Sepi Gilani

Sepi Gilani (Democratic Party) ran in a special election to the U.S. Senate to represent California. She lost in the special primary on March 5, 2024.

Gilani also ran for election to the U.S. Senate to represent California. She lost in the primary on March 5, 2024.

Gilani completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Sepi Gilani was born in Denver, Colorado. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1989 and an M.D. from Stanford University in 1993. Her career experience includes working as a physician and as a professor. She worked as an instructor and clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School from 2001 to 2016. She began working as an associate professor of surgery for the University of California, San Diego in 2015.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Elections

2024

Regular election

General election

General election for U.S. Senate California

Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey are running in the general election for U.S. Senate California on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate
		Adam Schiff (D)
		Steve Garvey (R)

	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. Senate California on March 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Adam Schiff (D)	31.6	2,304,829
✔	Steve Garvey (R)	31.5	2,301,351
	Katie Porter (D)	15.3	1,118,429
	Barbara Lee (D)	9.8	717,129
	Eric Early (R)	3.3	242,055
	James P. Bradley (R)	1.4	98,778
	Christina Pascucci (D)	0.8	61,998
	Sharleta Bassett (R)	0.8	54,884
	Sarah Sun Liew (R)	0.5	38,718
	Laura Garza (No party preference)	0.5	34,529
	Jonathan Reiss (R)	0.5	34,400
	Sepi Gilani (D)	0.5	34,316
	Gail Lightfoot (L)	0.5	33,295
	Denice Gary-Pandol (R)	0.4	25,649
	James Macauley (R)	0.3	23,296
	Harmesh Kumar (D)	0.3	21,624
	David Peterson (D)	0.3	21,170
	Douglas Howard Pierce (D)	0.3	19,458
	Major Singh (No party preference)	0.2	17,092
	John Rose (D)	0.2	14,627
	Perry Pound (D)	0.2	14,195
	Raji Rab (D)	0.2	13,640
	Mark Ruzon (No party preference)	0.2	13,488
	Forrest Jones (American Independent Party of California)	0.2	13,140
	Stefan Simchowitz (R)	0.2	12,773
	Martin Veprauskas (R)	0.1	9,795
	Don Grundmann (No party preference)	0.1	6,641
	Michael Dilger (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	7
	Carlos Guillermo Tapia (R) (Write-in)	0.0	5
	John Dowell (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	3
	Danny Fabricant (R) (Write-in)	0.0	3

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 7,301,317
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Lexi Reese (D)
Alexander Norbash (D)
Eduardo Berdugo (Independent)
Renee Martinez (Independent)
Dominick Dorothy (D)
Joshua Bocanegra (D)
Barack Obama Mandela (R)
Joe Sosinski (Independent)
James Shuster (R)
Rommell Montenegro (D)
Zakaria Kortam (R)
John Pappenheim (R)
Jacob Farmos (D)
Roxanne Lawler (R)
Jessica Resendez (D)
Jeremy Fennell (D)
Carson Franklin Jr. (D)
Frank Ferreira (Independent)
Fepbrina Keivaulqe Autiameineire (Vienmerisce Veittemeignzce USA)
Paul Anderson (G)
Peter Yuan Liu (R)
Dana Bobbitt (Independent)
Zafar Inam (D)
Jehu Hand (R)

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

Special election

General election

Special general election for U.S. Senate California

Adam Schiff and Steve Garvey are running in the special general election for U.S. Senate California on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate
		Adam Schiff (D)
		Steve Garvey (R)

	There are no incumbents in this race.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Special nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

The following candidates ran in the special primary for U.S. Senate California on March 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Steve Garvey (R)	33.2	2,455,115
✔	Adam Schiff (D)	29.3	2,160,171
	Katie Porter (D)	17.2	1,272,684
	Barbara Lee (D)	11.7	866,551
	Eric Early (R)	6.1	451,274
	Christina Pascucci (D)	1.5	109,867
	Sepi Gilani (D)	0.9	68,497
	Michael Dilger (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	27

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 7,384,186
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

Campaign themes

2024

Regular election

Ballotpedia survey responses

Sepi Gilani completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Gilani's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Physician, Surgeon, Public University Educator

I entered the race for Senate after Senator Dianne Feinstein passed away. As a physician who sees homeless, ill, and struggling patients on a daily basis, I believe that these three issues are important in California and our nation: Homelessness Healthcare Education

I was born in Denver, Colorado and graduated from high school in Liberty, Missouri. Since then I have lived most of my life in California. While in California, I have lived in Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Diego. I am currently Associate Professor at University of California San Diego, where I teach surgery. My husband of 36 years is a radiologist. My older twin son and my daughter-in-law are lawyers and my younger twin son does social research and served in the United States Peace Corps for two years.

