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City of San Mateo · Statewide General Election

San Mateo City Council, District 5

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 would represent one of San Mateo's five council districts on the City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions for this city of about 105,600 residents. A 4-year term. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are chosen by the council from among its own members each year, rather than elected separately.

Sitting Mayor Adam Loraine seeks a second term representing District 5 against two challengers: pastor and Hillsdale High School golf coach Dave Johnson, and former reporter Dana Yates Sahae.

The winner serves a 4-year term as one of five district representatives on San Mateo's City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this city of about 105,600 residents. San Mateo moved from at-large to district elections in 2022; the Mayor and Deputy Mayor are chosen by the council from among its own members each year rather than elected separately, and council races have no primary -- all three candidates go straight to the November 3 ballot.

Loraine, a lifelong San Mateo resident who previously served on the city's Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission, centers his campaign on public safety, infrastructure, downtown revitalization, and environmental sustainability. Johnson, a native San Matean who is Senior Pastor at FBC San Carlos and also coaches golf at Hillsdale High School, frames his campaign around fiscal transparency, public safety, and a lighter regulatory touch for local business. Sahae, a former reporter, centers her campaign on economic accountability, public-safety staffing, and infrastructure maintenance, and has assembled by far the broadest endorsement list of the three -- including two sitting county supervisors, a retired state senator, a retired police chief, and three of Loraine's own council colleagues (Danielle Cwirko-Godycki, and District 1 and District 3 candidates Lisa Diaz Nash and Rob Newsom Jr., both also on this same ballot in their own races) -- per her own campaign site. This dataset found no campaign material in which Diaz Nash or Newsom endorses Loraine's reelection.

Adam Loraine

Loraine is a lifelong San Mateo resident who attended Aragon High School and College of San Mateo. Before his council term he served on the city's Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission, where he says he helped shape the city's 20-year policy vision. He says his family lost their home during the Great Recession and that experience shaped his decision to stay and serve the community.

Strengths

A full term of council experience including service as Mayor, plus prior appointed commission service before joining the council.

Trade-offs

As the incumbent, he carries the most direct accountability for the current council's record, and his site lists no endorsements from sitting colleagues.

Keep in mind

All three District 5 candidates cite public safety and infrastructure as priorities -- distinguishing them means weighing their specific records and backers, not just shared talking points.

Dave Johnson

Johnson was born and raised in San Mateo's 94403 ZIP code, attending Meadow Heights Elementary, Abbott Middle School, Hillsdale High School, and College of San Mateo. He worked as a paramedic with San Mateo County from 2000 to 2008, co-founded Hope Church of San Mateo in 2010, and managed shelter and recovery operations at CityTeam International in Oakland before it merged with Hope Church in 2015; he now serves as Senior Pastor at FBC San Carlos and coaches golf at Hillsdale High School.

Strengths

Deep, decades-long roots in the district and a first-responder background (eight years as a county paramedic) directly relevant to his public-safety platform.

Trade-offs

No prior appointed or elected city government service.

Keep in mind

His endorsement list leans personal and faith-community (a family friendship with Tom and Galynn Brady, a fellow pastor, former paramedic colleagues) rather than sitting elected officials -- a different kind of backing than either of his opponents.

Dana Yates Sahae

Yates Sahae is a former reporter who says her journalism background trained her to ask good questions before making decisions. Her site gives no further detail on her current occupation, age, or specific years of San Mateo residency.

Strengths

By far the broadest institutional endorsement list of the three -- two county supervisors, a retired state senator, a police chief, three councilmembers, and three former mayors, per her own site.

Trade-offs

No prior appointed or elected city government service, and her site gives little biographical detail beyond her journalism background.

Keep in mind

Three of her listed endorsers -- Cwirko-Godycki, Diaz Nash, and Newsom Jr. -- are Loraine's own sitting colleagues; this dataset found no campaign material where Diaz Nash or Newsom endorses Loraine's reelection.

