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Candidates › CA-04 race › 2025–2026
Eric Jones
D Democratic nominee for U.S. House, CA-04
Has not served in Congress
- On the ballot
- On the general election ballotNov 3, 2026 · California US House 4
- Where to vote
- Find your polling place (opens in a new tab) · More ways to vote
- Top priorities
- Fight Corruption.
- Lower Cost of Living.
- Protect Our Future.
- Money
- $18.1M raised, $16.5M spent, $1.5M cash on hand (through Oct 14, 2026). Where it comes from
- Who gives
- 0.4% of individual money from donors at $200 or less · 91% from California
- Outside groups
- $1.2M supporting, $3M opposing Jones
- Backed by
- Ray Riehle. As the campaign lists them
3 priorities from ericjones.us, in the order they are listed there. Every heading and the text under it is copied exactly, as one passage for each page it is from, and links to that place on the page; hover a source to see which passage it opens.
For too long, Washington has worked for corporations and career politicians instead of the people. Money from corporations and special interests floods elections, lobbyists write policy behind closed doors, and billion-dollar companies exploit loopholes to skip their taxes — while families pay the price in higher costs, unsafe infrastructure, and broken trust.
Eric believes corruption is the root of the affordability crisis. You can't lower costs until you change who government answers to. This isn't a left or right issue — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are all getting squeezed by the same insiders. Eric is running against them.
THE PROBLEM: A System Rigged for the Powerful
Today, powerful corporations use campaign cash, lobbying, and loopholes to tilt the system in their favor:
- Utility monopolies like PG&E raise rates while dodging accountability for safety failures.
- Big Pharma price-gouges families and blocks the reforms that would lower costs.
- The largest corporations pay little or nothing while working families pay their full share.
- Politicians take corporate cash, trade stocks on inside information, and then say nothing can change.
The result is a system where families work harder every year — and still fall behind.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/fight-corruption
Eric will not take money from corporations, special interests, or lobbyists — and he will fight to ban it altogether. Elected officials should answer to voters, not corporate donors with armies of lobbyists. Ending corruption means changing how Washington works. Eric supports:
- Strengthen ethics rules so elected officials can’t use public office for personal gain
- Ban all money from corporations, special interests, and lobbyists — Eric takes none, and will fight to ban it in our politics
- Ban members of Congress from trading stocks while in office
- Overturn Citizens United and get corporate and special-interest money out of elections
- Ban lobbyist money and close the revolving door — a two-year ban on direct lobbying, five years on behind-the-scenes influence
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/fight-corruption
- 12-year term limits for everyone — public service shouldn't be a 28-year career
- Corporate welfare gets an expiration date — every corporate subsidy, every tax carve-out, and every major federal contract gets a fixed expiration date and has to prove it still works before it is renewed
- Strengthen ethics rules so no official can use public office for private gain
- Real-time disclosure of financial conflicts of interest
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/fight-corruption
Politicians shouldn't pick their own voters.
- Independent redistricting commissions in every state — California included, because the maps should be drawn by citizens, not by either party protecting itself
- Ban mid-decade redistricting everywhere — neither California nor Texas should have been allowed to change their maps and steal representation for political gain or retribution, no matter who started it, no matter if it was the right thing to do — redistricting should be Census-based
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/fight-corruption
- End PG&E’s monopoly and allow municipal utility providers — driven by federal regulation
- End the bailouts that pass costs to ratepayers
- Tie executive pay to safety and affordability
- Push for stronger federal oversight
- Explore public and cooperative alternatives
- Hold PG&E accountable for preventing wildfires — and empowering CalFire to lead wildfire prevention instead of a for-profit monopoly
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/fight-corruption
- Take on Big Pharma’s lobbying power — so we can provide free generic prescription drugs
- Lower prescription drug prices through negotiation and competition
- Close loopholes that protect monopolies instead of patients
- Stop foreign countries from screwing us on drug prices
- Keep biotech jobs in America — preventing Big Pharma from shipping these jobs abroad to save them some money
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/fight-corruption
- Full disclosure of all political spending — including dark money and shell groups
- Require candidates and elected officials to disclose financial conflicts of interest in real time
- Real accountability for anyone hiding donors or misleading the public
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/fight-corruption
Families across CA-04 are working harder than ever and still falling behind. Rent, groceries, utilities, health care, childcare — everything costs more, while giant corporations post record profits and pay little or nothing in taxes. That's not an accident. It's a system rigged to work for the people at the top.
Eric's plan attacks the root causes of rising costs — and every dollar is paid for by ending fraud, corporate tax dodging, and corruption, not by borrowing and not by cutting your services. When corporations finally pay what they owe, we use that money to lower costs for working families.
