When U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo announced last fall that she would be retiring after more than three decades in the House of Representatives, nearly a dozen hopefuls jumped at the rare opportunity to run for an open Bay Area congressional seat.
By the end of the year, 11 candidates had raised more than $4 million in their bids to represent District 16, which encompasses parts of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and runs from Pacifica in the north to San Jose and Los Gatos in the south. Topping the fundraising list are former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, State Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino), tech entrepreneur and veteran Peter Dixon, Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian and Palo Alto City Councilmember Julie Lythcott-Haims.
Liccardo, 53, a former criminal prosecutor who served 16 years on the San Jose City Council — eight as a councilmember and eight as mayor before he termed out in 2022 — wants to take on local issues such as homelessness, housing and the high cost of living with a federal approach. When he served as mayor, Liccardo said, he would broach these problems with congressmembers, who told him they belonged in the local arena.
“Of course local governments and state government have a role in all this, but what’s remarkable about many of these issues is that there are local problems everywhere in the country,” he said. “We have 44 cities in this country with an unhoused population of at least 1,000 people, and the homeless population increased last year 12% nationally. This is absolutely a national issue, and it requires a federal response, and we need a federal partner to confront it.”
During his time as mayor, Liccardo championed quick-build transitional housing for homeless residents, an initiative that some say reduced San Jose’s homeless population by 4.7 percent from 2022 and 2023. If elected to Congress, Liccardo said that he would increase the number of housing vouchers and make them more flexible and create a rental assistance program to prevent people from falling into homelessness.
Low, 40, got involved in politics early and was elected to the Campbell City Council in 2006 at 23 years old. Three years later, he became the mayor of Campbell, which made him the youngest Asian American mayor and youngest openly gay mayor in the country at the time. In 2014, he was elected to the State Assembly where he now serves as the chair of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus.
Low said he wants to focus on bridging the division in Congress and the importance of “partnership over partisanship” when tackling key issues, such as the high cost of living in the Bay Area. As a congressmember, he said he’ll fight for federal dollars for housing and collaborate with those at the local and state levels to lower housing costs.
From blockchain technology to artificial intelligence and machine learning, Low wants to ensure that Congress properly oversees the emerging industries. “By the time government typically tackles the regulatory framework around these things, the technology has already advanced beyond the regulatory framework,” he said. “It’s a continuum, and we have to get this right.
Simitian, 71, one of the first to jump into the race, recently scooped up the coveted endorsement of Eshoo herself. He’s served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors since 2012, representing the northern and western parts of the county. Before that, he served in the state legislature and on the Palo Alto City Council. Over the course of his political career, he’s represented 14 of the 15 cities in District 16’s boundaries.
Simitian said that he has the “proven ability to be effective from day one,” boasting accomplishments such as helping close the Lehigh quarry and cement plant in Cupertino, expanding county health clinics and access to mental health services for youth, and authoring a local privacy rights law that required law enforcement agencies to justify their use of surveillance technology.
Simitian also wants to tackle climate change in a “real and tangible” way and lower prescription drug costs.
Two newer names on the political scene rounding out the pack of front-runners are Dixon and Lythcott-Haims.
Dixon, 41, joined the Marines Corps shortly after 9/11 and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He later served in Hillary Clinton’s State Department where he worked to combat cartel violence in Mexico. Dixon is also the co-founder and former CEO of the cybersecurity company Second Front System.
While he may not have held elected office before, Dixon said that he has been a “lifelong public servant” and decided to run because he feels like “Democracy is on the line.” His talents, he said, lie in “streamlining bureaucracy” — which he did when he worked in the Pentagon.
If elected, his goal is to snag a spot on the House Armed Services Committee where he can help save the country money.
Dixon also wants to advocate for universal background checks to help combat gun violence, address the cost of living and climate change, and protect reproductive rights.
Lythcott-Haims, 56, a Palo Alto City Councilmember who was elected in 2022, is the only woman in the race. She’s the former dean of freshmen at Stanford University as well as a New York Times best-selling author.
Lythcott-Haims calls herself an “advocate for youth” and wants to “bring a different approach to solving these systemic problems” facing the nation.
Lythcott-Haims’ top priority is reproductive rights and ensuring that Congress codifies the right to abortion. She’s also focused on taking immediate action on climate change, creating clean energy jobs and halting the burning fossil fuels, and enacting gun safety laws by passing an assault weapons ban and universal background checks.
The remaining Democrats in the race include former Saratoga City Councilmember Rishi Kumar, who has challenged Eshoo for the seat several times, Palo Alto City Councilmember Greg Tanaka, investor and Stanford graduate student Joby Bernstein, and attorney Ahmed Mostafa. Two Republicans are also running: former Menlo Park Mayor Peter Ohtaki and businessman Karl Ryan.