Herb Morgan seeks California controller post Nov. 3

Republican Herb Morgan is running for California controller in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election. He faces Malia Cohen, a Democrat, according to BallotReady election data.

Asked why he is seeking the office, Morgan said in our candidate questionnaire, "California's finances lack the independent, real-time oversight the Constitution assigns to this post. The Controller is the state's chief fiscal officer and auditor, not a policy advocate."

He added, "Voters deserve to know where every dollar goes before it is spent, not years later in a report few read."

Candidate information

Party: Republican

Family: Morgan said in our questionnaire, "Married 35 years, two adult children."

Hometown: Morgan said he "grew up in Westminster and Oceanside, California, and attended local public schools," according to his campaign website.

Education: Morgan said in our questionnaire, "My education is a B.A. in Economics with honors from the University of California, Santa Cruz."

Experience and public service

Morgan said in our questionnaire, "I am a finance executive and investment adviser with roughly forty years in capital markets. I began on Wall Street with Dean Witter, J.&W. Seligman, Dreyfus, and LPL Financial."

He continued, "In 2004 I founded Efficient Market Advisors, the first ETF-managed-account platform, which grew to about $1.5 billion in assets and was sold to Cantor Fitzgerald in 2017. I remained Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of that division until I retired to run for Controller."

Morgan also said, "I also served on the San Diego City Employees' Retirement System board, appointed in 2009 and reappointed in 2013, and served as both vice president and president of the board."

Efficient Market Advisors had approximately $1.1 billion in assets under advisement when Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisors acquired it in March 2017, according to a Cantor Fitzgerald announcement.

On the issues

Asked what accomplishments show he can handle the job, Morgan said in our questionnaire, "I built and sold a regulated investment firm … responsible for process, risk controls, and client reporting. That work required the same discipline the Controller's office demands: custody of other people's money and clean, timely books."

He added, "I have also held multiple board seats, including audit-committee assignments, where the duty was to test controls, question management, and report exceptions."

On the differences between himself and his opponent, Morgan said in our questionnaire, "I will publish state payments on a public ledger and apply continuous audit tools to high-risk programs so findings arrive while money is still moving."

He also said, "I will report waste, fraud, and control failures in plain language. The test of the office is whether the books are open, not whether the Controller agrees with the spending."

Morgan told CalMatters he proposes creating a system where every time a state-funded nonprofit pays for anything, that transaction goes into a state database, and then using AI to flag anything suspicious. He also said he would scrutinize the state's spending on homelessness.