Quick Take
With just under two months until the November general election, Santa Cruz City Council District 4 candidate Bodie Shargel has suspended his campaign and plans to support fellow progressive District 4 candidate Hector Marin. Shargel says he aims to continue to “build a working-class movement” through his work with progressive groups like the Democratic Socialists of America and the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
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The pool of four candidates for the Santa Cruz City Council District 4 seat has been reduced to three.
Bodie Shargel, Santa Cruz County native and current second-year UC Santa Cruz student, has suspended his campaign and dropped out of the District 4 race. That leaves Greg Hyver, Hector Marin and Scott Newsome as the remaining candidates for the seat, which represents an area designated bounded by Bay, High, Front and Beach streets.
The 19-year-old Shargel says the move to drop out feels like the right thing to do.
“It came to a point where me running wasn’t getting results for people in Santa Cruz,” he said. “I think the best thing for the progressive political bloc that I’m a part of is for me to bail out.”
Going forward, Shargel says he will be fully supporting fellow candidate Marin.
“I think Hector would do a good job representing progressive values and young people in Santa Cruz,” he said. “I’m planning to offer Hector my full support, and there’s also much more work to do.”
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Marin, 24, graduated from UCSC last year. Like Shargel, Marin was active on campus, and protested with striking university workers in 2018 and 2019. He co-founded Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) while at UCSC. Both men cite Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign as a huge source of inspiration.
On top of supporting Marin’s campaign, Shargel will continue canvassing and campaigning for Measure N, the so-called empty homes tax, and begin refocusing on activism efforts at UCSC.
“I’ve been walking in neighborhoods and knocking on doors for Measure N recently, and beyond this election, I’m excited to move my focus back up to campus as we come back to school,” he said.
Shargel said he will continue to work with progressive groups in the community like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and YDSA during and beyond election season. He said that the increased prevalence of DSA affiliates in electoral politics has been encouraging, and he’s excited to see what the future holds.
“Seeing young people, progressives, and DSA members running for city councils and school boards is more common in Santa Cruz, across the country, and across the world,” he said. “This is why I ran for city council to begin with. I think we’re building a working-class movement, which is my goal.”
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