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City of Santa Ana · Statewide General Election

Santa Ana City Council, Ward 2

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 your ward's seat on Santa Ana's 6-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected Mayor and an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Not all six wards are elected the same year -- only Wards 2, 4, and 6 have terms expiring in 2026. A 4-year term, limited to three terms.

Incumbent Benjamin Vazquez is running for re-election against Selica Diaz. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

This person holds Ward 2's seat on Santa Ana's 6-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected Mayor and an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Not all six wards are elected the same year -- only Wards 2, 4, and 6 have terms expiring in 2026. A 4-year term, limited to three terms.

Diaz, a Santa Ana native and mother of four with two decades of community involvement, campaigns on homelessness, neighborhood quality of life, and community representation. Vazquez's filed ballot designation is "Teacher/Councilmember"; beyond that, no campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing his tenure or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort.

Selica Diaz

A Santa Ana native and community leader with over two decades of service to the city, Diaz is a mother of four who describes contributing to local development, including park creation and securing funding for community initiatives. Her platform centers on three priorities: collaborating with Orange County to access resources that address the causes of homelessness; making neighborhoods "safe, clean, and healthy for everyone to live, grow, and enjoy life"; and ensuring neighborhoods have a voice on the City Council. Her campaign slogan is "Empowering Local Governance."

Strengths

Two decades of hands-on community involvement, including a self-described role in local park and funding projects.

Trade-offs

No prior elected office; her campaign site does not detail specific budget or land-use positions beyond general quality-of-life goals.

Keep in mind

No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for her campaign in this pass -- see Financial info.

Benjamin Vazquez

Filed his candidacy (and currently serves) under the ballot designation "Teacher/Councilmember." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing his background, tenure, or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort (direct guesses at his own campaign-site domain did not resolve, and Ballotpedia has no page for him).

Strengths

Sitting incumbency plus a teaching background suggests direct familiarity with both the council's work and the district's schools and families.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement, record summary, or platform was found in this pass, so voters have no confirmed sense of his priorities or accomplishments in office beyond his listed occupation.

Keep in mind

No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- see Financial info.

Source review: Strong (81/100) · 3 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Selica Diaz's own campaign site ("Selica Diaz for Santa Ana City Council Ward 2"): her own framing of her candidacy and platform may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • ocvote.gov (opens in a new tab)OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of Santa Ana section (PDF pages 150-154 of 188, recovered by locally inflating the document's FlateDecode page streams with Python's zlib, since a plain fetch returns undecodable PDF stream data): confirms Mayor (3 qualified candidates), City Council Ward 2 (2), Ward 4 (2), and Ward 6 (2) as the city's four November 2026 races, each Vote for 1, with incumbent flags and every candidate's filed ballot designation -- including that Ward 6's named incumbent, David Penaloza, does not appear among Ward 6's two qualified candidates
  • santa-ana.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Ana -- City Council page: confirms the seven-member body (Mayor elected citywide plus six ward councilmembers), 4-year/three-term-limit councilmember terms vs. the Mayor's 2-year/four-term-limit terms, and the sitting roster (Mayor Valerie Amezcua; Mayor Pro Tem David Penaloza; Ward 1 Thai Viet Phan; Ward 2 Benjamin Vazquez; Ward 3 Jessie Lopez; Ward 4 Phil Bacerra; Ward 5 Johnathan Ryan Hernandez)
  • selicadiaz.com (opens in a new tab)Selica Diaz's own campaign site ("Selica Diaz for Santa Ana City Council Ward 2"): her own framing of her candidacy -- a Santa Ana native and mother of four with two decades of community service -- and platform (homelessness, neighborhood quality of life, community representation)

Last updated August 31, 2026.