# Mayor of El Cajon

Compare records and positions simply between Alexander Kraft or Bill Wells for Mayor of El Cajon at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person presides over City Council meetings and represents El Cajon publicly. They vote as one of five members on the budget and city laws. An appointed city manager runs daily government. El Cajon's mayor is the only council member elected citywide. The other members are elected by district. The term is four years.

- Jurisdiction: City of El Cajon
- Election: November 3, 2026 California general election
- Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements.
- Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-cajon-mayor
- Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/
- Sources last retrieved: September 7, 2026
- Source-objectivity score: 87 out of 100 (Strong), across 4 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology

## On the ballot

- **Alexander Kraft** — Legal Support Assistant
- **Bill Wells** — Mayor of El Cajon · Incumbent

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

El Cajon's mayoral race pits longtime incumbent Bill Wells, in office since 2013, against challenger Alexander Kraft, a Peace and Freedom Party member running on a socialist platform. Whichever candidate receives the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there is no runoff.

The mayor presides over City Council meetings and represents El Cajon publicly, but votes as one of five members on the budget and city ordinances -- day-to-day city government runs through an appointed city manager. El Cajon's mayor is the only council member elected citywide; the other four represent numbered districts, though only District 1's seat is on this November's ballot. The term is four years.

El Cajon has leaned Republican for decades, with conservatives holding a majority on the council, and this race is an unusually stark ideological matchup for that environment. Wells is campaigning on his tenure's fiscal and public-safety record; Kraft, a first-time candidate, is campaigning on labor rights, housing costs, and a sharply different approach to homelessness and policing. The city's municipal elections are officially nonpartisan, but the two campaigns represent close to opposite ends of the political spectrum.

## Bill Wells

Incumbent Bill Wells has served as mayor since 2013, after six years on the City Council beginning in 2008 -- more than 12 years in the city's top job by this election. A clinical psychologist and former emergency-room nurse with 30 years in healthcare, he points to $63 million in city reserves, roughly $100 million in savings from pension reform, a fully staffed police department, and new business investment including the city's Magnolia performing-arts center as his record. His campaign opposes new taxes on residents -- he has specifically targeted a proposed state mileage tax, AB 1421 -- and calls for a "treatment, not tents; accountability, not excuses" approach to homelessness: mandated mental-health treatment and transitional housing along with clearing encampments, rather than what he describes as failed county and state policy. He also led El Cajon in a lawsuit challenging California's sanctuary-state laws.

**Strengths:** More than 12 years as mayor, plus six years on the council before that. That is the longest record on this ballot. He can point to fiscal results such as reserves and pension savings.

**Trade-offs:** A long time in office means a fuller record to weigh. His approach to homelessness runs against the housing-first policy of the state and the county.

**Keep in mind:** News reports put $13,715 in his campaign account as of June 30, 2026. See Financial info. His own state filer record could not be checked.

## Alexander Kraft

Challenger Alexander Kraft grew up in an El Cajon trailer park, worked an assembly-line job, and graduated from UC Berkeley. A labor organizer and former educator, he's a member of the Peace and Freedom Party running what his campaign calls a "working-class socialist" platform, and has organized protests on social-justice issues since the Iraq War. He wants to end what he calls corporate property takeovers of El Cajon housing and fund first-time homebuyer programs, says he'll support the city's immigrant residents, and would audit police spending to redirect funds toward community needs and a citywide community response team for mental-health crises. On homelessness, he opposes the city's ban on feeding people in public parks. His campaign describes El Cajon's government as more focused on paying "billionaire landlords" than meeting residents' needs.

**Strengths:** A first-time candidate with a platform sharply different from 12-plus years of incumbent leadership. He offers specific proposals rather than a general critique.

**Trade-offs:** He has no prior elected or appointed experience. Each proposal would need City Council votes he does not yet have a coalition for.

**Keep in mind:** News reports put $6,701 in his campaign account as of June 30, 2026. See Financial info. His state committee is active but had not filed a detailed disclosure.

## Review notes

- Bill Wells's own campaign site (votebillwells.com): biography, record, and platform in his own words may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

## Sources

1. [San Diego County Registrar of Voters -- Candidate List, November 3, 2026 General Election (current through the 8/24/2026 2:44pm snapshot): confirms Mayor, City Council Districts 1 and 3, City Clerk, and City Treasurer as Carlsbad's five November 2026 races, and Mayor plus City Council Districts 1 and 3 as Poway's three November 2026 races, each Vote for 1](https://www.sdvote.com/content/dam/rov/en/election/nov-3-2026-gubernatorial-general-election/candidate-list.pdf)
2. [San Diego Union-Tribune (reporter Hannah Elsmore) -- "Socialist challenges conservative incumbent Mayor Bill Wells in El Cajon, three vie for open council seat": profiles both El Cajon mayoral candidates (Bill Wells, Alexander Kraft) and all three District 1 council candidates (Chuck Kaye, Patrick Grillot, Osama Bayati), including party, occupation, platform, and June 30, 2026 cash-on-hand figures for the mayoral race; the original SDUT page was not independently reachable in this pass, so it's cited via its Aug. 26, 2026 Yahoo News syndication, which attributes the underlying reporting to the Union-Tribune throughout](https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/socialist-rivals-circle-longtime-california-210326480.html)
3. [Bill Wells's own campaign site (votebillwells.com): describes him as a clinical psychologist and former ER nurse with 30 years in healthcare, and lists his record as $63 million in city reserves, roughly $100 million in pension-reform savings, full police staffing, and the Magnolia performing-arts center; platform opposes new taxes (naming the state's proposed AB 1421 mileage tax) and calls for a "treatment, not tents" approach to homelessness](https://www.votebillwells.com)
4. [CAL-ACCESS committee detail for "KRAFT FOR MAYOR 2026" (Filer ID 1484569): status ACTIVE, but no Form 460/461/450 electronically filed for the 2025-2026 cycle as of retrieval -- a documented gap, not a claim that news-reported cash figures for him are wrong](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees/Detail.aspx?id=1484569&session=2025)

## The rest of the ballot

Mayor of El Cajon is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/

## How to cite this page

Vote or Else, "Mayor of El Cajon — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-cajon-mayor (sources last retrieved September 7, 2026).

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