Quick Take
Santa Cruz City Council District 2 incumbent Sonja Brunner has defeated challenger Hector Marin.
Friday, March 15, 4:30 p.m. — With 3,533 ballots counted as of Tuesday, Santa Cruz City Council District 2 incumbent Sonja Brunner has defeated challenger Hector Marin by a substantial margin. Brunner had received 1,864 votes, or 58% of votes counted, compared to 1,307 votes, or 40.6%, for Marin.
Previous updates
Friday, March 15, 4:30 p.m. — With 3,168 ballots counted as of Friday evening, Santa Cruz City Council District 2 incumbent Sonja Brunner has defeated challenger Hector Marin by a substantial margin. Brunner had received 1,848 votes, or 58.33% of votes counted, compared to 1,275 votes, or 40.25%, for Marin.
Monday, March 11, 4:30 p.m. — With 3,016 ballots counted as of Monday evening, Santa Cruz City Council District 2 incumbent Sonja Brunner has defeated challenger Hector Marin by a substantial margin. Brunner had received 1,763 votes, or 58.45% of votes counted, compared to 1,210 votes, or 40.12%, for Marin.
Friday, March 8, 6:30 p.m. – With 2,815 ballots counted as of Friday evening, Santa Cruz City Council District 2 incumbent Sonja Brunner continued to lead challenger Hector Marin by a large margin, but her lead had decreased slightly. Brunner had received 1,637 votes, or 58.15% of votes counted, compared to 1,140 votes, or 40.5%, for Marin.
Brunner said the results so far are “encouraging” and thanked District 2 voters for their support.
“We’ll see where this goes, but I’m committed and happy to serve another term on city council,” she said.
Wednesday, March 6, 2 a.m. – With 2,108 ballots counted Wednesday morning, Santa Cruz City Council District 2 incumbent Sonja Brunner was leading challenger Hector Marin by a large margin. Brunner had received 1,143 votes, or 59.66% of votes counted, compared to 749 votes, or 39.09%, for Marin.
District 2 is the southeast section of Santa Cruz, including the Seabright neighborhood and bounded by Water Street to the north and Front Street to the west.
The director of operations at the Downtown Santa Cruz Association, Brunner was first elected to the city council in 2020 and served as mayor and vice mayor before the city transitioned to districts with a full-time mayor.
During the campaign, Brunner opposed Measure M, the citizen-led initiative to restrict the city’s ability to increase building heights on some developments without a vote and to raise the requirements for affordable housing in new construction. She has also supported the city’s Housing Element, the state-mandated plan to construct thousands of new housing units.
Hector Marin previously ran for city council in 2022, against Scott Newsome in District 4. He ran on a platform of advocating for underrepresented voices, including Latino residents and the unhoused, making sure undocumented people can vote, and bringing more transparency to the city’s homelessness emergency plan.
Marin supported Measure M, arguing the city is building too much market-rate housing, which risks pushing out people of color and very low-income residents.
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