Election 2026 · State of California

California State Senate District 24

Published September 29, 2026 · Updated October 1, 2026

John M. Erickson and Brian Goldsmith are the candidates for California State Senate District 24 on the November 3, 2026 ballot.

The State Senate is one of the two houses of the California Legislature, which holds the state's lawmaking power. The Senate has 40 members elected to four-year terms, with half of the seats up every two years; even-numbered districts are on the 2026 ballot. Senators write and vote on state laws and, with the Assembly, 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

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). The district includes Westside and Hollywood-area City neighborhoods, from Bel Air and Pacific Palisades to Venice and Westchester.

Primary results, June 2, 2026

Ten candidates, the most of any legislative race in the state. Erickson and Goldsmith, the top two, advanced to November 3. Total votes: 304,378. District totals from the Secretary of State's certified Statement of Vote. Certified results

The candidates

The job

The district. The 24th Senate District runs along the coast from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

• Cities. Agoura Hills, Beverly Hills, Calabasas, El Segundo, Gardena, Hermosa Beach, Hidden Hills, Lomita, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Santa Monica, Torrance, West Hollywood and Westlake Village. It also takes in the unincorporated Santa Monica Mountains and Marina del Rey (Senate District 24 page).
• City of LA. The same page lists these Los Angeles neighborhoods: Bel Air, Beverly Grove, Brentwood, Fairfax, Holmby Hills, Hollywood, Hollywood Hills, Little Holmby, Mid City West, Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, Sunset Hills, Venice, Westwood and Westwood Village. An overlay of the County’s district map on City Neighborhood Council boundaries also shows parts of Westchester/Playa and West LA-Sawtelle (County district layer).
• People. The Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 survey estimates 1,003,720 residents. About 55% are white (not Latino), 17% Asian, 16% Latino and 4% Black (Census Reporter).
• Fires. CalMatters describes the district as “home to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the Los Angeles wildfires in 2025” (CalMatters).
• Voters. On May 18, 2026 the district had 702,277 registered voters: 49.3% Democratic, 20.8% Republican and 23.1% no party preference (Secretary of State). In the June primary 304,378 votes were cast in this race (Statement of Vote).

What a senator does.

• Laws. The Senate and Assembly write and pass state laws. A bill becomes law when both houses pass it and the Governor signs it (Constitution, art. IV).
• Budget. The Legislature must pass the budget by midnight on June 15, and a simple majority of each house is enough (art. IV, sec. 12). CalMatters reported the 2026-27 budget deal at $352 billion (CalMatters).
• Taxes. Any state tax increase needs two thirds of each house (art. XIII A, sec. 3).
• Appointments. Only the Senate votes to confirm many of the Governor’s appointees. Its Rules Committee holds those hearings (Senate Rules Committee).
• What it means for the City. The same budget deal gave counties $900 million for homelessness, CalMatters reported (CalMatters). State law also sets the City’s housing planning duties (Gov. Code 65588).

Records

John M. Erickson

Office. Erickson has been on the West Hollywood City Council since 2020. He was mayor in 2024 and was re-elected that year (Beverly Press). He has been vice president of the California Contract Cities Association. He has served with the National League of Cities, the Clean Power Alliance and the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission (WeHo Times).

Council record, as reported. West Hollywood’s council records could not be opened, so these items come from news reports:

• WeHo Times reported that on the council he supported expanded tenant protections, helped launch the WeHo Cares homelessness program, and backed an anti-gun violence ordinance and a drone program (WeHo Times).
• He told the Santa Monica Daily Press that he co-authored what he called “the highest minimum wage in the county.” He also cited West Hollywood’s cap on yearly rent increases at 3% (SMDP).
• He told the Beverly Press that he wrote a rule letting seniors and disabled tenants move from a second-floor to a first-floor unit and keep their rent-controlled rent. He also said the city had a $31 million budget surplus while he served (Beverly Press).

Travel. On April 1, 2024 the West Hollywood council approved sending Erickson, then mayor, to the Paris Olympics Pride House handoff. Councilmember Lauren Meister cast the only no vote (Beverly Press).

Other work. He was vice president of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles. He has served on the national board of the National Organization for Women, and WeHo Times reported that he “previously led the ACLU of Southern California” (WeHo Times). The Daily News editorial board described that role as president (Daily News).

