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May 15th Len’s Political Note #726 George Whitesides California 27
2026 General Election
George Whitesides
Our goal is to flip the House in 2026. I made a list of the closest 2024 Congressional races with Democratic winners. The first part of achieving our goal is to defend the most vulnerable Democrats.
I have already written about the six incumbent Democrats who won by the very smallest margin. You will find them below. They will have tough races again in 2026. Candidates these days are beginning their races earlier and earlier. To win, they have to begin races early.
I ask you to donate early; earlier than you have in other years. If we are going to flip the House from Republican to Democrat, we cannot wait until September, 2026 to start campaigning.
I continue with the next five closest. Each by less than 10,000 votes. George Whitesides won by 7,990 votes. That was a 2.6% margin. Not a lot.
It is possible that the 2026 race will be easier for George Whitesides. No Republicans have announced yet. None seem to be on the horizon. Furthermore, George Whitesides is raising money. In the first quarter of the campaign, the three months ending March 31, 2025, he raised about $750,000. He spent more than $200,000. Taking into account funds he already had, he finished the quarter with more than $850,000, a healthy amount this early in the campaign. To win his election in 2024, he raised nearly $10.5 million dollars — $4 million more than the incumbent he ousted.
In writing about George Whitesides, I begin with a few words about his family. His great grandfather, James Henry Breasted, an Egyptologist, created the Oriental Institute at The University of Chicago. Barbara Breasted Whitesides, his grandmother, taught at Wellesley College, specializing in Arabic. George Whitesides’ father shares that name. His father taught at MIT, then at Harvard and is one of most prolific and most cited chemists in the world.
The younger George Whitesides graduated from the local Newton North High School and went to Princeton. He later studied at King’s College in Cambridge and studied in Tunisia on a Fulbright.
Space exploration and manned flight were George Whitesides’ special interest. He became Executive Director of the National Space Society in 2004, co-founded with his wife, Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides, an annual celebration of Yuri Gagarin’s first human space flight, and became an advisor to Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactica. In 2008, he worked on the Barack Obama campaign and subsequently became Chief of Staff for NASA.
He left the government in 2010 to become the first CEO of Virgin Galactica where he remained until 2021. He and his wife settled in California where he led the expansion of Virgin Galactica and was active in community affairs ranging from job expansion through the local Economic Development group to supporting the efforts of underprivileged children in the Antelope Valley High school district.
I do not know whether George Whitesides had a role in Barack Obama’s decision to change NASA’s role and have NASA award contracts to private companies for space flight. That privatization led us to Elon Musk’s Space X, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, and Boeing’s Starliner. It is not absolutely clear to me that bringing these corporations and individuals into a national effort has represented progress. It has, however, restored our national ambition for manned space flight and increased the pace for achieving the goal.
After Representative Katie Hills resignation because embarrassing sexual activities became public, Republican Mike Garcia won narrow victories in California 25, now California 27. Those victories him a target for Democrats, among them George Whitesides. His 2024 Congressional victory in this district north of Los Angeles and northeast of Simi Valley was a Democratic bright spot.
George Whitesides joined the centrist New Democratic coalition and was, unsurprisingly, named to the Science, Space, and Technology Committee where he is, as a freshman, the vice ranking member. He is also serving on the Armed Forces Committee with assignments on three technology and strategic oriented subcommittees.
His top four campaign policy issues are:
- Expand local jobs – With the judicious use of accelerator programs, new small businesses can be created and expanding, minimizing the need for people living in the district to commute to Los Angeles.
- Lower Inflation & cost of living – An all of the above energy plan will reduce costs and restoration or substantially raising the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction will have a real impact on people in the district.
- Defend reproductive freedom – He defeated the incumbent Mike Garcia who supported a national abortion ban and would, instead, codify Roe v Wade.
- End Congressional stock trading – People in business are not allowed to trade on inside information. Members of Congress have inside information about many businesses and should be prohibited from all stock trades.
Characteristic of legislative successes that he touts on this Congressional office website is a bill that passed the House he introduced along with a Republican Congressman to improve collaboration between NASA and the Department of Energy. I looked for any scandals that Republicans could point at. I found that, in 2024, Republicans advertised against George Whitesides claiming he supported pedophiles. The advertisements complained that he had not opposed pro-pedophile laws. One such law might be a life-time requirement for an ankle bracelet for anyone convicted of a sex crime.
George Whitesides is a progressive legislator with a business orientation. DONATE now to his campaign. Discouraging opposition is an efficient expenditure of money. It could make further donations unnecessary.
Other Congressional candidates with narrow wins reported on so far:
California 13 Former Assemblyman Adam Gray flipped this seat with a 187 vote win. DONATE. His likely Republican opponent is Javier Lopez, mayor of the small city of Ceres. So far, though, Adam Gray has raised $400,000 and Lopez has not yet announced. See Len’s Political Note #716
California 45 Attorney Derek Tran flipped this seat with a 653 votes win. DONATE. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be, though some are urging Michelle Steel to run to get her seat back. She closed the first quarter with nearly a million dollars on hand, double what Derek Tran had. See Len’s Political Note #717
Maine 02 Incumbent Jared Golden retained his seat with a 2,706 win. Former Governor Paul LePage, a kind of pre-Trump figure has announced his candidacy. LePage does not have first quarter fund raising to report while Jared Golden reported about $450,000 available on March 31. DONATE. Keep him in the lead. See Len’s Political Note #719
Ohio 09 Incumbent Marcy Kaptur retained her seat with a 2,832 vote win. We do not yet know who her Republican opponent will be, though some think her 2024 opponent Derek Merrin will run again. Marcy Kaptur raised a modest $250,000+ in the first quarter, but does have $600,000 available to begin the campaign. DONATE to Marcy Kaptur. See Len’s Political Note #718
Texas 34 Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez retained his seat with a 5,237 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be. Vicente Gonzalez is getting himself ready. He has more than $500,000 cash available. Help him stay ahead. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #720
North Carolina 01 Incumbent Don Davis retained his seat with a 6,307 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be though mulit-millionaire Sandy Roberson is a possibility. Don Davis had a little more than $500,000 available on March 31. DONATE.
GIVE OF YOURSELF AS WELL.
Join peaceful demonstrations. I hope you found a place to march on May 1. Create your own demonstration. Be prepared to demonstrate on Flag Day, June 14th. Do you pay into or collect social security? Consider organizing a demonstration in front of your local social security office (if there still is one). Tell them you want social security to remain as crucial to your life as it is now. Call your Senators and Congress Members. Remind them that social security is a necessity.
