Torrance 2026 election

Who funds George Chen's campaign?

A look at the donors behind Chen's mayoral bid compared to Sharon Kalani's base of support.

Itemized donations ($100+) filed through December 31, 2025³

Where do the donors live?

Less than half of Chen's donors are Torrance residents. Kalani's donor base is overwhelmingly local.

Chen Kalani

Who's giving the legal maximum?

Torrance caps individual donations at $1,000 per election. Most of Chen's maxed-out donors are from outside Torrance. Most of Kalani's are local.

Chen's maxed-out donors from outside Torrance

Kalani's maxed-out donors from outside Torrance

Where do the donor dollars come from?

Each candidate's donor dollars grouped by occupation as reported on their filings.¹

Chen Kalani

Who's behind the money?

Isolating the two occupation groups from the chart above: business owners, professionals, and their family² vs. teachers, public servants, and service workers.

Chen Kalani

Notable details

8% from family members maximizing contributions

23 Chen donors filed as not employed and share a last name with another Chen donor.² Torrance limits individuals to $1,000. Additional household members filing separately allows a family to multiply its total contribution. Kalani has zero donors in this category.

Out-of-state donors

Chen received contributions from donors in Maryland, Texas, Ohio, and Nevada. Kalani received none from out of state.

Real estate industry donors

Real estate and property professionals contributed to Chen's campaign, including his own slate-mate Aurelio Mattucci, a real estate broker.

Outside donors give more per person

Chen's non-Torrance donors contributed 24% more per person on average than his Torrance-based donors.

Verify it yourself

All data comes from public campaign finance filings. Download the underlying donor records below.

¹ "Business owners, professionals, and their family" includes donors with filed titles of: business owner, president, CEO, CFO, founder, executive, engineer, programmer, physician, doctor, attorney, real estate broker/agent/developer, property investor, financial planner, finance manager, CPA, architect, director, manager, consultant, pharmacist, banker, insurance agent, and accountant — as well as family members (see note 2). "Teachers, public servants, and service workers" includes: teacher, professor, librarian, police officer, mayor, mechanic, bank teller, pastoral assistant, sales, instructor, and similar titles. "Retired" and "not employed" are reported as filed. Two Chen donors (under 1% of dollars) did not fit any category and are excluded.

² "Their family" identifies donors who (a) filed a job title of unemployed, housewife, or homemaker and (b) share a last name with at least one other donor to the same candidate. Shared last names do not prove a family relationship — common surnames may produce false matches. This grouping surfaces a pattern, not an assertion of specific relationships.

³ All data from $100+ contributions filed with the City of Torrance through December 31, 2025 via Torrance NetFile. Contributions under $100 are not required to be itemized and are not included.