Senate District 28: Smallwood-Cuevas and Lisuzzo Contrast Worker Protections, Business Costs and Safety

LOS ANGELES, California — Democratic incumbent Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Republican Joe Lisuzzo are the two candidates in California’s 28th Senate District for the November 3, 2026, general election.

Their campaign platforms provide a documented contrast on employment, government spending and community safety. California58 has not independently verified either candidate’s personal voting time, method or location.

Smallwood-Cuevas: jobs and economic security

Smallwood-Cuevas’ campaign emphasizes stronger labor protections, enforcement against discrimination and wage violations, apprenticeships and workforce development. It also calls for partnerships with employers to expand jobs and for reducing barriers faced by small-business owners.

Her campaign biography describes work as a journalist, union organizer and co-founder of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center. It connects that background to an agenda of economic stability and environmental justice. The campaign also lists homelessness, healthcare, safety and preventing displacement as issue areas.

Lisuzzo: public safety and lower business costs

Lisuzzo’s official website describes his food-manufacturing career and neighborhood-council service as preparation for the Senate. His platform advocates greater public-safety funding, reducing business taxes and regulatory burdens, and expedited repairs to streets, sidewalks and lighting.

He also supports more resources for veterans, educational alternatives and a temporary gas-tax holiday. Those proposals reflect his campaign’s positions, not an enacted program or a verified estimate of savings.

The website makes additional statistical and legal claims about homelessness and other officials. Those assertions are not repeated here as established facts without separate verification.

District coverage without an invented appearance

Smallwood-Cuevas’ campaign identifies South Los Angeles, Culver City and several Westside communities within the district. Those geographic connections explain local interest in the race. They do not establish a candidate’s polling place or whether a ballot was cast early, by mail or on Election Day.

Sources: Smallwood-Cuevas’ campaign biography; her campaign platform; Lisuzzo’s campaign biography; his campaign platform.

Candidate verification: California Secretary of State’s certified general-election list. Campaign proposals and accounts of achievements are attributed claims, not guaranteed outcomes. This report makes no winner declaration.

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