Laura Bassett, a Republican and licensed professional fiduciary, has launched a 2026 bid for a largely coastal state Senate seat that includes communities in Orange and San Diego counties.
The 38th Senate District — which includes Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and San Juan Capistrano in Orange County — is represented now by Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat who is running for reelection.
Bassett said she has long paid attention to politics, albeit mostly at the federal level. But by the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Bassett’s six children were out of the house. She turned her attention to local politics and decided, “That was my new thing.”
The Oceanside resident unsuccessfully ran for a City Council seat last year, but said she realized through the process how much of an impact decisions made in the state legislature have on city government.
“How can we focus on the local level when Sacramento is lopsided a bit in telling us what to do? Maybe that’s where I can make a bigger impact, bring some balance to the legislature and bring home some common sense policies to Oceanside and the surrounding areas,” Bassett said of her decision to run for state Senate.
Bassett was born and raised in Oceanside — she still lives in the same neighborhood where she grew up, she said — and has worked as a licensed real estate professional since 2003 and as a licensed professional fiduciary since 2011, as well as a community volunteer, according to her campaign. She has an accounting degree from USC and homeschooled most of her six children through high school. The family
“I don’t recognize the state as much anymore as the one that I grew up in — in good ways and bad ways,” Bassett said. “My kids are grown and struggling to make ends meet in California, and it’s become a difficult place to raise a family.”
Like many office seekers in California, Bassett’s main focus is affordability, she said.
But a key component of her campaign is also coastal preservation and restoration.
“It’s a very important issue that is starting to get addressed, but I want to make sure that we are providing the resources, mainly the money, to make sure that if there is a good program, that we, as a state, actually fund it,” she said. “A big part of California is our coast, and we need to make sure we’re protecting and restoring it.”
Blakespear, too, has made coastal issues a key focus of her time in the state legislature. She leads the upper chamber’s Environmental Quality Committee, as well as serves on the Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies. Blakespear also leads a subcommittee focused on improving the 351-mile rail line running from San Luis Obispo to San Diego that skirts the coast in several sections.
Bassett joins the race with support from two Republicans in the legislature: Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones and Assemblymember Carl DeMaio.
For Bassett, being a Republican is about government involvement.
“As a conservative Republican, I feel like the government has certain jobs that need to get done, but we’ve become so reliant on government to solve all of our problems,” she said. “A Republican isn’t someone who looks to the government to be their dad or their nanny or their entity that takes care of them.”
Still, Bassett said she believes she’d be able to work with a Democratic supermajority in Sacramento.
“I know that everybody at the core, for most people, they care about this state. Obviously, we may disagree on how to get there,” Bassett said, adding that she doesn’t think Republicans will take over the statehouse, but rather she hopes more are elected to serve as a check and balance for those in the majority.
Blakespear defeated Republican Matt Gunderson by more than 4 percentage points in 2022.
Registered Democrats make up 37.22% of voters in the 38th Senate District, according to the latest tally from the secretary of state, while registered Republicans account for 31.85% and 23.14% are listed as no party preference.