California CA-48 House2018
RACE AT A GLANCE
RACE TYPE
Incumbent running
Dana Rohrabacher (R)
COOK PARTISAN VOTING INDEX
Last updated : Apr 3, 2018Key Dates
Filing Deadline: TBD
Primary Election: TBD
INCUMBENT
Sign in to view
First Elected: Sign in to view
Last General Election: Sign in to view
Last Primary Election: Sign in to view
INCUMBENT
Full Bio:
ROHRABACHER, Dana, a Representative from California; born in Coronado, San Diego
County, Calif., June 21, 1947; graduated from Palos Verdes High School, Palos
Verdes Estates, Calif., 1965; attended Los Angeles Harbor College, Los Angeles,
Calif., 1965-1967; B.A., California State University, Long Beach, Calif., 1969;
M.A., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., 1971; journalist;
assistant press secretary to the Ronald Reagan presidential campaigns of 1976
and 1980; speechwriter and special assistant to President Ronald Reagan,
1981-1988; elected as a Republican to the One Hundred First and to the fourteen
succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1989-present).
Source: Bioguide
CANDIDATES
Democrats
Sign in to view
DISTRICT DATA
California - 48
Inland San Diego County, Temecula, Palm Springs
Population Breakdown
Source: American Community Survey 2015
Past Presidential Results from this District
2016 Election Results
Source: Dave's Redistricting/VEST
2012 Election Results
Source:
RACE ANALYSIS
The Bottom Line
Updated: Aug 24, 2018
After 30 iconoclastic years in the House, Rohrabacher appears to be doing his best to sabotage his own reelection. The surfing, pro-marijuana Republican's reputation as "Vladimir Putin's favorite Congressman" has Democratic voters energized in a coastal seat Hillary Clinton won 48 percent to 46 percent. And, Democrats got the nominee they wanted in real estate businessman Harley Rouda.
In the June top-two primary, Rohrabacher finished first with a paltry 30 percent. Rouda advanced with 17 percent, barely edging out stem cell researcher Hans Keirstead by 125 votes. More conventional GOP attorney Scott Baugh came in fourth place with 16 percent. Days before the primary, the DCCC endorsed Rouda amid questions about whether Keirstead once struck a female student at his UC-Irvine lab.
Rohrabacher, the chair of the Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia, once arm-wrestled Putin in a DC dive bar in the early 1990s and has expressed sympathy for both Putin and Julian Assange. An ardent Trump backer, Rohrabacher has sought to weaken the Magnitsky Act, designed as a warning to Russia. Even so, his vote for the GOP healthcare bill may be an even greater liability (he voted against the tax bill).
Rouda is a scion of a wealthy Columbus, Ohio, real estate empire and has already loaned his campaign $1.6 million out of the $3.1 million he's raised total. Meanwhile, Rohrabacher has raised just $1.8 million and won't have independent expenditure support from the National Association of Realtors as he's had in the past. This is already a nasty, expensive race and Rohrabacher may be the slight underdog.
Race Analysis
Updated: Jul 28, 2026
RELATED CHARTS
Subscribe Today
Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.