# State Senate, District 18 (local, San Bernardino County)

URL: https://www.californiapeople.org/local/sd-18

- title: State Senate, District 18
- office: State Senate
- cities: [needles]

**Check your district:** state legislative lines split many cities, and public descriptions of the 2021 maps are incomplete. The cities listed here are the ones at least partly in this district based on the best available descriptions. Your sample ballot, or the county's [My Districts lookup](https://elections.sbcounty.gov/voterregistration/districtlookuptools/addresslookup/), shows which district you are actually in.

## Key findings
- Mostly Imperial County and the eastern Coachella Valley, including Needles. [^1]
- **Steve Padilla (D, incumbent)** faces **Art Hodges (R)**. Neither answered KVCR's questionnaire. [^2]

## State Senate, District 18
Job: one of 40 Senate votes on state laws, the budget and governor's appointments. Four-year term.

### Steve Padilla (D, incumbent)
- Former Chula Vista mayor; in the Senate since 2022. [^3]

### Art Hodges (R)
- I found little independent reporting on this race. The KVCR voter guide has questionnaire answers from candidates who replied.

## Sources
[^1]: CA Secretary of State, certified candidate list (2026 general). https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/statewide-elections/2026-general/cert-list-candidates.pdf
[^2]: KVCR voter guide (candidate questionnaires). https://kvcr.org/voter-guide/san-bernardino
[^3]: Wikipedia, Steve Padilla. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Padilla