In 2012, when I ran for Town Committee, I was on the same election ballot as President Obama and was elected to Town Committee where I served from 2012-2015.

I currently serve as president of the American College of Surgeons San Diego and Imperial County Chapter.

I have worked on countless political campaigns including medical ones and have served on many non profit organization boards. I have knocked on thousands of doors and have made tens of thousands of phone calls to get others elected to political office, I have worked the polls and registered hundreds to vote.

I hope you can join me for my campaign.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

#Homelessness Homelessness affects all of us and has not been solved despite billions spent by the government. We must work to solve homelessness without additional burden to taxpayers by coordinating efforts, eliminating wasteful inefficiencies, and implementing solutions proposed by advocates and researchers on homelessness.
#Healthcare If everyone is insured and has easy access to healthcare, we will have less national health expenses and we will be able to prevent illness. One of our problems today is that health insurance is tied to being employed. If you lose your job, you also lose your health insurance. Families are often trapped without a job and without health insurance. Having health covered regardless of employment makes sure people can get the care they need when they need it. Much of our health care expenses are because we wait too long and when we finally do show up for care, the problem is more problematic and more costly to treat. Training more doctors to provide care earlier in the disease process helps reduce costs for healthcare and
#Education I attended a public high school in a small farming town in northeast Missouri. In the Midwest we had robust vocational schools built into the public high schools which provided much needed training. Many of my classmates were able to graduate knowing a trade and were able to start working immediately. Classes and career pathways included agriculture, drafting, electronics, automotive, construction trades and animal science. Many states, including California, do not have vocational training. I would work to have vocational training available at all public high schools. High school can be a successful springboard to employment and having a vocation in early adulthood. I also believe that students who would like to participate i

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

#Homelessness #Healthcare #Education

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Note: Gilani submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on December 1, 2023.

November 1 submission

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Physician, Surgeon, Public University Educator

I entered the race for Senate after Senator Diane Feinstein passed away. As a Democrat and physician who sees homeless, ill and struggling patients on a daily basis, I believe that these three issues are most important in California and our nation:

Homelessness

Healthcare

Education

I was born in Denver, Colorado and graduated from high school in Liberty, Missouri. Since then I have lived most of my life in California. While in California, I have lived in Los Angeles, Palo Alto, Mountain View and San Diego. I am currently Associate Professor at University of California San Diego, where I teach surgery. My husband of 36 years is a radiologist. My older twin son and my daughter-in-law are lawyers and my younger twin son does social research and served in the United States Peace Corps for two years.

I hope you can join me for my campaign.

Thank you,

Sepi Gilani

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Homelessness affects all of us. $13,000,000,000 (thirteen billion dollars) spent on homelessness in California in the last few years has not helped the situation and is costing the taxpayers. A third of the homeless are veterans. More people are becoming homeless than are getting out of it. Homelessness is no longer a state issue, it is a national crisis that is affecting our cities, businesses, safety and requires federal attention.
Healthcare affects all of us. The number one cause of bankruptcy is unpaid healthcare bills. A bill for a heart attack can be as high as $150,000. Most patients can't find a doctor and have to go to the Emergency Department for care. Healthcare is our largest national expense.
Education affects all of us. Too many Americans can't read well when they leave high school and are not trained to have a job. Offering comprehensive vocational programs in high school would help our educational system. Student debt can be as high as $500,000 or more for college.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Homelessness, Healthcare and Education

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Note: Gilani submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on November 1, 2023.

October 26 submission

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Physician, Surgeon, Public University Educator

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Homelessness is a national issue and requires federal attention. I'll present a 6 point plan for homelessness.
Healthcare is our largest national expense, yet many can't see a doctor.
Education is not accessible to all. Too many Americans can't read when they graduate and are not trained to have a job when they leave high school. Student debt can be as high as half a million dollars or more.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Homelessness
Healthcare
Education

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Note: Gilani submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on October 26, 2023.

Special election

Ballotpedia survey responses

Sepi Gilani did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Gilani’s campaign website stated the following:

“

Homelessness
One in 500 Americans is now homeless. 650,000 Americans are homeless.

Homelessness is affecting our cities, businesses, and safety.

Homelessness affects all of us and has not been solved despite billions spent by the government. We must work to solve homelessness without additional burden to taxpayers by coordinating efforts, eliminating wasteful inefficiencies, and implementing solutions proposed by advocates and researchers on homelessness.

