Quick Take
With seats up for grabs on all of Santa Cruz County's city councils, the county board of supervisors, the California Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives, plus a new governor to be elected and statewide ballot measures, 2026 figures to be another active election cycle.
You might see it as good news, you might see it as bad news. But 2026 is an election year. That could mean big changes nationally, statewide and even locally.
In Santa Cruz, the city’s first-ever directly elected four-year mayoral term will be coming to a close at the end of 2026. After serving one term, Mayor Fred Keeley, 75, will not seek reelection, so the ’26 election will include a ballot for a new mayor. The filing period to run for mayor opens in February for the June 2 primary election (with a Nov. 3 runoff, if needed). Also on the ballot will be city council seats in Districts 4 and 6, now occupied by Scott Newsome and Renee Golder, respectively. Winners of the mayoral and city council elections will take office on Dec. 8.
Three seats on the five-member Capitola City Council – those currently held by Joe Clarke, Margaux Morgan and Susan Westman – will be on the November ballot. The five-member Scotts Valley City Council will have two seats up for grabs, those currently occupied by Derek Timm and Greg Wimp. In Watsonville, Districts 3, 4, 5 and 7 – where the incumbents are Maria Orozco, Kristal Salcido, Casey Clark and Ari Parker, respectively – will be on the ballot.
On the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, District 3 (which includes most of the city of Santa Cruz) will elect a supervisor for another four-year term. Incumbent Justin Cummings has announced his intention to run for re-election. The seat for District 4, which represents Watsonville and South County, is also on the ballot. Incumbent Felipe Hernandez has not announced his intentions.
The state is also poised to elect a new governor, as incumbent Gavin Newsom, 58, is termed out from seeking reelection. The non-partisan June 2 primary will decide which two candidates square off in November. Among those who have declared their intention to run are Katie Porter, Antonio Villaraigosa, Tom Steyer, Chad Bianco and Eric Swalwell. In the state Legislature, Assemblymembers Gail Pellerin (District 28), Robert Rivas (District 29) and Dawn Addis (District 30) have filed to run for reelection. State Sen. John Laird is not up for reelection, with two years to go in this term.
As for state ballot propositions, only three have so far qualified to appear on the ballot, all having to do with campaign finance and elections. But wait: 34 others have been filed with the state attorney general, and organizers are now in the process of gathering signatures. Those yet-to-qualify measures deal with such issues as artificial intelligence chatbot regulation, AI safety standards, taxes on the super-rich, and a plebiscite on whether California should leave the United States and become an independent country.
On the national level, the November 2026 elections will decide a new Congress. Though neither of California’s U.S. Senate seats is up for reelection, the entire House of Representatives is up for grabs, including California’s 18th and 19th Districts, which include Santa Cruz County. The 19th is currently represented by Democrat Jimmy Panetta, 56, who will be running for reelection. The incumbent in the 18th District is Democrat Zoe Lofgren, 78, who is also running for reelection.
Proposition 50, the redistricting measure that passed by ballot measure in 2025, will have no effect on the boundaries of the 19th District, which includes the cities of Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Scotts Valley, and parts of South County near Watsonville. The 18th District, which includes most of the city of Watsonville, will expand on its southern border to include parts of the Central Valley.
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