Skip to main content

City of Inglewood · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Inglewood

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 is Inglewood's chief executive: the budget, police and fire leadership, and the city's economic development and housing policy.

Six candidates qualified for the November 3 ballot for Inglewood mayor, led by four-term incumbent James T. Butts. Inglewood's charter requires a majority to win outright, so a field this size raises a real chance of a runoff if nobody clears 50%.

The winner serves a four-year term as Inglewood's chief executive: proposing the budget, directing the police and fire departments, and setting the city's direction on development, housing and public safety, working with a four-member City Council.

The choice is largely continuity against change: Butts's fifteen years in office have coincided with SoFi Stadium, the Intuit Dome and the development around them, while every challenger offers a different critique of that record — of who it has benefited, of transparency, or simply that fifteen years is long enough.

James T. Butts

He has been Inglewood's mayor since 2011 and is its longest-serving, seeking an unprecedented fifth term. He points to SoFi Stadium, the Intuit Dome and the surrounding development as his tenure's record, and says growth should keep benefiting current and future residents. A fifth term would carry him through the city's 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympics.

Strengths

Fifteen years in office, three prior re-elections, and a tenure defined by SoFi Stadium, the Intuit Dome, and the development around them.

Trade-offs

A fifth term would extend one leader's hold on City Hall to two decades, and every challenger's platform is built around the case that it is time for someone else.

Keep in mind

Some residents say they've been cut out of decision-making and blocked from the benefits that development brings, per LA Local reporting; Butts frames his record as growth that should keep benefiting residents.

Fre'Drisha Dixon

She is an attorney and the founder of a family-owned Inglewood law firm, with earlier experience in the LA County Public Defender's office. Running as "Leadership Inglewood Can Trust," she says residents feel shut out of City Hall's decisions and wants to bring transparency and accountability to it. She ran for mayor once before, in 2022, and came within about three points of forcing a runoff.

Strengths

A law degree and practicing family-and-civil firm, plus the closest anyone has come to forcing Butts into a runoff, in 2022.

Trade-offs

Ran for mayor once before, in 2022, and did not win.

Keep in mind

Her 2022 run came within about three points of a runoff — the strongest recent challenge to Butts — which her campaign points to as evidence this field could go differently.

Arturo Martinez

He is a 46-year Inglewood resident, an Inglewood High graduate, and has spent more than 25 years working in technology. Running as "For Inglewood By Inglewood," he wants to fight displacement by teaching residents about trusts and generational wealth and to bring smart-city technology to the city. This is his first run for elected office.

Strengths

Decades in technology and a platform aimed at using it for smart-city upgrades, paired with a generational-wealth push against displacement.

Trade-offs

First run for any office, so there is no record in elected government to weigh against Butts's fifteen years.

Keep in mind

His displacement plan is framed as financial education — trusts for elders, generational-wealth lessons for children — rather than a housing-policy proposal, which is a different kind of intervention than a rent or zoning measure.

Gloria D. Gray

She is Inglewood's District 1 councilmember, elected in 2023, and a retired health care administrator who has spent two decades on regional water agency boards. She wants evening council meetings, longer public comment, and ballot measures restoring citizen police oversight and requiring body cameras. She did not file for re-election to her council seat and is running for mayor instead.

Strengths

One term on the City Council already, two decades on regional water boards, and a specific platform: evening meetings, longer public comment, and restored citizen police oversight.

Trade-offs

Barely two years on the council is a short record of city governance to weigh against Butts's fifteen years.

Keep in mind

As a sitting councilmember challenging the mayor, she is asking voters to judge Butts's tenure from inside the government she has served in since 2023.

Raina Carrillo

She is a lifelong Inglewood resident who works with young people on gang intervention and violence prevention, and has served as a state Democratic Party delegate and a community clinic board member. She wants residents to have a stronger voice in City Hall's decisions, saying "we don't have the community voice currently." This is her second run for mayor; she got just under 12% of the vote in 2022.

Strengths

Years of youth gang-intervention work and a second campaign, giving her more name recognition than a first-time candidate would have.

Trade-offs

Finished with just under 12% in her 2022 run, and no experience in elected office to weigh against Butts's tenure.

Keep in mind

Her central case is about process, not a specific policy: that residents currently have no real voice in City Hall's decisions, a claim she has made consistently since her first campaign.

Joseph Soto

He is a property owner making his third run for Inglewood mayor, after first seeking the office in 2010. He wants more transparency at City Hall, an independent audit of the city's finances, and citywide rent control. The one thing to know: he supports rent control despite being a landlord himself, a position his own material presents as notable.

Strengths

A specific three-part platform — transparency, an independent financial audit, and rent control — and persistence across three campaigns since 2010.

Trade-offs

Three runs for mayor since 2010 without winning, and no service in elected office.

Keep in mind

He backs rent control as a property owner himself, which his own campaign material presents as a deliberate break from typical landlord politics.

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 9 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

Last updated August 31, 2026.