Your guide to the California Congressional District 47 race: Min vs. Le Roux

Democratic incumbent Dave Min is facing off with former gubernatorial candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux as he battles to keep the seat representing California’s 47th Congressional District.

The seat, which Min has held since last year, was for decades in a Republican stronghold that in recent years became a swing district in coastal Orange County. It became far less competitive for Republicans after redistricting.

The district includes Irvine, Tustin, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods and a portion of Newport Beach and Mission Viejo.

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Voter guide to the 2026 California general election

California’s general election takes place on Novemer 3. Learn about L.A.’s city and county races as well races for state office.

Oct. 1, 2026

• Dave Min: Democrat incumbent, former UC Irvine law professor

Min was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024 after a stint in the state Senate. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission as an enforcement attorney.

• Jenny Rae Le Roux: Republican, executive director of Cal DOGE and entrepreneur

Le Roux entered the political scene in California as a candidate for governor during the unsuccessful 2021 attempt to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. She earned a degree in economics from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia Business School and helped build companies in energy and financial services.

Cal DOGE, for whom Le Roux is executive director, was launched last year by gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton and modeled as a California version of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to expose waste and fraud.

Fundraising data will be updated regularly until the election.

Min says the first step to achieving better affordability is to reverse President Trump’s “reckless and frequently illegal policies that have so dramatically driven up prices.” This includes ending Trump’s tariffs to lower the cost of goods, ending the war in Iran to lower energy prices and restoring Medicaid cuts that were part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Min said.

Min supports restoring the Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired last year, which experts say caused a sharp increase in monthly marketplace insurance premiums. He also vowed to fight back against cuts to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid.

Le Roux agrees that affordability is a challenge for many Orange County residents but sees a different root cause of the problem.

“California policies and inflationary spending in Washington, D.C., have made Orange County one of the most expensive places to live in America,” she told The Times.

She would work to rein in federal spending, which she said has resulted in inflation that has driven up the cost of groceries and gas. She added that she will demand full transparency on every federal program that affects cost of living to help root out fraud.

“I will also fight to reduce the tax burden on small businesses so they can invest in raising wages for the working families they employ,” she said.

Min said Trump’s attacks on voting by mail and his attempts to get the U.S. Postal Service to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots, combined with his attempts in 2020 to overturn the election, “should worry every American who cares about our country, our Constitution, and the values of our nation.”

Min added that all of this has happened despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

In 2024, Min authored a bill which passed that prohibits local governments from forcing voters to present identification before they cast a ballot at a polling place.

“I will continue to do all I can to stand up against these anti-democratic and un-American attacks on the sanctity of our elections,” Min said.

Le Roux told The Times she supports the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility or SAVE America Act, which would require voters to provide documents proving their citizenship at the time of registration and a photo ID at the time they vote.

In California, people are required to provide a driver’s license number or a portion of their social security number when they register to vote.

“Millions of ballots are mailed out in California with very few safeguards and at significant cost, leading to weeks of uncertainty as the rest of the country laughs and mocks us for our incompetence,” she said.

Le Roux also supports Proposition 39, which will appear on the November ballot in California, and would require voters to show government issued identification at the polls. Voters who submit mail-in ballots would need to provide the last four digits of a government ID to vote.