How we pay for it: Restoring corporate tax rates fair levels, closing the loopholes that let companies like PG&E and Big Pharma pay zero, going after tax cheats, and eliminating fraud and waste. That's the funding source behind every plank on this page. Yes, it’s enough.
THE PROBLEM: Corruption Encourages Politicians to Maintain Status Quo and High Costs ↗ (opens ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living at this heading)
As corporations and fraudsters fund our politicians, our so-called representatives do their bidding: they fight each other instead of delivering real solutions — making sure to distract us, avoid real action, and keep costs high for their funders’ profit.
Meanwhile, politicians in both parties have no problem spending our money and increasing the debt — all while allowing their corporate funders to cheat on their taxes and ignoring waste & fraud.
The result is a system where costs continue to rise, wages do not increase, and our debt grows.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
Real, direct relief for working- and middle-class families.
- Tax Cuts: eliminate income taxes on first $150,000 made — effectively ending income tax burdens for the working class
- Up to $10,000 in tax refunds for working American families — putting money in your pocket to help cover everyday expenses, give households room to breathe, and grow your wealth
- Paid for by: ending corporate tax dodging, restoring fair corporate tax rates, eliminating waste & fraud.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
PG&E's monopoly power, safety failures, and executive bonuses have driven rates through the roof.
- Use federal powers to break up PG&E’s monopoly and allow municipal competition
- Crack down on unjustified rate hikes
- Hold utilities like PG&E accountable for wildfire prevention — and hold executives financially and legally liable for preventable wildfires
- Tie executive pay to safety and affordability
- End the cycle of ratepayer-funded bailouts
- Ban monopolies from charging ratepayers for their lobbying acts
- Explore municipal alternatives that put reliability and lower bills first
- Paid for by: utility reform, monopoly busting, and ending bailouts — savings go straight back to ratepayers, not new spending.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
Medicare should cover the care seniors actually need.
- Expand Medicare to include dental, vision, hearing aids
- Make Medicare cover consistent in-home nursing visits starting at age 65 — so families can keep loved ones at home instead of in costly facilities or hospitals
- Paid for by: being cheaper than the current system — preventative care dramatically reduces the average cost per patient in seniors. Keeping seniors out of hospitals and in their homes costs far less.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
No one should choose between medicine and rent.
- Take on Big Pharma
- Make generic prescription drugs free for everyone
- Let Medicare negotiate drug prices on non-generics
- End the price-gouging that monopolies depend on
- Paid for by: saving the system money with free generic prescription drugs, negotiated drug savings, and closing Big Pharma tax loopholes.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
Homeowners get to deduct mortgage interest. Renters get nothing.
- Make rent payments tax-deductible — so the 40%+ of our district who rent finally get the same break
- Paid for by: closing corporate & investor real-estate loopholes, banning private equity & foreign homeownership.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
For most families the down payment — not the mortgage — is the wall.
- 0% down, fixed-rate pathways for first-time buyers
- First-time homebuyer tax credit
- National Housing Construction Bank to finance building at scale.
- Build 2 million homes per year — a national goal to increase housing supply, take hold of housing costs, and help more families buy homes
- Paid for by: closing speculation and corporate real estate loopholes; the housing bank is financed and will generate revenue, not a giveaway.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
The housing shortage is a cost crisis.
- Cut red tape for local builders — making construction faster and cheaper, while keeping profits in our communities
- Modernize zoning — so we can actually build, instead of holding our communities back
- Clear the bottlenecks that block construction — building faster and cheaper from Petaluma to Yuba City
- Paid for by: regulatory reform — lowers costs without new spending.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
The peaches don’t wait, the almonds don’t wait, and a crop you can’t harvest is a crop you didn’t grow.
- Protect our own workers first. No expansion of the H-2A program until workforce housing and wage moderation concerns are resolved, and local farm workers' jobs and wages are protected from unfair competition.
- Enforce the laws already on the books — wages, workplace safety, housing conditions — and hold bad employers accountable.
- Police the program itself, including stronger monitoring against human trafficking and labor exploitation.
- Make the guest worker program work like a program instead of an obstacle course. A grower should be able to know in weeks — not months — whether the crew is coming.
- Give growers wage certainty they can actually plan against. Wild swings between administrations serve nobody.
- Protect the people doing the work — heat, wages, housing. Enforcement protects the growers already doing it right.
- Once those concerns are resolved, extend it to the work that doesn't stop in October. Dairies, packing houses, and nurseries need people year-round and are largely locked out. A cow needs milking in February.
- Invest in harvest technology and the training that has to come with it. Mechanization is coming to specialty crops, unevenly and slower than the headlines suggest.
- Stop pretending enforcement alone is a workforce policy. You cannot enforce your way to a harvested crop.
