laird ran for the 15th district california state senate seat previously held by republican abel maldonado, whom governor arnold schwarzenegger named as lieutenant governor in november 2009. he lost to sam blakeslee in a special election primary held on june 22, 2010 and subsequently in the runoff election held on august 17, 2010. laird lost by a 7.59% margin in the primary and a 3.93% margin in the runoff.