Ethics and court records. The FPPC lists no enforcement case or penalty against him. No City Ethics Commission orders, FEC enforcement cases (searched Oct. 1, 2026), State Bar license or court case naming him as a party (CourtListener) were found (searched Sept. 30, 2026).

Brian Goldsmith

Career.

• Goldsmith is a Democratic media consultant and principal of Kona Media & Message (SCNG).
• The Daily News reported that he founded two technology startups (Daily News).
• He was a news producer for Katie Couric at CBS and Yahoo, including the 2008 interview with Sarah Palin, and joined Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign (Beverly Press).
• The Daily News editorial board wrote that he has advised campaigns going back to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate race (Daily News).
• CalMatters describes him as a former senior adviser to Democratic Majority for Israel (CalMatters).

Campaign work on Prop 36. He wrote that he “made ads in support of” Proposition 36, the 2024 measure that raised penalties for some theft and drug crimes. He also supported Nathan Hochman for District Attorney (SCNG).

Public office. None. He lists no prior office (SCNG).

Ethics and court records. No enforcement actions found in FPPC, City Ethics Commission or FEC records (FEC searched Oct. 1, 2026), and no license in his name at the State Bar. No court case naming him as a party was found in CourtListener federal and appellate records (searched Sept. 30, 2026).

Where they stand

Most of these issues come from the Daily News editorial board’s interviews with both candidates (Daily News, Sept 26, 2026). The rest come from the Southern California News Group questionnaire, which Goldsmith answered (SCNG, May 5, 2026), and from profiles of both candidates in the Beverly Press and Santa Monica Daily Press. No Erickson questionnaire was found.

On the other ballot measures

Neither candidate is a legislator, so neither voted to place Props 1, 2, 4, 5 or 43 on the ballot.

Endorsements

John M. Erickson

From his campaign’s endorsement page (campaign site), checked Sept 29, 2026:

• Elected officials:
  • Rep. Robert Garcia and Treasurer Fiona Ma (campaign site).
  • Sens. Dave Cortese, María Elena Durazo, Lena Gonzalez, Sasha Renée Pérez, Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Akilah Weber Pierson (campaign site).
  • Assemblymembers Isaac Bryan, Sade Elhawary, Mark Gonzalez, Matt Haney, Corey Jackson, Alex Lee, Tina McKinnor, Nick Schultz, José Solache and Chris Ward (campaign site).
  • Former Speakers Anthony Rendon and Herb Wesson (campaign site).
  • Supervisors Kathryn Barger, Janice Hahn, Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis, former Supervisor Sheila Kuehl and Assessor Jeffrey Prang (campaign site).
  • City officials in Beverly Hills, Culver City, Hermosa Beach and Lomita (campaign site).
• Unions:
  • LA County Federation of Labor, California Federation of Labor Unions and LA/OC Building Trades (campaign site).
  • CTA, CFT, CSEA and the California Faculty Association (campaign site).
  • California Nurses Association, UNAC/UHCP and NUHW (campaign site).
  • SEIU California, SEIU 721 and SEIU 121RN, plus AFSCME California and several AFSCME locals (campaign site).
  • California Professional Firefighters, LA County Firefighters Local 1014, and Redondo Beach and Torrance firefighters (campaign site).
  • UNITE HERE Local 11, UFCW 770, UAW Region 6, and IBEW Locals 11, 18 and 47 (campaign site).
  • Western States Regional Council of Carpenters, Laborers, Iron Workers, Operating Engineers and Plumbers locals (campaign site).
• Organizations:
  • Equality California, Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project LA County and the Sierra Club (campaign site).
  • Abundant Housing, California YIMBY, YIMBY Los Angeles and Streets for All (campaign site).
  • Consumer Attorneys of California, ACCE and the California Working Families Party (campaign site).
  • The Legislative LGBTQ and Progressive Caucuses, Stonewall Democratic Club and Miracle Mile Democratic Club (campaign site).
• Newspapers: none found.