Paid for by: most of this costs nothing — it’s a government that answers the phone and a rule that holds still.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/lower-cost-of-living
Some fights aren't about today's paycheck — they're about what we leave behind. A government that lives within its means. Water that doesn't run out. Family farms that survive. Kids who grow up safe. Eric is running to protect the things that make this district worth fighting for, and to make sure Washington stops mortgaging our children's future.
THE PROBLEM: Career Politicians Grow Out of Touch ↗ (opens ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future at this heading)
- Our government is full of elderly career politicians who
- Have spent more of their life in politics than out of it
- Haven’t had a real job — at least not in decades
- Don’t remember what it’s like to worry about putting food on the table or to take care of young children
- Stopped caring about the future because they don’t see themselves in it
- Act out of self-preservation to maintain their power and identity
The result is a group of cozy, power-hungry career politicians conspire to protect their seats, benefit the corporations that fund their campaigns, and enjoy a comfortable life in Washington — all while their constituents suffer.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
- Balanced budget amendment in both Sacramento and Washington
- A new hard rule: every new program comes with a way to pay for it
No more borrowing against our kids' future.
We fund our priorities by ending corporate tax dodging and cutting waste, not by running up the debt.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
The trust fund runs dry in 2032. Benefits get cut 22% automatically, across the board, for everyone — roughly $500 a month gone from the average retiree's check.
- No cuts to the check — and no moving the goalposts on anyone close to retiring. Two guarantees, flat out. I won't vote to cut a dollar from anybody's earned benefit, and I won't change the retirement age on people at or near retirement
- Go get the waste first. Corporate handouts that have never faced a review. Contracts nobody read. The billions in improper payments the inspectors general flag every year while Congress files the report and moves on. That money goes back into Social Security
- Find the money in the places nobody looks — corporate contract reviews, making corporate handouts prove they still work, targeting corporate subsidies, contracts, and tax carve-outs. Social Security, Medicare, Veterans Affairs, and the programs on which families rely are permanently exempt
- Never hand it to Wall Street or the insurance industry — every few years someone floats privatizing Social Security, moving your retirement into the market, where a bad decade could wipe out 30 years of work. Your retirement should not be somebody's product
- Make the annual raise match what seniors actually buy. Benefits get a cost-of-living adjustment every year, but it's calculated off a basket of goods built around working-age spending. I'd recalibrate it to a senior-weighted measure, so the check keeps pace with the bills that land in your mailbox
- Stop taxing the people who have nothing but Social Security — the income thresholds that trigger it haven't been updated since 1984. You already paid tax on that money when you earned it
- Stop the leak inside the program itself. Between 2015 and 2022 Social Security paid out close to $72 billion it shouldn't have. In 2025 the agency began withholding up to half of a monthly check to claw that money back. The inspector general has published the fixes for years and they sit unimplemented
- Fix the service — field offices have closed, phone waits run an hour, and disability claims sit for months while someone too sick to work waits on an answer. Starving the agency is a benefit cut with a longer fuse
- Keep the promise alive for the people who haven't made it yet — they pay in out of every check exactly like their parents did, and they've earned the same guarantee
Paid for by eliminating waste, fraud, and corporate abuse in federal spending. That money goes back into Social Security.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
We must restore America’s position as a global leader and moral authority. To do so, we must use our hard and soft power. We must use our position to end unnecessary war, death, and suffering.
- End U.S. funding of unnecessary foreign wars — no longer will we waste our tax dollars to enable unnecessary death and destruction
- No military aid to any country without an up-or-down vote in Congress — no backroom deals, no endless commitments
- Restore Congress's constitutional war powers: no new wars without a congressional vote
- All aid comes with conditions — we will be leaders and true friends to our allies, holding them accountable
A good friend — and a good ally — is someone who tells you when you’re wrong and holds you accountable.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
We always find the money to send them. It gets tight the moment they come home.
- Write VA staffing minimums into law, tied to the veterans each facility actually serves, so a hiring freeze in Washington cannot become a six-month wait in Marysville
- The same standard of care no matter where a veteran lives. An enforceable national standard for how far you travel and how long you wait
- Mental health care a veteran can actually get an appointment for, close to home, without a months-long wait
- Build the VA around who serves now. Women are the fastest-growing part of the veteran population, and the system was not built for them
- Strengthen the VA. Do not dismantle it. Community care fills gaps. It does not replace the system
- A real bridge from service to work — credentialing, apprenticeships, and paid training that count what someone did in uniform
- Paid for by ending the fraud on the other side of the ledger. Audit the Pentagon, make contractors compete, and put the savings into the VA
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
Water is survival in an agricultural district.
- Invest in California's water infrastructure now — storage, delivery, and drought resilience — before the next crisis, not after
- Secure funding for the major water projects in CA-4
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
Our planet and our family farms define this country — and this beautiful district.
