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City of Santa Ana · Statewide General Election

Santa Ana City Council, Ward 6

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.

Giovanni Chavez and Isuri S. Ramos are running for this open seat -- incumbent David Penaloza (Mayor Pro Tem) did not file for re-election. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

This person holds Ward 6'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.

This is Santa Ana's one genuinely open council seat this cycle: no incumbent is on the ballot. Both candidates currently sit on city commissions and campaign on affordability, housing, and neighborhood safety. Chavez, a former president of the California Young Democrats, centers his campaign on a "safe, affordable, and accessible" city; Ramos, chair of the Planning Commission and a longtime Ward 6 tenant-rights advocate, centers hers on affordable housing, tenant protections, and community safety.

Giovanni Chavez

Chavez is the son of Mexican immigrants who he says emphasized "hard work, respect, human decency," and community service, growing up in a family that struggled financially but prioritized education and giving back. He served as President of the California Young Democrats, where he says he championed worker protections and community advocacy, focusing on living wages for essential workers, opposing immigration-enforcement actions targeting residents, and protecting affordable-housing initiatives. He currently serves as a Santa Ana Housing Commissioner and is a lawyer, per his filed ballot designation ("Housing Commissioner/Lawyer"). His campaign centers on making Santa Ana "safe, affordable, and accessible" for all residents, prioritizing city budgets around residents' needs. His listed endorsers include U.S. Representatives Lou Correa and Robert Garcia, State Treasurer Fiona Ma, Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, and sitting Santa Ana Mayor David Penaloza -- i.e., the outgoing Ward 6 incumbent is backing Chavez as his successor rather than running again himself.

Strengths

A law background paired with current Housing Commission service and a state-party leadership role, plus an endorsement from the outgoing Ward 6 incumbent (the sitting Mayor).

Trade-offs

No prior elected office; his political organizing background (California Young Democrats) is statewide/partisan rather than specific to Ward 6 governance.

Keep in mind

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

Isuri S. Ramos

Born and raised in Santa Ana to Mexican immigrant parents, Ramos is the current Chair of the Santa Ana Planning Commission. She began her public-service career as a youth commissioner at Santa Ana High School and says she has spent more than a decade advocating for residents, including leading advocacy efforts in Ward 6's Lacy neighborhood focused on tenant rights and housing conditions. She serves as Executive Director of a local nonprofit developing leadership among young Latinos in Orange County, per her filed ballot designation ("Nonprofit Executive Director"). Her platform emphasizes making "the city more affordable, transparent, and welcoming of economic development," with priorities including affordable housing (she says she led efforts resulting in 93 affordable units at Legacy Square and strengthened affordable-housing funding ordinances), tenant protections (championing rent-control adoption and expanded legal services for renters facing eviction), community safety (helping create a Police Oversight Ordinance), neighborhood quality of life (park improvements and regulating smoke shops in residential areas), and immigrant rights (she says she was instrumental in Santa Ana becoming a Sanctuary City and has opposed ICE enforcement actions).

Strengths

Current chair of the Planning Commission plus a decade of hands-on advocacy in the ward itself, with a detailed self-reported record on affordable housing and tenant protections.

Trade-offs

No prior elected office; her record is entirely self-reported campaign material rather than independently verified.

Keep in mind

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

Source review: Mixed (71/100) · 4 cited sources

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

Review note: Giovanni Chavez's own campaign site ("Giovanni Chavez for Santa Ana City Council" -- Ward 6): his own framing of his candidacy, background, platform, and endorsements and Isuri S. Ramos's own campaign site ("Isuri S. Ramos for Santa Ana City Council" -- Ward 6): her own framing of her candidacy, background, and platform may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides 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)
  • giochavez.com (opens in a new tab)Giovanni Chavez's own campaign site ("Giovanni Chavez for Santa Ana City Council" -- Ward 6): his own framing of his candidacy -- the son of Mexican immigrants, former President of the California Young Democrats -- and platform (an affordable, accessible, safe Santa Ana), plus his listed endorsers, including sitting Mayor David Penaloza
  • isuriramos.com (opens in a new tab)Isuri S. Ramos's own campaign site ("Isuri S. Ramos for Santa Ana City Council" -- Ward 6): her own framing of her candidacy -- born in Santa Ana to Mexican immigrant parents, current chair of the Santa Ana Planning Commission, executive director of a Latino youth-leadership nonprofit -- and platform (affordable housing, tenant protections, community safety, immigrant rights)

Last updated August 31, 2026.