New Polling: Sam Liccardo Leads Evan Low by Wide Margin
Liccardo Leads General Election Opponent By +12%
SAN JOSE, CA — Today, a new poll released by Lake Research Partners among likely November 2024 general election voters in California’s 16th Congressional District shows former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo with a wide +12% lead in the two-candidate race to replace the retiring Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. Liccardo won a commanding first place victory in the 11 candidate March 5th, 2024 Primary, and reported over $1 million dollars raised in the first quarter fundraising report on March 31st.
Liccardo leads Low by +10% with 36% of the vote, followed by Low with 26%, in the initial ballot ask where only party registration and ballot designations are given. Liccardo is also the better known candidate, with 67% of likely general election voters familiar with him, compared to 56% for Low.
Liccardo increases his lead over Low to +12%, with 42% supporting Liccardo and Low 30%, after additional balanced positive information on each candidate
“Voters agreed–in both the primary election and in this poll– that Sam’s focused leadership is badly needed in Washington today,” said Campaign Spokesperson Gil Rubinstein. “This campaign has always focused on the issues that matter most to our residents—such as homelessness, the high cost of living, climate change, public safety, and protecting reproductive rights.”
This announcement comes on the heels of endorsements from local and national leaders, including California State Controller Malia Cohen, U.S. Representatives Nanette Barragan, Tony Cárdenas, Lou Correa, Robert Garcia, Linda Sanchez, and Scott Peters. A full endorsement list can be seen here.
The poll was conducted from April 5-8, 2024, and surveyed 400 voters.
About Sam Liccardo
Sam Liccardo is running for Congress to focus Washington on the big issues like homelessness, crime, and the punishing cost of living. To a Congress that has been called the least productive in decades, Liccardo says “Let’s Get it Done!” on the problems that matter most to the Peninsula, Silicon Valley, and the Coastside.
As Mayor of San José, the Bay Area’s largest city, Liccardo’s innovative efforts to confront homelessness include pioneering the conversion of motels to housing in 2016, four years prior to California adopting it as a statewide model. He piloted the development of quick-build prefabricated housing communities that were constructed at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional apartments, helping thousands come off the streets. Liccardo also launched a successful program that employs unhoused residents cleaning the city in exchange for housing and pay (“San José Bridge”). Though San José long struggled with growing homelessness, it became one of the very few California cities to reduce street homelessness in Liccardo’s final year in office, 2022.
Under Liccardo, San José resolved chronic deficits, reduced city debt, and improved its credit rating, particularly through a 2016 ballot measure that saved taxpayers $3 billion over three decades. He took on the gun lobby and crafted a first-in-the-nation requirement for gun owners to pay annual fees to support violence-prevention programs and to purchase liability insurance. He launched San José Clean Energy for the city’s one million residents which now procures 95% of its electricity from renewable and GHG-free sources. Liccardo also led a series of successful ballot measures to preserve open space and hillsides, rebuild city streets and other infrastructure, and provide hundreds of millions in funding for housing affordable to vital workers such as teachers, nurses, firefighters, and police officers. Liccardo led efforts to expand BART and was part of the regional coalition that supported the successful efforts to electrify Caltrain.
Prior to his service in elected office, Liccardo prosecuted felony crimes of sexual assault and child exploitation in the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, and also served as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of California. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Georgetown University. His published works have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other national publications. He and his wife, Jessica García-Kohl, live in San José.
About California’s 16th Congressional District
California’s 16th is an open Congressional District that covers parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, home to Silicon Valley. The district covers all or part of the cities of Menlo Park, Los Altos, Woodside, Pacifica, Half Moon Bay, Atherton, Pescadero, Portola Valley, Campbell, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Saratoga and Stanford.