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Redwood City voters will weigh in on one state office and two House seats in the upcoming November election. Following the June primary, a Democratic and a Republican candidate in each race have advanced to face off in the Nov. 3 general election.
California Assembly District 21
For California Assembly District 21, Democratic incumbent Diane Papan will run against Republican Jabra J. Muhawieh to represent most of San Mateo County at the state level.
Papan has been serving the Assembly since 2022. Since then she’s co-authored a health care coverage bill to improve the accuracy of online and printed provider directories, and a bill to prohibit minors from marrying, according to Papan’s campaign website. Her priorities include wildfire prevention, reproductive rights, affordable housing and making schools safer. Papan was born in Millbrae and is a former deputy mayor of San Mateo.
Muhawieh is a licensed tax professional based in San Francisco. He heads a tax preparation firm and helps run his family’s grocery and liquor business, he said on his campaign webpage. Muhawieh is interested in affordable housing that does not force high-density projects in single-family neighborhoods, better government budget transparency and the ability for families to pass inherited homes to the next generation.
California Congressional District 16
Redwood City residents will also vote in California’s 16th Congressional District, which includes much of San Mateo County. The incumbent, Democrat Sam Liccardo, will vie against Republican Peter Soule on the ballot.
Liccardo has represented CA-16 in Congress since January 2025 and served as mayor of San Jose from 2015–2022. He is a lawyer by training and graduated from Georgetown University and Harvard Law School. He’s interested in housing supply and affordability, reducing health-care costs and bipartisan legislation, according to his campaign.
Soule’s campaign webpage states that he is an investor in San Jose, who also worked in his family steel business in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He also managed commercial properties across 10 acres in San Francisco and has experience in accounting and finance. Soule wants to reduce government regulations and spending, oppose local policies limiting Second Amendment rights and represent the interests of farmers.
California Congressional District 15
Democratic incumbent Kevin Mullin will run against Republican Charles Hoelter in November to represent California Congressional District 15, which includes Redwood City and other parts of San Mateo County.
Mullin, according to his biography on the U.S. House of Representatives website, was born in San Mateo County and won the seat in 2022. Before his tenure in Congress, he represented San Mateo County in the California State Assembly from 2012 to 2022, serving as the speaker pro tem from 2014 until his departure.
Mullin signed over 60 bills into law, many of which focused on elections and democracy reform, including All-Vote-By-Mail, his campaign page states. He said he’s committed to bipartisan cooperation and also is passionate about climate resiliency. He supported the $3.7 billion sustainability project that helped fund Caltrain’s electrification and the creation of San Mateo County’s OneShoreline sea level rise program.
Hoelter’s campaign website states he is a retired UPS supervisor who has lived in San Mateo County for over three decades. His top three objectives are to keep “men out of women(‘s) sports,” impose term limits on politicians, require voter ID at elections and “clean-up” voter rolls for all states. Hoelter would like to create apprenticeship programs in high schools in all states and is committed to secure borders, economic opportunity for every citizen and his faith.
