Jones’ Lead Puts Thompson’s, District 4 Future In Question

NAPA VALLEY, CA — In one of the biggest surprises for local constituents, Democratic incumbent Mike Thompson and challenger Eric Jones are running a razor-close race in a district whose boundaries were only recently redrawn.

Thompson and Jones are battling over California’s 4th Congressional District, which Thompson held comfortably for more than a decade.

However, the district was recently redrawn. The new boundaries stretch from Napa Valley to the Sacramento suburbs and rural areas in the north.

Thompson’s support in Napa, Sonoma, and Yolo counties hasn’t kept Jones from pulling ahead—a surprise for local constituents that could cost the district a senior voice on tax policy.

Jones holds 51.6 percent against Thompson’s 48 percent. That is likely to change as more ballots are counted. But as Jones told reporters on Tuesday,“It’s gonna be a long night."

Money, identity, and political attacks

The results have left voters and observers puzzled. Jones, a Maine native, has no political experience and only recently moved to the district he wants to serve, whereas Thompson, born in St. Helena, has served long enough to become a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

Yet, Jones' margins in six counties — Colusa, Lake, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, and Yuba — outweighed Thompson’s leads in Napa, Sonoma, and Yolo.

The redrawn district brought in voters from areas represented by Republicans Doug LaMalfa and his successor, James Gallagher (after LaMalfa died, voters approved the new boundaries in November 2025).

While Thompson held Napa and other Democrat-voting strongholds, progressives and the new districts' more conservative areas became a source of support for Jones.

Jones campaigned heavily in the new eastern part of the district like Yuba and Sutter counties.

The redrawn district links Wine Country communities with Sacramento-area suburbs and agricultural towns. About half its residents are non-Hispanic white, nearly a third are Latino, and 9 percent are Asian, according to 2020 Census figures mapped to the new boundaries.

Key issues that shaped the campaign include housing costs, wildfire protection and insurance, farm support and water, tariffs, health care access, and immigration enforcement. There were also constituents angry at having their counties redistricted.

They may have taken out their frustration at the ballot box.

Thompson ran the most expensive re-election of his 14-term career to keep pace.

Jones’ campaign reported raising $18 million and spending $16.5 million as of Oct. 14.

Thompson spent most of the $5.5 million he raised, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Jones pledged to refuse corporate PAC money. “I take no money from corporate PACs, special interests, or foreign interests," according to his campaign website.“No corporate PAC or special interest money accepted."

However, a super PAC helped foot the bill for expenses by giving Jones more than $5.7 million.

New Leadership Now is a super PAC funded primarily by Elisa Stad, a philanthropist married to Marc Stad, founder of Dragoneer Investment Group, where Eric Jones previously worked as a partner.

She contributed $4.25 million through October 14, approximately 74 percent of the group’s $5.77 million in receipts, according to FEC records.

Other disclosed donors include Dragoneer partner Dan Gillespie, investor Maurice Duca, TPG executives Jim Coulter and David Trujillo. TPG, formerly Texas Pacific Group, is a global private equity investment firm that buys stakes in companies and later sells them.

New Leadership Now’s spending reinforced Jones’s financial advantage over Thompson, although Jones’s campaign already outspent Thompson’s campaign three to one.

Incumbent

To fund his campaign, Thompson received direct campaign contributions from individuals, corporate-affiliated PACs, trade groups, and unions.

Major donors who appeared in the campaign finance records include Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway and his wife Gayle Conway, as well as PACs affiliated with PG&E, Home Depot, Edison International, Morgan Stanley, insurers, and labor unions. Wine industry donors also gave to his campaign including Ernest Gallo and James and Daphne Araujo.

Thompson also received money from the political spending arm associated with Blue Dog Action, which backs moderate Democratic congressional candidates and receives funding from groups like Opportunity Forward Alliance and The Bench.

As the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Tax subcommittee and a senior Health subcommittee member, Thompson has helped shape proposals affecting household tax bills, businesses, and medical expenses.

His Ways and Means assignments have given Thompson a role in legislation that affects family tax bills, businesses, Medicare, and medical costs.

Thompson helped pass bipartisan disaster tax relief signed into law in September 2026. His office reported recovering $115 million owed to constituents since 2016.

He also secured $1.38 million for fuel reduction and infrastructure protection in Napa County and supported Sonoma County’s effort to recover $2.6 million in emergency costs from the 2019 Kincade Fire. He also helped pass bipartisan legislation shielding qualified wildfire settlement payments from federal income taxes.

A defeat would end his influence. Jones would need to secure committee assignments and build influence of his own.

Outsider

Thompson often painted Jones as an outsider trying to buy the seat — something the challenger embraced.

Jones tried to distinguish himself during his campaign as an outsider who wanted to change a system that Thompson was part of.

Jones told Patch that he never held public office, but that he was "not looking to be a career politician."

"The system is broken, and we don't need more of them perpetuating the corruption that got us here," he said

"I bring different experience: I grew up in poverty, lived the American Dream, and built companies that created jobs and solved real problems here."

Jones said he was running to represent District 4 constituents, not special interests. He pledged to serve no more than three terms in the seat if elected. "I've pledged to 12 years: go to Washington, get it done, come home."

Thompson's campaign did not respond to a Patch questionnaire and did not return requests for comment for this report.

Jones has the lead. The remaining ballots will decide whether he takes Thompson’s seat.

Thompsons' campaign thanked supporters. That includes more than 250 local elected officials, community leaders, and volunteers who put up signs, collected petition signatures, made phone calls, knocked on doors, and talked to their neighbors, according to a statement today. "Our campaign was a true grassroots effort and we will not rest until every single vote is counted," Thompson's campaign manager Thomas Dowling told Patch. "We look forward to the final results coming in."

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