Registrar precinct map).
• The County’s district map puts LAX, SoFi Stadium and Venice inside the district.
• City neighborhoods, by share of the district’s land (Neighborhood Council map): Westchester/Playa (30%), Venice (6%), Park Mesa Heights (3%), Empowerment Congress Southwest (3%) and Empowerment Congress Southeast (2%).
• City Council districts, by share of land (Council district map): CD 11 (Traci Park, 37%) and CD 8 (Marqueece Harris-Dawson, 8%).
• Land shares come from overlaying the County’s Assembly district map on the City’s Neighborhood Council and Council district maps. They measure area, not people, and LAX takes up much of the City’s share.

Records

Tina Simone McKinnor

Office and roles. McKinnor took office in June 2022 after a special election (2UrbanGirls). She chairs the Public Employment and Retirement Committee and the Select Committee on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Her other standing committees are Arts, Entertainment, Sports and Tourism; Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials; Governmental Organization; Privacy and Consumer Protection; and Revenue and Taxation (committee page). She was elected chair of the Los Angeles County Legislative Delegation in January 2024 (Assembly biography).

Bills, 2025-26 session. The Legislature’s bill data lists McKinnor as a lead author of the final version of 34 Assembly bills, alone or jointly; resolutions are left out (leginfo data downloads). One of them, AB 2599, is led by Asm. Isaac Bryan, with McKinnor as a joint lead author. As of the Oct 1, 2026 data file, after the Governor’s Sept 30 deadline to act on bills (art. IV, sec. 10), 12 had become law, 4 were vetoed and 18 did not pass (bill data; Governor’s Sept 30 update).

• Laws: AB 628, which requires landlords to provide a working stove and refrigerator in every apartment starting Jan 1, 2026 (CalMatters); AB 288, which lets private-sector workers bring union and labor complaints to the state when the federal government does not act in time (2UrbanGirls); AB 2411 (a state public safety command for the 2028 Olympics, signed Sept 20, 2026, Governor’s release); AB 2113 (drones over ticketed events and amusement parks); AB 851 (limits on unsolicited offers to buy fire-damaged property in LA and Ventura counties); AB 749 (the Youth Sports for All Act, with Asm. Sharon Quirk-Silva as joint lead author); AB 663 (exemptions to a ban on some refrigerant gases); and AB 2323 (public notices in newspapers).
• Vetoed earlier: AB 1383, which would have lowered the retirement age for full pension benefits for some police and firefighters and raised the cap on pension earnings set by a 2012 law. It passed the Senate 33-0 and the Assembly 69-2. Gov. Newsom vetoed it on Sept 20, 2026, and wrote that it would partly reverse the 2012 law (CalMatters; San Diego Voice & Viewpoint). Also vetoed in 2025: AB 57 (home-buying aid for descendants of enslaved people) and AB 62 (Civil Rights Department review of racially motivated eminent domain).
• Vetoed Sept 30, 2026: AB 2186, which would have exempted reparations payments from state income tax (veto message).
• Signed Sept 30, 2026: AB 1860 (school construction contracts); AB 1908 (settlement money for victims’ compensation); AB 2519 (teachers’ retirement membership); and AB 2599 (corporate disclosure of ties to slavery), led by Asm. Bryan with McKinnor and five others as joint lead authors (Governor’s Sept 30 update).
• Did not pass: AB 470, an AT&T-sponsored bill to let the company stop providing copper landlines in some areas. CalMatters reported AT&T spent at least $4.5 million on lobbying in 2025 and that McKinnor said she would bring the bill back (CalMatters). AB 51 would have forgiven about $1 million in interest on Inglewood Unified’s 2014 state emergency loan. The LA Local reported that the state’s school fiscal-crisis team did not support it and that it died in committee; McKinnor said she would seek the relief in the budget (The LA Local). AB 311 (the Consumer Driving Data Protection Act) was held in a Senate committee in August 2026.

Key floor votes. From the Assembly’s recorded votes, linked for each bill:

Source: Assembly floor vote records on leginfo, linked for each bill above, and the Legislature’s vote data downloads.

Before the Legislature. Her office lists her past jobs as civic engagement director at LAVoice, operations director for the California Democratic Party and chief of staff to several Assemblymembers (Assembly biography).

Ethics and court records. Before her election McKinnor worked as a political treasurer (Ballotpedia). FPPC records name her in these actions:

• March 2016: a $35,000 stipulated penalty in a Torrance mayor’s race. McKinnor was treasurer of Torrance Voters PAC, which reported about $35,000 of spending for Pat Furey as independent expenditures. The FPPC found that the spending was contributions to his campaign and should have been reported as such. The PAC, its principal officer and McKinnor were jointly liable for half the penalty.
• November 2013: a warning letter to her and Justice PAC. Robocalls the PAC paid for against a Simi Valley council member left out the required statement that no candidate had authorized them.
• May 2022: a warning letter to her as treasurer of a Pasadena City Council committee, which failed to combine three contributions from related companies that together went over the $4,900 limit. It refunded two of them after the FPPC contacted it.
• September 2022: a warning letter to her 2022 special election Assembly committee and McKinnor, violation type “Advertisements,” per the FPPC case record, No. 2022-00590.