We can solve homelessness. We have university solutions informed by science that need to be implemented. Homelessness is no longer a local or state issue. It is a national crisis that needs federal attention and a national platform. We must commit to building up to 1000 bed mental health hospitals near our major metropolitan centers that will serve all Americans who need help.

6 Point Plan to End Homelessness

Temporary Housing
Permanent Housing
Psychiatric Hospital
Development, Public Relations, Political Campaign
Immediate Help for Imminently Homeless
University Research on Homelessness

Immediate Help for the Imminently Homeless
Preventing homelessness is the first step. Because homelessness is now a national issue, not only state funding but also federal funding must be allocated for programs that are easily accessible to anyone who is moments away from losing their home. Some families are many months behind on rent or have a sudden expense or illness that was not expected. Sudden life changes can put families who are on the verge of losing their home in danger. Having an easily accessible crisis center to help families and individuals on the verge of homelessness with the resources they need would greatly help prevent homelessness.

Temporary Housing
Homelessness is affecting our cities, our safety, and our businesses. Temporary housing, close to where the homeless currently reside, would give the homeless individuals a chance to stabilize. Many groups already provide temporary housing and coordination between the groups will help reduce taxpayer expenses. This can be done by providing a national platform where all groups that currently offer help can share the services that they provide and the openings that they currently have.

Permanent Housing
Transitioning from temporary housing to permanent housing is essential. With the help of professionals who can address medical, housing, and social needs, the previously homeless can find all the resources they need to get back on their feet again. This housing would also be an environment to receive care and training for a new job. This housing and training would be located anywhere in the US.

Psychiatric Hospital
Some homeless people cannot live independently. Because mental health and substance use is a crisis in the United States, we need more psychiatric beds to provide care for those who need help. We don't have enough psychiatric beds, while our neighbors to the north, in Canada, have dedicated psychiatric hospital beds to help patients. For example, the city of Toronto has 493 psychiatric beds. We have few dedicated psychiatric hospitals. We lost most of our psychiatric hospitals in California during the Reagan administration. Since then people who were previously able to get help have been left to fend for themselves on the streets.

Development, Public Relations and Political Campaign
Campaigns such as my bid for US Senate will help bring Federal dollars to house, rehabilitate and heal our homeless by coordinating efforts of groups, charities, veterans groups and others who are already helping the homeless. Much private funding is already being used and many groups are independently and tirelessly working on homelessness. California has spent billions of dollars in the last few years, but this has not decreased our rapidly expanding homeless population. The Department of Housing and Urban Development had a budget of 61 billion dollars in 2021 ($60,000,000,000) Most of the funds are spent on temporary measures rather than long term and coordinated planning for the future.

University Research on Homelessness
Many university groups have studied the reasons for homelessness and have proposed solutions for homelessness. Just like in medical research, where different treatments are tested to find out which one is best, the same needs to be done for homeless programs. Each of the proposed solutions need to be tried in order to find out how to spend the least while still getting the most effective and long lasting outcome for this national crisis, while helping our most vulnerable Americans.

Healthcare
We spend more on healthcare than anything else in our nation

Health Insurance and Preventive Care
If everyone is insured and has easy access to healthcare, we will have less national health expenses and we will be able to prevent illness. One of our problems today is that health insurance is tied to being employed. If you lose your job, you also lose your health insurance. Families are often trapped without a job and without health insurance. Having health covered regardless of employment makes sure people can get the care they need when they need it. Much of our health care expenses are because we wait too long and when we finally do show up for care, the problem is more problematic and more costly to treat. Training more doctors to provide care earlier in the disease process helps reduce costs for healthcare and provides for overall general health.

End of Life Care
By providing preventative health care to everybody at low cost, or at no cost, we reduce strain on taxpayers and ensure a healthier population. Much of our healthcare expenditures occur in the last week or two of life. A night in the intensive care unit on a breathing machine can cost as much as $11,000. This is typically when a terminal illness lands a loved one in the intensive care unit. Because the illness cannot be treated and the loved one is on life support, often the family is asked to make a difficult decision of withdrawing support. This decision is a difficult one and takes time. I have seen patient families struggle with this decision while the loved one is on a breathing machine for weeks. The hospital stay can then cost $150,000 or more. The hospital bill can bankrupt a family. One solution is to have decisions made much before that time arrives with an advanced directive.

Education
Elementary Education
For this age group, higher teacher salaries, more physical activity for the children, nutritious and well balanced meals, and reliable after school care are essential. Early intervention to prevent obesity is best accomplished at this age.

