1980Flipped from DemocraticFinal resultsIncumbent defeated
1980 election for California Senate District 3
California State Senate · California
John Doolittle (R) won with 51.6% of the vote, defeating Albert S. Rodda (D) by 3.3 points, a seat Democrats won last time.
John DoolittleRepublican · winner
51.6%125,215
Albert S. RoddaDemocrat · incumbent
48.4%117,229
242,444 votes
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1980
Races before and after
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET