San Jose election results: Cindy Chavez, Matt Mahan lead in San Jose mayor’s race

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez has emerged as the frontrunner in the carefully watched contest for San Jose mayor following Tuesday's primary election, marking a significant turnaround from her defeat by former Mayor Chuck Reed 16 years ago. Early returns show that Chavez, a longstanding South Bay politician and labor leader, and San Jose Councilman Matt Mahan, a relatively young elected figure backed by the region's business party, are set for a November runoff. The contest between Chavez and Mahan sets the stage for a potentially historic spending war in the fall, with the winner influencing the path of Silicon Valley's largest city for years to come on topics like affordable housing and development, as well as crime. Chavez would be the city's first labor-backed mayor in two decades if he is elected.

“I’m very, very excited and very honored and very appreciative that we had such a substantive, smart, thoughtful primary with so many great candidates, so it’s even a bigger honor to see what the initial numbers are tonight,” Chavez said.

Sam Liccardo, a business-backed moderate Democrat who has served as mayor for the previous eight years, will be succeeded by the chosen candidate. Liccardo has not indicated what he intends to do when his second term ends at the end of the year. Chavez and Mahan were the top fundraisers heading into the election. They raised more than twice as much as the next two candidates, San Jose councilmembers Dev Davis and Raul Peralez.

The South Bay Labor Council and the San Francisco 49ers both endorsed Chavez and contributed more than $1 million to his campaign. The Silicon Valley BIZ PAC and a fundraising group founded by Liccardo backed Mahan. Chavez ran on her extensive history in South Bay politics, having served on the San Jose City Council for eight years from 1999 to 2007 before being elected to the county board of supervisors in 2013. Mahan, on the other hand, built his campaign around a call to action to change "the status quo" in local politics, promising to bring greater transparency and outcomes to the city's highest elected office.

“We’ve come an incredibly long way and I’m confident as San Joseans hear our message of change and accountability that we’re ultimately going to prevail in November,” Mahan said.

Peralez, a more progressive, pro-labor candidate, competed with Chavez for votes, while Davis, a more conservative, pro-business candidate, certainly lost some votes to Mahan.

“We ran a clean campaign, we made it about ideas and we did the best to get the word out,” Davis said. “I think we can tell that money matters in elections, clearly.”

In the city's five odd-numbered council districts, three races appeared to be headed for a run-off. Rosemary Kamei, a Santa Clara County Office of Education board member, was leading her opponents Ramona Arellano Snyder, a former flight attendant and volunteer program manager, and paratransit operator Tim Gildersleeve in the first round of voting in West San Jose's District 1. The campaign to represent District 3, which includes the city's main downtown area, was tighter than expected. Omar Torres, a board trustee for the San Jose-Evergreen Community College District, had an early double-digit lead over the next candidate, small business owner Irene Smith.

Meanwhile, the race for District 5 in East San Jose was down to the wire. Former San Jose councilwoman Nora Campos led the field, with Peter Ortiz, a former Santa Clara County Board of Education trustee, and HG Nguyen, the founding president of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce of Santa Clara Valley, vying for second place in the run-off. Maya Esparza, the incumbent, jumped out to a big lead in the contest for District 7, which encompasses a wide range of communities south of downtown San Jose, from Little Saigon to La Tropicana to Tully Santee. Meanwhile, Esparza's two opponents, San Jose Fire Captain Bien Doan and Van Le, an East Side Union High School District trustee, were almost well matched.

“I’m feeling really good,” Esparza said. “We’ve worked really hard out in the community, and I look forward to getting back to work after the election.”

The South Bay Labor Council, the San Jose Police Officers' Association, and Bloom Energy executive Carl Guardino—a personal friend of Liccardo's—have all endorsed Chavez, 58. She's also gotten a lot of help from the leaders of the San Francisco 49ers football team, who sponsored her campaign and contributed $300,000 to an independent expenditure organization. She has raised approximately $810,000 as of April. With $1.1 million, Chavez's campaign has taken the lion's share of the money raised by political action groups. This primary was one of the most expensive in recent history, with special interest groups spending $2.3 million on Silicon Valley candidates. San Jose Councilmember Dev Davis, who received around 10% of the vote, is trailing the two front-runners. Davis is unaffiliated with any political party, having left the Republican Party in 2018.

Davis, 44, was chosen to represent Willow Glen and Buena Vista in District 6 in 2016. Davis spent 12 years as an education researcher at Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes and chaired San Jose's Early Care and Education Committee before joining politics. Former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, the anti-SB 9 group Families & Homes SJ, and the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association have all endorsed her. She has raised $294,451 as of April.

Raul Peralez, a 40-year-old San Jose City Councilmember, finished fourth with 8.47 percent of the vote. Peralez, a Democrat, was first elected to the City Council in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018. Peralez has worked as a teacher and a cop, and he is currently a reserve officer. Fellow Councilmembers Sylvia Arenas, Magdalena Carrasco, and Sergio Jimenez all endorsed Peralez, who was the first contender to enter the race last year. He's raised $376,772 so far.

Two outside candidates are trailing the pack in terms of financial support and endorsements. Jim Spence, a 74-year-old retired San Jose police sergeant, is one of them. Spence, a Republican, worked for the San Jose Police Department for three decades before retiring in 2001. He now owns and operates a private investigation agency. Spence has not reported any money raised as of April, after previously claiming to have borrowed $10,000.