No public response from McKinnor was found. No City Ethics Commission orders, FEC enforcement cases (searched Oct. 1, 2026) or State Bar license were found. 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).

Brian Lockwood

Career and record. Lockwood has no ballot designation, so the ballot lists no occupation (certified list). No 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). No State Bar discipline or CourtListener judgment that could be tied to him was found (searched Sept. 30, 2026).

Where they stand

No 2026 questionnaire answers from either candidate were found, and Lockwood has no website or public statements on record. McKinnor’s entries come from her bills and public statements.

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. No statement from either candidate on any measure was found.

Endorsements

Tina Simone McKinnor

Her campaign’s endorsement page, as archived on June 11, 2026, lists organizations and unions but no elected officials. The live page could not be read, so the list may have changed since June:

• Organizations: Abundant Housing LA, Black Women Organized for Political Action, California Environmental Voters, the California Legislative Black Caucus, California Women’s List, the California Working Families Party, Consumer Attorneys of California, Courage California, FundHer, the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project LA County Action Fund, Professional Engineers in California, Smart Justice California and Westside Young Democrats (archived endorsement page).
• Unions: the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, California Professional Firefighters, the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association, the California Faculty Association, SEIU California and SEIU Locals 99, 121RN, 721 and 2015, SEIU-UHW, United Domestic Workers, AFSCME, IBEW Locals 11 and 18, Operating Engineers Local 12, the Southwest Carpenters, the Teamsters and others (archived endorsement page).
• Newspapers: none found for 2026.

Brian Lockwood

• Party: The California Republican Party’s endorsement page does not list a candidate for Assembly District 61 (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 (export), downloaded Sept 29, 2026; latest report, July 1 to Sept 19, 2026; late contribution reports. The Sept 29 data had no campaign reports from Lockwood; candidates who raise or spend less than $2,000 do not have to file them (Gov. Code 82013). The Assembly contribution limit for 2025-26 is $5,900 per person per election (FPPC).

McKinnor’s committee gave $118,880 to other campaigns and parties, according to its Form 460 reports (Cal-Access; Jan. to April 2026 report, which has the party and legislative gifts; April to May 2026 report, which has the Bass committee gift). That includes $49,340 to the California Democratic Party, $5,900 each to four legislative candidates and $5,000 to LA For All of Us, the committee backing Mayor Bass (see the Mayor page).

Who is giving

Method: itemized contributions (money and in-kind) on McKinnor’s Form 460s from Jan 1, 2025, plus late contribution reports filed after the last Form 460. 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 (City list of ZIP codes).

Tina Simone McKinnor. 273 donors gave $938,528 in itemized contributions: 61 people and 212 organizations (Cal-Access contributions). Organizations gave 95% of the money. Sixty-three donors gave at least one $5,900 maximum gift, totaling $541,579 (57.7%). Donors giving under $250 in total gave 0.6%. Unitemized gifts were $975.

Source: Cal-Access contributions to Tina McKinnor for Assembly 2026, grouped by donor type.

• Geography. 10.2% of itemized dollars came from City of LA ZIP codes, 9.1% from the rest of LA County, 57.0% from elsewhere in California and 23.7% from out of state. Among individual donors, 39.8% of dollars came from the City (Cal-Access contributions; City list of ZIP codes).
• Largest donors. The California Professional Firefighters PAC and the United Domestic Workers Action Fund gave $23,600 each, and the California Association of Highway Patrolmen PAC gave $12,000. Amazon, AT&T, CVS Health, FanDuel, PG&E, Sempra, Uber, West Coast University, Sun Life, Smart Justice California Action Fund, the Association of California School Administrators PAC, the State Building and Construction Trades Council, the California Teachers Association, the SEIU California State Council and SEIU Locals 721 and 1000 each gave $11,800. Among individuals, three gave $5,900 each and one gave $3,000 (Cal-Access contributions).
• Real estate and development: 5 donors, $11,600 (1.2%), including the California Apartment Association PAC ($5,900), the Realtors’ CREPAC ($3,000), NAIOP SoCal PAC ($1,500) and Hudson Pacific Properties ($1,000) (Cal-Access contributions).
• Lobbying interests. 48 donor organizations, giving $215,300, are registered state lobbyist employers (Cal-Access lobbying).
• Clusters. No group of five or more donors from one employer within three days was found (Cal-Access contributions).

Outside spending

No independent expenditures for or against either candidate in 2025 or 2026 were found in Form 496 reports in the Cal-Access data export.

Key moments

Debates and forums

No debates or candidate forums for this race were found.