- Conserve our public lands for the next generation — nature protected so our children get to enjoy, roam, and discover all its beauty and all it has to offer
- Stand up for family farms with the support they need to survive against corporate consolidation — the backbone of Colusa, Placer, Sonoma, Sutter, Yuba, and Yolo counties
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
New technologies have the potential to help humanity — and to threaten it. As we fight corruption, lower costs, and protect our land, we must hold Big Tech accountable, act quickly, and empower leaders who actually understand the technology.
- All new data centers must generate their own clean power and protect our water — they shouldn't drain our grid and drive up your bills
- Stop Big Tech tax dodging — too many Big Tech companies pay zero dollars or almost nothing in taxes while making billions
- Set real privacy and accountability standards before the technology outruns us
- Protect your data — and give you ownership of it
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
- Keep kids off addictive social media until 16
- Prevent the manipulation of minors from AI products, ensuring they aren’t designed to target minors — and get them hooked on their products
- Protect our children from online predators
- Invest in community, in-person interaction, third spaces, the arts, and mental health resources
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
Three failures in one lifetime. That is not bad luck. That is a warning we keep receiving and keep filing away.
- Fund the Atmospheric River Control spillway at New Bullards Bar. This is the single highest-value flood project in our region and it is sitting at the goal line waiting on money.
- Bring 70 miles of levee up to the current federal standard. Seepage control, structural repair, and certification — so the levee holds and the people behind it can insure their homes at a rate that reflects reality.
- Fix what the flood maps do to families who did nothing wrong. I’d push to tie federal levee investment to the map cycle, so the households paying the premium get relief when the work is finished instead of years later.
- Stop treating flood money as disaster relief and start treating it as capital investment. We pay for the levee either way. The only question is whether we pay before or after.
- Keep the local agencies in the room. The people who know these levees are here, not in Washington.
Paid for by: out of the disaster money we stop spending, and out of making the biggest corporations pay what they owe. Not by borrowing against my kids.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
When another country retaliates against the United States, they pick the products that hurt politically and can be replaced easily. That means tree nuts, wine, dairy, and fruit — almost a description of this district.
- Count agriculture before the trigger gets pulled, not after. Put it in writing, in advance, where a grower can read it.
- Make the aid match the damage, and make it fit perennial crops. An orchard is a 25-year investment; a one-time payment on an annual formula doesn’t come close.
- Enforce the deals we already signed. A signed agreement nobody enforces is just paperwork.
- Fund market access like it matters. Federal export promotion is the cheapest agricultural policy we have — it returns more than it costs.
- Go after the barriers that have nothing to do with tariffs. These are the quiet ones, and they never make the news.
Paid for by: the same way as everything else on this platform — ending corporate corruption, not adding to the debt.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
Specialty crops are 30 to 40% of the total value of American agriculture. They get less than 0.5% of the farm bill’s funding through the title that supports them.
- Write farm policy for the crops we actually grow. If we’re 30 to 40% of the value of American agriculture, we shouldn’t be a rounding error in the bill that governs it.
- Cut the energy bill that runs the pump. Every rate hike is a direct tax on growing food.
- Fight for a real answer when a processor walks away — not a bandage. Paying a family to cut down a hundred-year-old orchard is a settlement, not a policy.
- Break the chokehold in the middle of the wine business. A grower with a great product should be able to find a buyer. Right now they have to find a gatekeeper.
- Free producers from the franchise-law trap. The right to fire someone who isn’t doing the job is the most basic thing in business. Our winemakers don’t have it.
- Let winemakers sell directly to the people who want to buy. The tasting room shouldn’t stop at the state line.
- Make crop insurance work for the crops we grow. A vine or a tree takes years to come back.
- Back a public option in distribution — and be honest that this one starts in Sacramento. That’s a decision California makes. It’s not one for Congress.
Paid for by: making the biggest corporations pay what they owe rather than adding to the debt.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future
A camera in your town should not be a search engine in fifty states.
- Stop Flock, and stop its spread into our communities. No private company builds, keeps, or sells a cross-state record of where civilians drive
- Call for an immediate moratorium. Until Congress establishes a federal regulatory framework, no government agency should be using Flock's surveillance network
- Ban behavioral tracking of civilians. Flock calls it "pattern of life." It is a military intelligence tool, and it is pointed at you
- A warrant, every time — with a real emergency exception. A kidnapped child cannot wait on paperwork. Everything else can wait for a judge
- Make stalking through these systems a federal crime. At least fifty officers have been accused of using them to stalk women. In one case, the finding was that no law had been broken
- Give first responders the tools they need, license plate readers included, with limits written into the law
Paid for by: nothing. This is a rules change, and it costs nothing to pass. The only thing it costs is our privacy if we wait.
source ↗ (opens the page at this passage) · ericjones.us/priorities/protect-our-future