Political Notes: Hollywood agent with San Francisco ties seeks new role in US House

Having established a career as an actor and talent agent in Hollywood, Tarzana resident Christopher Ahuja is now envisioning a new role for himself on Capitol Hill. The Democrat is mounting his second bid for a Los Angeles County area congressional seat.

The straight ally with familial ties to San Francisco and the LGBTQ community is running in 2026 to oust Congressmember Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) from his 32nd Congressional District seat. It includes much of the San Fernando Valley, including Pacific Palisades that was devastated by a wildfire earlier this year, and westside communities of Los Angeles such as Bel-Air, Brentwood, Encino, Malibu, and Topanga.

Ahuja, 44, landed in fourth place in the 2024 primary for the Southern California House seat. Having gained his political sea legs, so to speak, from that candidacy, Ahuja has a better grasp on what is needed to mount a congressional campaign, he told the Bay Area Reporter during an interview last month while in San Francisco visiting his in-laws.

“I didn’t really understand how a campaign works at all,” Ahuja acknowledged about his freshman attempt at running for elected office last year.

He had launched his bid less than seven weeks prior to last year’s March primary, for one thing, leaving him little time to fundraise and canvass for votes. A cousin adept at politics reached out after seeing Ahuja post about his experience on Facebook to offer some guidance he is implementing on his second campaign for the seat.

“I learned a lot about how to do it and build up a campaign infrastructure using data,” said Ahuja, recalling of last year’s race “there isn’t a lot you can do in six and half weeks.”

A common response he heard from the people whose doors he knocked on was no other candidates had bothered to show up and seek their votes, recalled Ahuja. He ended up netting 12,637 votes, surpassing his own expectations.

“When I first jumped in, I didn’t look at it as will I win. I didn’t think I would get fourth. I was realistic and at the same time optimistic about doing it,” said Ahuja. “I thought depending how well we do and if I am up for it, and my family supports it, it sets me up to be viable in 2026.”

Ahuja met up with the B.A.R. at the Java Beach location across from the San Francisco Zoo not far the home of his wife’s parents. In 2010, he and Maggie Nguyen wed at St. Dominic's Catholic Church in the city’s Lower Pacific Heights neighborhood.

Nguyen, who was born in Saigon, Vietnam, grew up in the city, graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004, and worked part-time for the San Francisco Film Society while in college. Her brother is gay and recently married his husband.

Ahuja grew up in the Inland Empire and graduated in 2003 from California State University, San Bernardino, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology with a concentration in exercise science.

The couple has two young daughters Athena and Artemis; they served as flower girls at their uncle’s wedding last month to his husband at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. When Artemis fell ill at just 6 weeks old with a respiratory illness, weeks before the onset of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, Ahuja became a practicing Catholic along with his wife’s family.

He was raised Lutheran, though his mother’s grandfather was Catholic being half German and half Sicilian. Ahuja’s father is from India – their surname is common in Punjab – and came to the U.S. in the 1960s, working as an accountant, while Ahuja’s mother was a substitute teacher and worked for the city of Los Angeles in an administrative role.

Civil rights have always been an important matter for his family, said Ahuja, whose maternal grandmother grew up in the Great Depression and later married a Black man during a time when interracial marriages were banned in much of the U.S. Back in 1999, ahead of the March 2000 primary, he received permission from his parents to plant a sign in their yard asking their neighbors not to vote for Proposition 22.

The statewide ballot measure defined marriage as only between a man and a woman in the state’s family code. It passed by more than 60% of the vote but would be struck down years later by the state’s supreme court as part of a lawsuit stemming from the same-sex marriages that took place in San Francisco in 2004.

“No, I am not LGBTQ. I am heterosexual. But basic dignity and human rights never go out of fashion,” said Ahuja. “You still have to fight for them.” And with Republican President Donald Trump back in the White House leading an assault on federal LGBTQ rights, Ahuja pledged, “From day one if I am elected, the LGBTQ community will have someone to fight for them.”
 
Ahuja first met his wife two decades ago on the set of the movie “Love Sick Diaries.” The producer of the film, which was directed by his fraternal twin Mike and came out in 2010, Ahuja also starred alongside Nguyen in the lead roles. They now own the talent agency Avant Artists and represent 600 clients. (His brother now resides in Nevada and works in marketing.)

Having survived the actors and writers strikes in 2023, Ahuja said their business has bounced back, keeping him busy around the clock. Due to his decision to run for the House seat again, Ahuja stepped down in March from his appointed seat on the Tarzana Neighborhood Council to have more time to focus on his candidacy.

“You only have so much time as a grassroots candidate,” noted Ahuja, who is a member of the Los Angeles Stonewall Democratic Club, a powerful LGBTQ political group in the city, and earned a public leadership credential from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

A one-time treasurer for the progressive group Feel The Bern San Fernando Valley, named for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Ahuja technically hasn’t stopped campaigning for the House seat since last year’s primary. He maintained his campaign website and has continued to make his case via his social media accounts, blasting both Sherman and Trump in near daily video posts on Instagram.

“I’m back to fight for working families. Trump’s policies are hurting CA-32, and when healthcare and food are under attack, you need a fighter. I won’t back down – Brad Sherman won’t even stand up,” Ahuja wrote in one recent post.

This time around, Ahuja is still being realistic about his chances of making it pass the June primary next year and then winning come the November election. Even with California’s open primary system, where the top two vote-getters regardless of party advance to the general election, it is exceedingly rare for an incumbent congressional member to be ousted by another candidate from the same party.

“It still is highly unlikely I will win, but I believe there is something here. We exceeded expectations last year,” noted Ahuja. “I should only have had 5% of the vote and I got 8%. Now, I am much better situated to be viable and be competing against Sherman. I think he is nervous.”

Another candidate
Ahuja isn’t the only Democrat sensing voters in the district are ready for a change from Sherman, 70, who has served in the House since first being elected in 1996. As the B.A.R.’s Political Notebook reported in April, gay politico Jake Rakov, 37, of Studio City in Los Angeles County is also running to oust Sherman from office.

Rakov, who briefly worked for Sherman eight years ago as his deputy communications director, is making the same pitch as Ahuja that generational change is needed in the representation of the district back in Washington, D.C. Sherman has countered he remains up to the task, telling Politico he is “fit as a fiddle” after Rakov jumped into the race.

The last time Sherman faced a serious opponent was in 2012, when he defeated fellow Democrat Howard Berman by roughly 20% that November. Ever since, Sherman has faced a series of Republican challengers he has easily trounced.

Last year, Sherman’s four Democratic primary opponents drew a total of 18,441 votes, well below that of the Republican who took second place with 29,939 votes. His two GOP challengers netted a combined 29.7% of the primary vote, which suggests Ahuja and Rakov and any other Democrat who mounts a campaign will face stiff headwinds, especially if any Republicans once again enter the race.

“I am the underdog candidate,” said Ahuja, adding he knows taking on one of his party’s incumbents means it’s unlikely he’ll be endorsed by Democratic officials and outside groups aligned with the party. “I am OK with that if I don’t get endorsements. The real work is getting the word out.”

By June 30, Ahuja is aiming to raise $10,000 and has a goal of increasing his campaign coffers by 20% in the next quarter. Having worked as a personal trainer, and continuing to run and do jujitsu, Ahuja is putting his fitness skills to use on the campaign trail.

“It takes a lot of grit, and I have a lot of grit. Don’t know why, but I do,” he told the B.A.R.

UPDATED 5/12/25 to correct when Ahuja's grandmother married.

The Political Notes column is taking a holiday hiatus. It will return Monday, June 2.

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