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U.S. House · Updated Oct 9

California's 45th District

Derek Tran win chance

95%

Typical margin: Tran by 12

Democrat

Derek Tran 95%Michelle Steel 5%

Who's running

Derek TranDemocrat · Incumbent
Michelle SteelRepublican

The numbers behind it

Cook Political ReportAs of Sep 23, 2026Likely D
Money raisedFEC, through Jun 30, 2026Tran $5.0MSteel $1.3M
Campaign money

Derek Tran

Raised $5.0M · $3.3M cash on hand · through Jun 30, 2026 · FEC filing ↗

Michelle Steel

Raised $1.3M · $0 cash on hand · through Oct 9, 2025 · FEC filing ↗

Our model counts the money gap as worth 0.6 points to Derek Tran. Even a 10× gap is worth at most 1.5.

Other filers in this race raised $757K in total.

Candidates' own committees only, from fec.gov. Third-quarter reports are due Oct 15.

How the numbers moved
  1. Sep 23Cook Political Report: Likely DCook Political Report
  2. Jun 30Derek Tran had raised $5.0MFEC filing
  3. Oct 9Michelle Steel had raised $1.3MFEC filing
How we got this number

We blend the polling average (when there is one) with the race's fundamentals: past results, incumbency, the national mood and the money. Then we play the election out 40,000 times, with polling misses that move every race together, and count how often each side wins.

90% of the model's 40,000 simulated elections land between R+0.1 and D+24.3.

No public polls yet, so this forecast rests on the fundamentals alone, with a wider range.

Our method ›