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City of Cudahy · Statewide General Election

Cudahy City Council

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person holds one of three at-large seats up this cycle on Cudahy's 5-member City Council, elected to staggered 4-year terms: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor — the title rotates rather than being separately elected — and day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager.

Five candidates are running for three at-large seats on Cudahy's City Council: incumbents Cynthia Gonzalez and Martin U. Fuentes against challengers Richard Corvera-Hernandez, Jose R. Gonzalez and Cynthia Romo. Vote for up to three — no primary.

Council seats carry 4-year terms, staggered so either two or three seats are up each cycle — this year it's three, including the seat of Councilmember Elizabeth Alcantar Loza, who did not file for another term. Winners join two sitting councilmembers not up this cycle, Daisy Lomelí and Amanda Gomez, to make five votes on city ordinances, the budget, and land use; the council then selects one of its own to serve as Mayor, and day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager.

The field resolves an open question about its own size: a sixth Cudahy resident, Nathan Nuñez, pulled nomination papers but never filed them, leaving five qualified candidates for three seats, not six. The most consequential fact for this cycle is Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez's June 2025 social-media video, made while she was still Vice Mayor, naming local street gangs and urging them to organize against ICE raids — national news for weeks before she apologized and clarified her intent at a council meeting. Both incumbents are seeking another term against three challengers with no history in elected Cudahy office.

Cynthia Gonzalez

Cynthia Gonzalez, Ed.D. is the incumbent Mayor, a title her fellow councilmembers gave her after she was first elected to the council in 2022. She's running for another 4-year council term. In June 2025, while serving as Vice Mayor, she posted a viral social-media video naming local street gangs and asking them to organize against ICE immigration raids — a message that drew national news coverage, a resignation call from the LA Police Protective League, and her own on-camera clarification a month later that she meant peaceful organizing, not violence.

Strengths

Sitting Mayor with a full council term served, a doctorate in educational leadership, and a career overseeing LAUSD schools, plus a new UCLA role training school principals.

Trade-offs

A June 2025 video naming street gangs and urging them to 'organize' against ICE drew a resignation call from the LA police union and national coverage before she apologized and clarified her intent.

Keep in mind

Some outlets reported she was facing a federal investigation over the video; the FBI would not confirm or deny one to ABC7. She kept her Mayor title and is seeking reelection.

Martin U. Fuentes

Martin U. Fuentes is the incumbent councilmember, a Cudahy resident of more than 40 years who has also served a term as the city's rotating Mayor. He's running for another 4-year council term. Before joining the council he worked as a field deputy for U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, an aide to state Senator Gloria Romero, and Political Director for SEIU Local 1877's 'Justice for Janitors' organizing campaigns.

Strengths

Decades of Sacramento- and Washington-adjacent staff experience — for a member of Congress, a state senator, and a major labor union — plus a prior term as Cudahy's rotating Mayor.

Trade-offs

His own campaign announcement and city bio describe his record only in general terms; no independent source details specific votes, ordinances, or initiatives he authored on the council.

Keep in mind

A 40-plus-year Cudahy resident, which gives him more direct-community tenure than any other candidate in this field, incumbent or challenger.

Richard Corvera-Hernandez

Richard Corvera-Hernandez is a challenger who served on Cudahy's Planning Commission from January 2022 until April 2026, when the councilmember who'd appointed him removed him and named a replacement. He's running for a seat on the City Council. As a commissioner he publicly questioned city staff over whether the Cudahy 2040 General Plan's projected unit counts exceed the region's state-mandated housing targets, per the city's own meeting minutes.

Strengths

Four years of hands-on Planning Commission experience, including publicly pressing staff on whether the city's General Plan growth projections exceed state housing targets.

Trade-offs

Removed from that commission the same year he filed for council, by the councilmember who'd appointed him — a discretionary, no-cause removal under city code, not a documented finding against him.

Keep in mind

No campaign statement, website, or news coverage was found for his council bid; his own qualification for the ballot on August 3, 2026 is the only independently confirmed fact of his candidacy.

Jose R. Gonzalez

Jose R. Gonzalez is a challenger and former Cudahy councilmember who, per the city's own social-media announcements, was appointed rather than elected to his prior council seat and was elevated by his colleagues to serve as Mayor by December 2023, continuing in that role until his term ended in December 2024. He's running to return to the City Council. A professional-networking profile matching his name lists more than 20 years of K-12 education experience, and he has run unsuccessfully for regional water-district board seats since leaving the Cudahy council, including the West Basin Municipal Water District in 2022 and the Central Basin Municipal Water District in 2024.

Strengths

The only candidate in the field with direct experience as both a Cudahy councilmember and its Mayor, plus 20-plus years of K-12 education experience.

Trade-offs

Left the council when his appointed term ended in December 2024, and has since lost two regional water-board races, most recently by wide margins in 2022 and 2024.

Keep in mind

He was appointed to his prior council seat rather than elected to it, so this campaign is his first attempt to win a Cudahy council seat directly at the ballot box.

Cynthia Romo

Cynthia Romo is a challenger who has lived in Cudahy for more than 40 years and is raising her own family there. She's running for a seat on the City Council, campaigning alongside incumbent Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez under a joint 'Two Cynthias' banner. Professionally, a LinkedIn profile matching her name and location lists her as PACE Outreach & Marketing Regional Director at AltaMed Health Services, a large Los Angeles County community health nonprofit.

Strengths

A 40-plus-year Cudahy resident with an explicit alliance with the sitting Mayor, giving her a visible campaign presence despite no prior officeholding.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement, website, or news coverage beyond her own and allied social-media posts was found; no prior public-service record could be independently confirmed.

Keep in mind

Her professional background, if the LinkedIn match is accurate, is in community health outreach at AltaMed rather than municipal government or land use.

Source review: Strong (83/100) · 16 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Martin Fuentes (Instagram, @martin4cudahy), Jose Gonzalez (Instagram, @josergonzalezsela), and Cynthia Romo (Instagram, @bruin2018) may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

Last updated August 31, 2026.