Four San Diego Council Seats Head to November With Two Incumbents, Two Wide-Open Races

By Jose E. Navarro, The Navarro Report

SAN DIEGO — Four of the nine seats on the San Diego City Council are on the November 3 ballot, setting up a general election that will reshape roughly half the council even before accounting for term limits that have already forced two incumbents out of contention. The races in Districts 2, 4, 6 and 8 advanced their top two primary finishers from the June 2 election, with the winner in each district set to serve a four-year term.

District 2, covering Clairemont, Mission Beach, Mission Bay Park, Old Town, Ocean Beach and Point Loma, was the most contested race on the city’s primary ballot, with seven candidates competing for the seat left open by termed-out Councilmember Jennifer Campbell. District 8, spanning Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, San Ysidro and other southern San Diego communities, is similarly open after Councilmember Vivian Moreno reached her term limit.

By contrast, Districts 4 and 6 feature incumbents seeking another term. Henry Foster III, who first won District 4 — covering southeastern San Diego communities including Encanto, Paradise Hills and Valencia Park — in a March 2024 special election, is running for a full term. In District 6, which includes Kearny Mesa, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch, Sorrento Valley and University City, incumbent Kent Lee is seeking a second term after facing only one primary challenger.

San Diego’s municipal elections are officially non-partisan, though most candidates publicly identify with a party, and the two-round primary-to-runoff structure means the top two primary finishers in each district — regardless of party — advance to November regardless of vote share. Voters will also decide Measure A, a non-primary homes tax placed on the citywide ballot alongside the council races.

With two open seats and two incumbent contests, the outcome could shift the council’s composition even without a change in its current partisan balance, and campaign finance filings due ahead of the general election are expected to offer the clearest signal yet of which races remain genuinely competitive as the city moves from a crowded primary field to a four-way November decision.

Human-Directed AI Journalism

This article was produced under a human-directed AI journalism model: reporting, sourcing, and editorial judgment directed by Jose E. Navarro, with AI-assisted drafting. The Navarro Report | navarro-report.com