Brian Goldsmith

From his campaign’s endorsement page (campaign site), checked Sept 29, 2026:

• National and state figures:
  • Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Pete Buttigieg and Gabby Giffords (campaign site).
  • Former Sen. Barbara Boxer, the campaign’s honorary chair, and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (campaign site).
  • Rep. Julia Brownley, and Sens. Henry Stern, Josh Becker and Susan Rubio (campaign site).
  • Assemblymembers Jesse Gabriel, Rick Chavez Zbur, Jacqui Irwin, Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and others (campaign site).
  • Former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and District Attorney Nathan Hochman (campaign site).
• Law enforcement and firefighters:
  • CAL FIRE Local 2881 and the Los Angeles Police Protective League (campaign site).
  • PORAC, the LA County Professional Peace Officers Association and the California Association of Highway Patrolmen (campaign site).
  • The California Police Chiefs Association and the Santa Monica Police Officers Association (campaign site).
• Other unions: IATSE Los Angeles locals, Teamsters Joint Council 42 and ILWU Locals 13, 63 and 94 (campaign site).
• Organizations: Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, the Legislative Jewish Caucus, Santa Monica Democratic Club, Blue Wave Democratic Club, San Fernando Valley Democratic Council and Heart of LA Democratic Club (campaign site). Hoodline reported the Santa Monica club vote as nearly 60% for Goldsmith after a debate (Hoodline).
• City of LA: Councilmember Traci Park (campaign site).
• Former rivals: primary candidates Ellen Evans, Mike Newhouse and Zennon Ulyate-Crow (campaign site).
• Other people: businessman Rick Caruso and journalist Katie Couric (Beverly Press).
• Newspapers: the Daily News and Daily Breeze editorial board (Daily News, Sept 26, 2026; Daily Breeze). The board called Erickson “a consistent vote for public employee union interests.” His page also lists the Beverly Press (campaign site).

Party. No California Democratic Party endorsement for either candidate was found.

Polls

No public polls of this race were found.

Money

Source: Form 460 and Form 497 reports of John Erickson for State Senate 2026 and Brian Goldsmith for State Senate 2026, from the Secretary of State’s Cal-Access campaign data, downloaded Sept 29, 2026.

• Goldsmith’s own contributions were $250,000 on Dec 30, 2025, $250,000 on Apr 17, 2026, and $500,000 each on May 14 and May 19, 2026. The loan was made May 27, 2026, and another $500,000 came on Sep 21, 2026. That brings his own money to $2.35 million (Cal-Access).
• Candidates may put unlimited money into their own campaigns. Other donors are limited to $5,900 per election, or $11,800 for the primary and general together (FPPC).
• In the primary, CalMatters reported that Erickson spent about $518,000 and Goldsmith nearly $2.5 million (CalMatters).

Who is giving

Method: every itemized contribution (money and in-kind) on the Form 460s from Jan 1, 2025 to Sep 19, 2026, plus later late-contribution reports. A donor is a normalized name plus ZIP code. “City of LA” means at least half the donor’s ZIP code area is inside the City (City list of ZIP codes). Goldsmith’s own money is shown separately. Source: itemized contributions to both committees (Erickson; Goldsmith), from the Cal-Access data export downloaded Sept 29, 2026.

Donor types come from each donor’s Cal-Access entity code and name. Union political committees whose names do not say “union” are counted as unions: for Erickson, the UAW Region 6 PAC ($5,900), the California Association of Professional Scientists PAC ($5,000), the Machinists’ political league ($4,250) and the LA County Lifeguard Association PAC ($2,500); for Goldsmith, the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association PAC ($3,000) (Erickson; Goldsmith).

John M. Erickson. Unions are his largest source.

• Largest donors. Eight gave $23,600 each, the most a small contributor committee may give for two elections: CFT, LA County Firefighters Local 1014, SEIU-UHW, the California Labor Federation, United Domestic Workers, the Carpenters’ PAC, CTA and AFSCME. The SEIU State Council gave $17,700 and SEIU 721 $17,600 (Cal-Access).
• Individuals and businesses. One individual shows $12,000 in six gifts. Four individuals gave $11,800 each. So did Athens Services, a waste hauler, and 8911 Santa Monica Boulevard LLC (Cal-Access).
• Industries. Lawyers and law firms gave $162,037 (87 donors), led by the Consumer Attorneys PAC ($11,800) and one law firm ($10,900). Real estate gave $82,333 (44 donors) (Cal-Access).
• Employers. The most common employer was the County of Los Angeles (14 donors). Five County employees gave $900 together on July 28-29, 2026 (Cal-Access).

Brian Goldsmith. Individuals gave almost all of the money that did not come from Goldsmith himself.

