There’s a four-way race for the congressional seat representing Santa Barbara County, and voters will soon decide which two candidates will face off in the general election this November. 

Running for California’s 24th district seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is incumbent Salud Carbajal, a Santa Barbara Democrat; Bob Smith, a defense systems engineer in Carpinteria; Sarah Bacon, an elected student officer at UC Santa Barbara; and Helena Pasquarella, an Ojai Valley teacher and caregiver.

Salud Carbajal Seeks Sixth Term

Carbajal is seeking his sixth term after first being elected to Congress in 2016. He wants to continue working on affordability, defending the environment, and stopping the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. 

“I’m looking forward to November, because if Democrats take back the House and possibly even the Senate, we will have an opportunity to provide oversight on many of the illegal actions that this administration has acted on,” Carbajal told Noozhawk. “I want to continue to do oversight. I want to continue to pass good policies that uplift economic opportunities and address the cost of living for our constituents.”

Carbajal is a former Santa Barbara County supervisor and U.S. Marine Corps Reserve veteran. He currently serves on the House Committee on Armed Services, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the House Committee on Agriculture. 

Some accomplishments Carbajal said he’s proud of include being part of the Inflation Reduction Act that designated over a trillion dollars to promote renewable energy and create jobs; helping to write the bipartisan law that funded Central Coast infrastructure development; and passing the Child Care Availability and Affordability Act, which was designed to help lower the cost of child care.

If re-elected, Carbajal said he hopes to continue working on child care legislation, move forward on legislation that addresses affordability relating to the cost of groceries, housing, and health care, and reform the immigration system.

“I think I have a proven track record where I have been effective, and I moved forward legislation and policies that have improved the lives of Central Coast residents as well as citizens throughout the rest of the country,” Carbajal said. “I want to be able to continue building on that track record, to continue to uplift Central Coast families to have economic opportunities, jobs, to make sure that the cost of living continues to be addressed.”

Bob Smith Brings Military Experience to Race

As the only Republican candidate vying for the congressional seat, Smith said he’s no stranger to bipartisanship and working across the aisle.

After working for 28 years in the U.S. Navy, the Carpinterian said his focus is mission accomplishment.

“In the military, everything is about mission accomplishment,” Smith said. “And it doesn’t matter where anyone comes from, it doesn’t matter their background, it doesn’t matter which political party they’re in. All that matters is that we have an issue, we have to solve it, we have to meet the mission, and how do we do that in the best way possible.”

He even works across the aisle in his own marriage, as his wife, Adriana Gonzalez-Smith, is a Democrat. 

It was Gonzalez-Smith’s failed run for Carpinteria City Council in 2024 that inspired Smith to seek office. 

Gonzalez-Smith ran against Natalia Alarcon, who was the incumbent, for Carpinteria’s second district seat. Alarcon is now the city’s mayor.

“It was almost like ‘hey, seat’s taken,’ and I just didn’t like that,” Smith said. “I think it was kind of anti democracy. I think that you should have people step up when they’re ready to serve the community, have their voices heard, and have a fair shot to the public to actually vote for people.”

From there Smith decided he could use his experience in the federal government to make an impact.

Smith grew up in Philadelphia and worked as a defense systems engineer in the Navy, eventually making his way to admiral, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

After coming back from deployment in 2010, Smith got his masters degree and worked with the Department of Defense, now called the Department of War, to develop new technology like radar, ships or missiles for new threats. 

If elected, Smith said he wants to focus on improving affordability by deregulating the housing process and bringing down energy costs.

He also wants to address education by bringing in federal research dollars to UC Santa Barbara so the institution can partner with local school districts on STEM education, labs and internships, making a pathway for students to enter jobs at local companies.

“I think that that’s what we need to create a healthy ecosystem,” Smith said. “And I can really do that from the federal side by targeting resources right into our universities.”

Sarah Bacon Shares Leadership Experience

Bacon is looking to bring her experience from the tech industry and graduate student leadership to Congress to focus on advancing progressive policies, anti-corruption, and democratic reform by creating improved healthcare policies, transportation, and housing.

Born in Ojai, Bacon is a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara studying English and economics. She’s the vice president of external affairs for the UCSB Graduate Student Association where she works with other graduate students in the UC Graduate and Professional Council to advocate for issues like immigration protections, healthcare, and other student priorities.

Within the UC Graduate and Professional Council, Bacon is the chair of the compliance and governance committee.

“In addition to advocacy, I’ve always been attracted to structural issues that most people find super boring or pedantic or tenuous or, honestly, intractable because they’re difficult to understand,” Bacon said. 

Before going back to school, Bacon worked in the tech industry for 20 years where she eventually became the vice president of a software company. 

“​​I ultimately became quite disillusioned with the tech industry and with using my labor and time and effort to ultimately help make a small number of people super wealthy,” Bacon said. “And I decided that I wanted to do something else with my time and effort that would help regular people in a more substantive way.”

Bacon said she never wanted to be a politician but decided to run as she became frustrated with Democrats in Congress not getting enough done. 

“I understand that there are institutional constraints on what they can do,” Bacon said. “However, I’m a person who finds the gaps and works them, and I’ve felt that they’ve gone far too slow, and I feel like our local representative has gone too slow as well, and been too quiet and been too permissive.”

Helena Pasquarella Runs on Anti-war Movement

Pasquarella is a former photojournalist, teacher, and a caregiver who’s running under the Peace and Freedom Party. 

The Ojai resident is running to address the war in Iran, homelessness, abolish Immigration Customs and Enforcement and shut down detention centers. 

“Immigration is a really important issue because of all what is being done,” Pasquarella said. “We need to deal with that so that this can’t happen anymore.”

Pasquarella unsuccessfully ran for the Congressional seat against Carbajal and Thomas Cole in 2024. She earned about 9% of votes in the primary election. 

She first decided to run against Carbajal at a town hall event three and half years ago when she asked what he would do to cut back on military expenses and he told her that he wanted to keep funding the military and keep it strong. 

“In that moment, in my mind, I said, ‘You know what? No, you’re not. I’m going to run against you,’” Pasquarella told Noozhawk.

She was motivated to run again this year after President Donald Trump was reelected and immigration arrests increased across the country. 

“What’s happening to our country is what Brazil used to be like in the ’70s, Argentina used to be like in the ’70s,” Pasquarella said. “So to see that happening here, I just couldn’t believe it. I think so many of us cannot believe this.”

Pasquarella is also a director with an Ojai organization called the US Department of Peace and is a member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) because she’s a caregiver to her mother with Alzheimer’s.  

The primary election will be held June 2. The two candidates with the most votes will face off in the general election on Nov. 3.