2024 California's 45th congressional district election

The 2024 California's 45th congressional district election will be held on November 5, 2024, to elect the United States representative for California's 45th congressional district, concurrently with elections for the other U.S. House districts in California and the rest of the country, as well as the 2024 U.S. Senate race in California, other elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections. The primary election was held on March 5, 2024, concurrently with the Super Tuesday presidential primaries.

Based in Orange County and Los Angeles County, the 45th district contains all of Fountain Valley, Westminster, Garden Grove, Cypress, Buena Park, Cerritos, Artesia, La Palma, Placentia, Hawaiian Gardens, Los Alamitos, and Rossmoor, as well as portions of Brea, Lakewood, Fullerton, and Yorba Linda. One-third of all registered voters in the district are Asian American, with Vietnamese Americans alone comprising 16% of the district's voters.

The incumbent is Republican Michelle Steel, who was re-elected with 52.4% of the vote in 2022. Steel, who is Korean American, was first elected in 2020, unseating incumbent Democrat Harley Rouda. She previously served as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the California State Board of Equalization.

The race is expected to be highly competitive as it is a purple suburban district. Both House Democrats and House Republicans have listed California's 45th district among their highest-priority districts in the 2024 election. Joe Biden carried this district by a 6% margin in the 2020 presidential election. Steel is one of 17 House Republicans representing a Biden-won district. At the local level, however, the 45th district has trended Republican, voting for Republicans in every state race in 2022.

Advanced to general

 * Michelle Steel (Republican), incumbent U.S. Representative
 * Derek Tran (Democratic), Consumer Attorneys of California board member

Eliminated in primary

 * Cheyenne Hunt (Democratic), attorney and TikTok influencer
 * Kim Nguyen-Penaloza (Democratic), Garden Grove city councilor and runner-up for Orange County Board of Supervisors District 2 in 2022
 * Aditya Pai (Democratic), attorney

Withdrawn

 * Jimmy Pham (Democratic), member of the Westminster Traffic Commission (endorsed Nguyen-Penaloza, running for state assembly)

Declined

 * Mike Schaefer (Democratic), member of the California State Board of Equalization from the 4th district (2019–present) (running for U.S. Senate in Nevada)

Endorsements
Endorsements in bold were made after the primary election.