• Industries. Among his donors, 362 retired or not employed people gave $802,139 (26.7%). Entertainment and media gave $382,780 (12.8%), law $257,443 (8.6%), finance $236,280 (7.9%) and real estate $162,700 (5.4%) (Cal-Access).
• Employers. The most common were UCLA (10 donors), Creative Artists Agency (7), Gibson Dunn (5) and Kaiser Permanente (5) (Cal-Access).
• Organizations. CAL FIRE Local 2881’s PAC gave $12,500 (Cal-Access).

Outside spending

Independent expenditure reports (Form 496) filed with the Secretary of State since Jan 1, 2025, from the Cal-Access data export. The Daily News reported more than $8 million in outside spending in this race before the primary, counting all ten candidates (Daily News).

A newer committee, Educators and Nurses Say No to Brian Goldsmith for Senate 2026 (1495716), received $650,000 from Sept 15 to 24, 2026. It had reported no spending as of Sept 19.

Who funds them. Amounts are contributions reported from Jan 1, 2025 to the latest report.

• Californians in Support of Brian Goldsmith (Cal-Access) reported $2.05 million in contributions.
  • Largest donors: Russell Goldsmith of Forest Management Company ($815,000), Karen Mack Goldsmith ($495,000), Martha Karsh ($300,000), Nancy Marks ($150,000), Marilynn Mack ($150,000) and Nicholas Josefowitz of SPUR ($100,000).
  • Others: the Chamber of Commerce’s JobsPAC ($59,500 in kind), Arie Belldegrun of Bellco Capital ($50,000), Andrew Schwartzberg ($50,000), and two other individuals ($35,000 each).
• Grow California (Cal-Access) raised $20.04 million through June 30, 2026 and spends in many races. It got $15 million from Christian Larsen of Ripple and $5 million from Timothy Draper of Draper Associates. WeHo Times describes them as tech billionaire investors (WeHo Times).
• Keep California Golden (Cal-Access) raised $2.69 million.
  • Largest donors: the California Association of Realtors’ IE committee ($1.25 million), the Committee to Support the Alliance of California’s Farmers and Ranchers ($810,000), the California Building Industry Association’s IE committee ($410,000), Philip Morris USA ($50,000) and the New Car Dealers’ committee ($50,000).
  • One level down (Realtors’ IE committee; farmers’ committee; building industry committee): the Realtors’ committee was funded by the Realtors’ state and federal PACs ($4.02 million) and the National Association of Realtors Fund ($841,137). The farmers’ committee got $1.82 million from California Dairies, Inc. The building industry committee’s top donors were Lennar ($802,716), KB Home ($271,032) and Tri Pointe Homes ($160,800).
• Advance California (Cal-Access) is funded almost entirely by the California Apartment Association’s IE committee. The IE committee’s (Cal-Access) largest donors are large apartment owners, led by Essex Property Trust ($3.0 million), Equity Residential ($2.17 million) and AvalonBay ($1.96 million).
• Progressives for John Erickson (Cal-Access) raised $1.40 million.
  • Largest donors: the CTA IE committee ($300,000), the Consumer Attorneys PAC ($250,000), Smart Justice California Action Fund ($200,000), the California Nurses Association PAC ($175,000) and United Domestic Workers’ IE PAC ($155,000).
  • Also: a committee left from a 2024 Assembly race ($72,487), PACE ($55,000), CFT ($50,000), the Carpenters ($50,000), the California Professional Firefighters ($30,000) and California YIMBY ($25,000).
  • One level down (CTA IE committee; UDW IE PAC; Smart Justice California Action Fund; Consumer Attorneys PAC): the CTA and UDW committees report nearly all receipts as unitemized member dues. Smart Justice California Action Fund’s largest donors were Patty Quillin ($2.06 million), Elizabeth Simons ($966,500) and Quinn Delaney ($300,000). The Consumer Attorneys PAC is funded by plaintiffs’ law firms, led by Arias & Sanguinetti ($192,800) and Panish, Shea & Ravipudi ($175,000).
• Working Families for John Erickson (Cal-Access) reported $25,000, all from NUHW’s candidate committee.
• Educators and Nurses Say No to Brian Goldsmith (Cal-Access) got $200,000 each from PACE and Smart Justice California Action Fund, $100,000 from United Domestic Workers, and $75,000 each from CFT and the California Faculty Association’s committee.

Key moments

Debates and forums

No televised debate was found.