High School Education
I attended a public high school in a small farming town in northeast Missouri. In the Midwest we had robust vocational schools built into the public high schools which provided much needed training. Many of my classmates were able to graduate knowing a trade and were able to start working immediately. Classes and career pathways included agriculture, drafting, electronics, automotive, construction trades and animal science. Many states, including California, do not have vocational training. I would work to have vocational training available at all public high schools. High school can be a successful springboard to employment and having a vocation in early adulthood.

I also believe that students who would like to participate in even more challenging courses should be offered the opportunity to enroll in nearby colleges. Emphasis on science, technology engineering and math (STEM) will help our nation with the many challenges we face.

I have many patients who have graduated from high school and have difficulty reading the instructions that I have written down for after surgery and never had an opportunity to take advantage of vocational school because it was not offered at their high school. Our public high schools offer an opportunity to provide individualized training for students to start a productive life with income immediately after graduation.

College Education
Like public high school education, I believe that a high-quality public college education should be free for students. This will ensure that we have the best chance at solving our nation's problems including high student debt.

Graduate Education
Because education after college involves paying tuition, it is unattainable for many. I believe graduate education should be affordable for all and would support free graduate education with a salary for research work at universities. Only 1 percent of Americans go to graduate school and their expertise is necessary to build our cities and homes and to provide health and education.^[4]

”

—Sepi Gilani’s campaign website (2024)^[5]

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Sepi Gilani campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	U.S. Senate California	Lost primary	$13,764	$11,091
Grand total			$13,764	$11,091
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

External links

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Candidate

U.S. Senate California

Website

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Footnotes

↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 26, 2023
↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 1, 2023
↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on December 1, 2023
↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
↑ Sepi Gilani US Senate 2024, “Issues,” accessed January 11, 2024

[show]

California's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Laphonza Butler (D)

Alex Padilla (D)

Representatives

District 1

Doug LaMalfa (R)

District 2

Jared Huffman (D)

District 3

Kevin Kiley (R)

District 4

Mike Thompson (D)

District 5

Tom McClintock (R)

District 6

Ami Bera (D)

District 7

Doris Matsui (D)

District 8

John Garamendi (D)

District 9

Josh Harder (D)

District 10

Mark DeSaulnier (D)

District 11

Nancy Pelosi (D)

District 12

Barbara Lee (D)

District 13

John Duarte (R)

District 14

Eric Swalwell (D)

District 15

Kevin Mullin (D)

District 16

Anna Eshoo (D)

District 17

Ro Khanna (D)

District 18

Zoe Lofgren (D)

District 19

Jimmy Panetta (D)

District 20

Vacant

District 21

Jim Costa (D)

District 22

David Valadao (R)

District 23

Jay Obernolte (R)

District 24

Salud Carbajal (D)

District 25

Raul Ruiz (D)

District 26

Julia Brownley (D)

District 27

Mike Garcia (R)

District 28

Judy Chu (D)

District 29

Tony Cárdenas (D)

District 30

Adam Schiff (D)

District 31

Grace Napolitano (D)

District 32

Brad Sherman (D)

District 33

Pete Aguilar (D)

District 34

Jimmy Gomez (D)

District 35

Norma Torres (D)

District 36

Ted Lieu (D)

District 37

Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D)

District 38

Linda Sánchez (D)

District 39

Mark Takano (D)

District 40

Young Kim (R)

District 41

Ken Calvert (R)

District 42

Robert Garcia (D)

District 43

Maxine Waters (D)

District 44

Nanette Barragán (D)

District 45

Michelle Steel (R)

District 46

Lou Correa (D)

District 47

Katie Porter (D)

District 48

Darrell Issa (R)

District 49

Mike Levin (D)

District 50

Scott Peters (D)

District 51

Sara Jacobs (D)

District 52

Juan Vargas (D)

Democratic Party (42)

Republican Party (11)

Vacancies (1)

[1] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 26, 2023

[bio-2] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 1, 2023

[3] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on December 1, 2023

[quotedisclaimer-4] Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

[5] Sepi Gilani US Senate 2024, “Issues,” accessed January 11, 2024

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

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Sepi Gilani

Contents

Biography

Elections

2024

Regular election

General election

General election for U.S. Senate California

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Endorsements

Special election

General election

Special general election for U.S. Senate California

Nonpartisan primary election

Special nonpartisan primary for U.S. Senate California

Endorsements

Campaign themes

2024

Regular election

Ballotpedia survey responses

Special election

Ballotpedia survey responses

Campaign website

Campaign finance summary

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2024 Elections

2025 Elections

Analysis

Public Policy

Information for candidates

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