Between October 8th and October 12th, 2026, the Center for Strategic Politics conducted an English and Spanish language survey of 416 likely voters in California’s 34th Congressional District using SMS to collect web responses. Where applicable, answer orders were shuffled when presented to respondents. Respondents outside the sampled population were screened by voter file match and self-identification. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, race, gender, education, and primary vote recall. The margin of error is ±4.80%. This survey was commissioned by Angela for CA-34.
With three weeks until election day and early voting already underway, Angela Gonzales-Torres leads Jimmy Gomez in the race to win California’s 34th Congressional District. But with both candidates under 50%, and 14% of voters still undecided, this race is by no means over. New polling from the Center for Strategic Politics takes an in-depth look at the state of the election in CA-34 and what voters in the district are thinking on key issues.
Key Takeaways
Head-to-head
Before voters hear anything about either candidate, Angela Gonzales-Torres already leads Jimmy Gomez by 10 points.
After voters hear balanced positive and negative biographies of both candidates, Gonzales-Torres’ lead increases to 22%.
Favorability
While Jimmy Gomez and Angela Gonzales-Torres have similar levels of positive favorability, Gomez’s significantly higher negative ratings suggest that voters’ opinions of him are more entrenched. Angela Gonzales-Torres has the opportunity to use the next three weeks to define herself to the 29% of voters who don’t know enough about her to have an opinion.
AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), an organization that’s spent $2.6 million supporting Jimmy Gomez throughout his career, has incredibly low net favorability. AIPAC’s unpopularity is only outdone by that of the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency industries.
Issues
61% of voters say that the issue of Israel/Palestine will be extremely or very important in deciding their vote, while only 17% say it will be not at all or not too important.
Among that 61%, 80% say they want to fully cease military aid to Israel, while 65% of all voters want to cease military aid.
The full poll, including crosstabs, is available here.
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