The 2026 races for two open seats of the San Diego municipal council are both promising to be fierce competitions with several quality candidates – but the two races are always considered wide open with a lot for new candidates to emerge.
The race for the District 2, which extends from Clairemont to Point Loma and Ocean Beach, will not offer a holder for the first time in almost two decades, because the member of the Council Jennifer Campbell faces mandate limits.
Until now, declared candidates already include the city’s prosecutor, Nicole Crosby, the former member of the town hall of the town hall Josh Coyne, the head of the Point Loma Mandy Havlik district and the dentist Linda Lukacs, who lost during a runoff in 2022 for the siege.
Havlik also presented himself for the headquarters in 2022, finishing fifth in a primary of six candidates. The sixth place of this year, the resident of Bay Ho, Daniel Shiechowski, filed papers to present himself again in 2026.
There are already four solid candidates expected in the race to succeed Vivian Moreno in the district 8, which reaches Sherman Heights and Barrio Logan north in San Ysidro and Otay Mesa in the south.
The candidates who have already declared include the member of the San Ysidro School Board, Antonio Martinez, the real estate agent Rafael Perez and the long -standing staff of the town hall Venus Molina, now the chief of staff of Campbell. Gerardo Ramirez, chief of staff of Moreno, should also take place.
Martinez lost against Moreno runoff for headquarters in 2018 and 2022.
Two other seats of the Council on the 2026 ballot are not being competitive for holders who request a re -election – Kent Lee in the District 6 and Henry Foster of the North Central in the Southeast San Diego District 4.
No challenge has filed items so far to run against Lee or Foster.
With 14 months until the June 2026 primary, Crosby and Coyne could be early in the District 2 due to their experience of the Town Hall. But it is also not a proven fund collection or has no connection stories with voters or key landing.
Approval of the County Democratic Party could be the key to winning the District 2, where the registered democrats were more numerous than the republicans recorded 42,377 to 24,243 to Tuesday.
Lukacs, who lives in Ocean Beach, is the only republican in the race. The others are Democrats.
If it were elected, Crosby would follow in the footsteps of Raul Campillo and Marni von Wilpert, two assistant prosecutors who successfully won the council seats – Campillo in the district 7 of the East 7 and Von Wilpert in the north of the District 5.
Crosby, who has lived in Clairemont Mesa, has been with the city’s prosecutor’s office for more than a decade. She worked as a prosecutor and focused on domestic violence, sexual predators and the prevention of armed violence.
Coyne, who lives at Point Loma, knows the district 2 of his service to Campbell staff from 2019 to 2021. He is now working for the city center’s non-profit partnership.
When she ran in 2022, Havlik focused on maintaining the coastal height limit of 30 feet of 30 feet for the development and the fight against higher density housing proposals, she damaged the character of the beach communities.
Lukacs, who lives in Sunset Cliffs, concentrated in the 2022 race on developers demanding to finance infrastructure as well as new projects.
Andrea Schlageter, head of an umbrella organization for neighborhood groups called City Planners Committee, said that she was also considering a race.
Another potential candidate is the old Lori Saldaña assembly. She said this week that she had discussed the possibility of running with supporters.
In the District 8, a key factor in the race should be the way Moreno behaves in the crowded race for a seat open to the Comté supervisors.
If Moreno wins this race, the city should organize a special election to replace it because it would remain more than a year in its mandate of the Council. If this happens, it could affect that works.
A Moreno’s victory will seem likely to stimulate the chances of Ramirez, his chief of staff, because she supports her candidacy and could have more influence on the unions and the County Democratic Party if he was elected supervisor.
But his loss would eliminate this potential advantage for Ramirez, who has been a member of the District 8 staff for eight years.
Molina, who lives in Otay Mesa, is considered a solid candidate because of her experience of the Town Hall. But it can sometimes work against candidates, especially in district 8, where political consultants say that popular organization is particularly important.
Martinez also brings a notable experience to the race, sitting at the school board since 2012 and in various neighborhood groups. But losing twice against Moreno is considered an obstacle that he will have to overcome.
Perez, who lost against Sean Elo -Rivera for a seat of the San Diego Community College board of directors in 2018, could concentrate his campaign on his knowledge of the local housing market – a key problem throughout the city.
A resident of Sherman Heights, Perez previously sat on the City Equality Commission and now sits on the board of directors of the San Diego Régional Airport Authority.
The four candidates for the District 8 are democrats, who were more numerous than the Republicans recorded in the district of 40,055 to 15,860 until Tuesday.
California Daily Newspapers
