U.S. House of Representatives
Elections 2018 On March 2, 2017, Rouda announced his candidacy for U.S. Representative from , challenging the incumbent,
Dana Rohrabacher, shortly after changing his party registration from
no party preference to
Democratic. Rouda received the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee endorsement in May 2018. In the
nonpartisan blanket primary election, Rouda secured the second spot over Keirstead on the ballot by 125 votes (from a total of 174,024), thus allowing him to face Rohrabacher in the general election. On October 25,
Michael Bloomberg announced he would be supporting Rouda's campaign by donating $4 million to his PAC, Independence USA. That made Rouda's race against Rohrabacher the most expensive House race in the 2018 election cycle. On November 6, the election was too close to call, as Rouda held a narrow lead over Rohrabacher. As mail-in votes were counted, Rouda's lead expanded, and the
Associated Press called the race in his favor on November 10.
2020 Rouda ran for reelection and faced off against the Republican challenger,
Orange County supervisor Michelle Steel, during the general election on November 3, 2020. Steel ultimately defeated Rouda, garnering 51.1% of the vote to Rouda's 48.9%. Immediately after his loss, Rouda announced he would run against Steel again in
2022. Rouda missed federally mandated deadlines for reporting that his wife traded stocks while he was in office. The missed reporting appeared to violate the
STOCK Act, which is designed to combat insider trading.
2022 After conceding the election, Rouda had announced that he would challenge Steel in 2022. Steel chose to run in the new
45th district. After initially announcing his intent to challenge Porter, Rouda dropped out of the race in January 2022. Rouda formed a
political action committee, Join Together PAC, to support the election of moderate Democrats, such as
Katrina Foley of the
Orange County Board of Supervisors.
2024 After incumbent representative
Katie Porter announced that she would not be running reelection to the House in the 47th district, instead opting to run in the
2024 United States Senate election in California, Rouda announced that he would run for the seat in the 2024 elections. However, on April 11, 2023, Rouda announced his withdrawal from the race, citing a
traumatic brain injury he received following a fall.
Committee assignments •
Committee on Oversight and Reform •
Subcommittee on Environment (Chair) •
Subcommittee on National Security •
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure •
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit •
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment Caucus memberships •
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus •
New Democrat Coalition == Electoral history ==