Skip to main content

City of San Luis Obispo · Statewide General Election

San Luis Obispo Mayor

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

On the ballot

San Luis Obispo is a charter city that elects its Mayor directly, as one of five members of a "Council-Mayor-City Manager" government: the Mayor and four City Council Members set the city's ordinances, budget, and policy, while a separately appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The Mayor presides at Council meetings and is the city's ceremonial head, but otherwise casts the same single vote as any other Council member -- there's no independent veto or expanded authority beyond that. The Mayor serves two-year terms, capped at four consecutive terms (Council Members serve four-year terms, capped at two).

Incumbent Mayor Erica A. Stewart is running for another term unopposed -- she's the only candidate who qualified for the ballot. Challenger Donald Hedrick filed nomination papers but did not ultimately qualify.

San Luis Obispo is a charter city operating under a "Council-Mayor-City Manager" government: a five-member City Council -- the directly-elected Mayor plus four Council Members -- sets ordinances, the budget, and policy, while an appointed City Manager (Whitney McDonald) runs day-to-day operations. The Mayor presides at Council meetings and is the city's ceremonial head, but otherwise casts the same single vote as any other Council member -- there's no independent veto or expanded authority beyond that.

The Mayor serves two-year terms, capped at four consecutive terms; Council Members serve four-year terms, capped at two. Two of the four Council seats are also up this cycle, in a separate contest decided by a new "Citywide Single Vote" method the City Council adopted this cycle -- every voter still votes citywide, but marks only one candidate, and the top two vote-getters win both open seats.

Erica A. Stewart

Erica A. Stewart is San Luis Obispo's sitting Mayor, seeking another term unopposed. Beyond her current office, this pass did not independently verify a fuller biographical profile -- a documented sourcing gap, not a claim about her personally.

Strengths

Currently serves as Mayor -- direct, current experience presiding over the City Council and representing the city's ceremonial head of government.

Trade-offs

Running unopposed, she faces no direct comparison this cycle. This pass found no independent coverage of her priorities or record beyond current-officeholder status.

Keep in mind

Unopposed means this is effectively a vote to confirm her for another term rather than a comparison between candidates -- her time already in office is the relevant question, not a new platform.

Source review: Strong (84/100) · 6 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • slocity.org (opens in a new tab)City of San Luis Obispo -- own "Municipal Elections" page (live fetch via a connected browser session; direct curl/WebFetch return HTTP 403, Akamai-blocked): carries the final, post-filing-deadline "Candidate Filings for the November 3, 2026 Election" table for both Mayor and Council -- Mayor: Erica A. Stewart Qualified for Ballot 7/29/2026, Donald Hedrick "DID NOT QUALIFY"; Council: Michelle Shoresman and Emily Francis qualified 7/24/2026, Brett Cross qualified 8/5/2026, Felicia Lewis "DID NOT ISSUE - DID NOT QUALIFY" -- plus term lengths and term limits for both offices.
  • slocity.org (opens in a new tab)City of San Luis Obispo -- own "Mayor and City Council" page (live fetch): states the city is a charter city operating under a "Council-Mayor-City Manager" form of government, a five-member Council (directly-elected Mayor plus four Council Members), Mayor presides at meetings and is the city's ceremonial head.
  • slocounty.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder -- own November 3, 2026 General Election page (live fetch): states outright "This does not include candidates running for city office. Please contact the respective Cities for their list of qualified candidates," confirming the county's own certified candidate document (on file in this dataset as san-luis-obispo-candidates-nov2026.txt) does not cover City of San Luis Obispo races.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "San Luis Obispo, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population figure (47,063), the Feb. 16, 1856 incorporation date, and the city manager's name (Whitney McDonald); does not cover the 2026 election.
  • facebook.com (opens in a new tab)San Luis Obispo Tribune -- Facebook post (~May 2026, found via a Google search this pass): named four presumptive mayoral candidates -- incumbent Erica Stewart, Jeff Specht, Richard Orcutt, and Don Hedrick. Cited only to corroborate that Specht and Orcutt were real prospective candidates who did not appear on the city's own final post-filing-deadline table, not as evidence of the final roster itself.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)NetFile -- City of San Luis Obispo's public campaign-finance portal (live fetch and search; a plain curl/WebFetch hit only an empty client-rendered shell): "Erica A. Stewart for Mayor 2026" has 40 filings on record, most recently an FPPC Form 460 for 1/1/2026-6/30/2026 (filed 7/29/2026) and a Form 700 (filed 7/22/2026); dollar totals were not extracted from the underlying PDF this pass. No committee for Brett Cross appears in the portal's 22-name candidate/officeholder index as of this retrieval -- a documented negative result, not a claim he has no committee.

Last updated September 3, 2026.