Source review: Strong (82/100) · 9 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: Dave Johnson's own campaign site (johnsonforsanmateo.com): describes him as a native San Matean (94403) educated at Meadow Heights Elementary, Abbott Middle School, Hillsdale High School, and College of San Mateo; a San Mateo County paramedic from 2000 to 2008; co-founder of Hope Church of San Mateo (2010); a former Rescue Mission Manager at CityTeam International in Oakland; now Senior Pastor at FBC San Carlos and a golf coach at Hillsdale High School; publishes FPPC ID 1491065, Adam Loraine's own campaign site (adamloraine.com): describes him as a lifelong San Mateo resident (Aragon High School, College of San Mateo), the sitting Mayor and District 5 councilmember, a former Sustainability and Infrastructure Commissioner, and recounts his family losing their home during the Great Recession; platform (public safety/retail theft, infrastructure, downtown revitalization, environmental sustainability, housing, civil rights); footer publishes FPPC ID 1487496, and Dana Yates Sahae's own campaign site (danaforsanmateo.com): describes her as a former reporter; platform (economic accountability, public safety staffing, infrastructure maintenance, responsible housing/growth, responsive government); endorsements page names county supervisors Jackie Speier and Ray Mueller, retired state senator Jerry Hill, retired police chief Susan Manheimer, sitting councilmembers Danielle Cwirko-Godycki, Lisa Diaz Nash, and Rob Newsom Jr., three former mayors, the San Mateo Police Officers Association, and the San Mateo County Association of Realtors; publishes FPPC ID 1485426 may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • smcacre.gov (opens in a new tab)San Mateo County ACRE -- Roster of Candidates, Qualified Candidates Only, November 3, 2026 General Election (CFMR009), dated 2026-08-25: the county's own certified candidate list, naming all seven qualified City of San Mateo City Council candidates across Districts 1, 3, and 5, their filed occupations/ballot designations, and qualification dates, each flagged 'On Ballot: Yes, Vote for 1'
  • cityofsanmateo.org (opens in a new tab)City of San Mateo -- official '2026 City Council Candidates' page (cityofsanmateo.org/4305): lists all seven qualified candidates for Districts 1, 3, and 5 in the order set by the county and Secretary of State's August 13, 2026 randomized-alphabet drawing, and confirms the November 3, 2026 election date
  • cityofsanmateo.org (opens in a new tab)City of San Mateo -- official 'Meet Your Council' page: names Adam Loraine (District 5) as Mayor, Nicole Fernandez (District 2) as Deputy Mayor, and Lisa Diaz Nash (District 1), Danielle Cwirko-Godycki (District 4), and Rob Newsom Jr. (District 3) as the remaining council members
  • cityofsanmateo.org (opens in a new tab)City of San Mateo -- official 'District Elections' page: the city moved from at-large to five City Council districts starting in November 2022; Districts 1, 3, and 5 were elected in November 2022 and are up again in November 2026, while Districts 2 and 4 were elected in November 2024; council members must live in the district they represent
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's San Mateo, California article -- confirms the council-manager government structure, the five-member City Council's staggered four-year terms, and the city's population (105,661 at the 2020 census; a 103,337 Census Bureau estimate as of July 1, 2025)
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of a dedicated, unsuccessful attempt to retrieve campaign-finance filings for all seven City of San Mateo City Council candidates: California's Cal-Access filer search (cal-access.sos.ca.gov) returned only an Incapsula bot-detection interstitial for every query attempted this session (via both WebFetch and direct curl), with no live browser session available in this worktree to work around it. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for these seven candidates, not any of their actual finances.
  • adamloraine.com (opens in a new tab)Adam Loraine's own campaign site (adamloraine.com): describes him as a lifelong San Mateo resident (Aragon High School, College of San Mateo), the sitting Mayor and District 5 councilmember, a former Sustainability and Infrastructure Commissioner, and recounts his family losing their home during the Great Recession; platform (public safety/retail theft, infrastructure, downtown revitalization, environmental sustainability, housing, civil rights); footer publishes FPPC ID 1487496
  • johnsonforsanmateo.com (opens in a new tab)Dave Johnson's own campaign site (johnsonforsanmateo.com): describes him as a native San Matean (94403) educated at Meadow Heights Elementary, Abbott Middle School, Hillsdale High School, and College of San Mateo; a San Mateo County paramedic from 2000 to 2008; co-founder of Hope Church of San Mateo (2010); a former Rescue Mission Manager at CityTeam International in Oakland; now Senior Pastor at FBC San Carlos and a golf coach at Hillsdale High School; publishes FPPC ID 1491065
  • danaforsanmateo.com (opens in a new tab)Dana Yates Sahae's own campaign site (danaforsanmateo.com): describes her as a former reporter; platform (economic accountability, public safety staffing, infrastructure maintenance, responsible housing/growth, responsive government); endorsements page names county supervisors Jackie Speier and Ray Mueller, retired state senator Jerry Hill, retired police chief Susan Manheimer, sitting councilmembers Danielle Cwirko-Godycki, Lisa Diaz Nash, and Rob Newsom Jr., three former mayors, the San Mateo Police Officers Association, and the San Mateo County Association of Realtors; publishes FPPC ID 1485426

Last updated September 1, 2026.