Scrutinel— 2026 midterms

UpdatedAug 24, 2026, 7:02 PM UTC
To election day71 days
Simulations200,000

California 48th District

Currently held by a Democrat · open seat · district redrawn for 2026

Democrat
Marni von Wilpert
76%
Republican
Jim Desmond
24%
ForecastLean D
Projected margin
D+8.2
80% range
R+6.9 to D+23.3
Partisan lean
D+4.8
Tipping-point chance
0.90%
Uncertainty multiplier
2.01×

The 80% range comes from 200,000 simulations in which this race’s error is correlated with every other race through the national, state and demographic layers.

How the estimate is built
Fundamentals 100.0%
Polling average
no polls
Fundamentals
D+8.8
Blended
D+8.8
Similar-race shift
−0.9
Polling

No public polling of this matchup. The forecast rests on fundamentals plus the polling residuals of demographically and politically similar races — which is the normal case: most of the 435 House seats are never polled.

Fundamentals
Partisan lean
D+4.8
Elasticity
0.97
Incumbency
0.0
Candidate experience
0.0
Fundraising
−0.4
National environment
D+5.4
Expected margin
D+9.6

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