CA-40: Esther Kim-Varet (D) Leads Primary Contest in 800-Voter Poll

Lake Elsinore, CA — Democrat Esther Kim-Varet today announced that she leads all candidates, including the CA-40 race’s two Republican incumbents, heading into the upcoming June 2nd primary election for California’s 40th Congressional district. Kim-Varet also today announced that she raised more than $350,000 in the first quarter of 2026, bringing her campaign funding to date to a total of $2.75 million, cementing her position as the frontrunner for the only race in the nation poised to unseat not one but two Republicans from the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Kim-Varet campaign’s primary poll, conducted by Tulchin Research among 800 likely voters (twice the sample size of all other CA-40 polls to date) simulated the candidate ballot selections for informed voters across the political spectrum in the top-two primary for which candidates of all parties appear on the same ballot. The poll results project Kim-Varet and Calvert advancing to face off in the general election, well outside the poll’s 3.59% margin of error:

Esther Kim-Varet (D-challenger): 30%
Ken Calvert (R-incumbent): 29%
Young Kim (R-incumbent): 20%
Other Democrat & NPP candidates (combined): 12%
Undecided: 10%

Kim-Varet’s Q1 fundraising haul of more than $350,000 brings her cycle total to $2.75 million, all raised without a single dollar from corporate or foreign interest PACs. In Q1 alone Kim-Varet’s campaign received more than 12,300 donations from 9,034 individual donors, with an average donation size of $28.50 – her campaign received a new donation on average every 10 minutes during the quarter. Kim-Varet continues to hold an overwhelming financial advantage among CA-40 challenger candidates, with a cash-on-hand lead of nearly 15-to-1 over her nearest Democratic rival entering the quarter.




https://theliberaloc.com/2026/04/06/esther-kim-varet-leads-ca-40-primary-contest-in-800-voter-poll/