# Mayor of Santa Ana Compare records and positions simply between Valerie Amezcua, Dwayne Shipp, or Dan Shimell for Mayor of Santa Ana at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. Santa Ana's Mayor is elected directly, citywide. It is the only council seat elected at large rather than by ward. Santa Ana is a charter city. The Mayor presides over Council meetings and represents the city publicly. The Mayor votes as one of seven members on the budget and city ordinances. The other six members are ward councilmembers. An appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. The Mayor's term is two years, shorter than councilmembers' four-year terms. The Mayor is limited to four terms. - Jurisdiction: City of Santa Ana - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/santa-ana-mayor - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: October 6, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 89 out of 100 (Strong), across 4 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Valerie Amezcua** — Mayor · Incumbent - **Dwayne Shipp** — Caregiver/City Commissioner - **Dan Shimell** — Attorney A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Mayor Valerie Amezcua is running for re-election against Dwayne Shipp and Dan Shimell. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff. Santa Ana's mayor is the only council seat elected citywide rather than by ward. Santa Ana is a charter city; the mayor presides over City Council meetings and represents the city publicly, but votes as one of seven members (the mayor plus six ward councilmembers) on the budget and city ordinances, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Unusually, the mayor's term is just 2 years (councilmembers serve 4-year terms), and the mayor is limited to four terms total. Amezcua is the incumbent, first elected Santa Ana's first female mayor in 2022. Shipp's filed ballot designation is "Caregiver/City Commissioner"; Shimell's is "Attorney." Beyond those one-line occupations, no campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing either challenger's background or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort (direct guesses at each candidate's own campaign-site domain, plus Ballotpedia, which has no page for either). ## Valerie Amezcua Amezcua made history in 2022 as Santa Ana's first female mayor in the city's 155-year history. She spent more than 30 years in the Orange County Probation Department, developing expertise in public safety, gang prevention, domestic-violence investigations, and community intervention. Before her mayoral election, she served eight years on the Santa Ana Unified School District Board, including five years as President or Vice President, with an emphasis on graduation rates and campus safety. She holds a degree from the University of La Verne and a Family Engagement certificate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and was named 2022 Woman of the Year by the National Hispanic Business Women's Association and one of Orange County's 100 Most Influential People. She also serves on the Orange County Transportation Authority, the Orange County Water District, and the Southern California Association of Governments, and chairs the Housing and Homelessness Committee for the Association of California Cities-Orange County. In her Vote411 questionnaire she describes her four years as mayor in a single sentence, crediting her tenure with lower crime, better quality of life, action on homelessness and a balanced budget. Her priorities answer is a bare list of three items with no elaboration: quality of life, public safety and economic development. On Flock cameras she says the system needs a closer look so that information is shared only with approved users, and that training in appropriate use is required. **Strengths:** A three-decade public-safety career (OC Probation), eight years of school-board leadership, and regional-board seats spanning transportation, water, and homelessness policy. **Trade-offs:** Nearly four years as an incumbent mayor means her record is a known quantity, for better or worse, rather than a fresh start. Her questionnaire answers give little detail on plans. **Keep in mind:** The results she cites, lower crime and a balanced budget, are her own one-sentence account in a candidate questionnaire, not figures verified independently for this page. No campaign-finance figures are available; see Financial info. ## Dwayne Shipp Shipp filed under the ballot designation "Caregiver/City Commissioner." In his Vote411 questionnaire he says he serves on Santa Ana's Community Development Commission and previously served on the Historic Resources Commission. He describes leading the Orange County Heritage Council as president and executive director and chairing the Orange County Black History Parade, along with decades of scholarship efforts, holiday food and toy drives and homeless outreach. He also says he is the caregiver for his older brother, who is disabled. His three stated priorities are responsible spending and open government, with clearer budgets, public reporting and measurable results before residents are asked to pay more; safe, clean neighborhoods, with responsive policing, better lighting, safer road design, youth programs and a coordinated approach to homelessness that connects people to housing and services; and affordability and economic opportunity, including housing working families can afford, small-business support and job-training pipelines. On Flock cameras he calls his support conditional on results, justified cost and privacy protection, and says he has spoken against a proposed multimillion-dollar Flock expenditure. He would require rules on data collection, retention and access, independent oversight and strict limits on outside sharing, including for immigration enforcement. **Strengths:** Service on the Community Development and Historic Resources commissions plus decades of community organizing and outreach, by his own account. **Trade-offs:** Commission and nonprofit work is not time in elected office, a cost if you want proven experience casting Council votes. His Flock stance is conditional rather than a firm yes or no. **Keep in mind:** His background is his own account in a candidate questionnaire, not independently verified. No campaign-finance figures are available; see Financial info. ## Dan Shimell Shimell filed under the ballot designation "Attorney." In his Vote411 questionnaire he describes being an Eagle Scout and a Peace Corps volunteer in Guyana from 2009 to 2011. He says he began as a prosecutor for San Diego County and then the City of San Diego, and later worked in private practice as a civil litigator for Orange County cities and special districts. He says the Daily Journal named him a California Lawyer of the Year in 2025 for work ending Los Angeles's "no vending" zones. His three stated priorities are housing people can afford, with faster approvals for projects that are meaningfully affordable, more use of vacant land and a re-examination of the in-lieu fee system, and a push to get chronically vacant newer units occupied; standing with the immigrant community, pursuing all lawful means to deter immigration raids and preparing the city to respond if they return; and reliable city services, from lighting and parks to libraries and support for the city workforce. On Flock cameras he is opposed. He says he would vote to exit the city's agreement with Flock and Motorola at the earliest legally defensible opportunity and to end the pending speeding-camera pilot, and he says the city's plate-reader data has been given to federal agencies despite state law. He also notes that the incumbent mayor voted for the agreement. **Strengths:** Legal work as a prosecutor and for Orange County public agencies, by his own account, plus a detailed housing, immigration and city-services platform. **Trade-offs:** He would end the Flock agreement and the speeding-camera pilot, a cost if you want those tools kept. His answers focus on immigration protection and housing over other city issues. **Keep in mind:** His background, and his statements about Flock data going to federal agencies, are his own account in a candidate questionnaire, not independently verified. No campaign-finance figures are available; see Financial info. ## Sources 1. [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](https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2026/candlog.pdf) 2. [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)](https://santa-ana.gov/departments/city-council/) 3. [City of Santa Ana -- official biography for Mayor Valerie Amezcua: the city's first female mayor (elected 2022), 30+ years in the OC Probation Department, eight years on the Santa Ana Unified school board, regional-board seats (OCTA, OC Water District, SCAG), and stated priorities of homelessness, public safety, and jobs](https://santa-ana.gov/mayor/) 4. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Santa Ana Mayor' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- 'If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?', 'What background, experience and/or education qualify you for this elected office?' and the Santa Ana League's own question 'What is your position on the use of Flock cameras or similar devices?'. All three candidates (Amezcua, Shipp, Shimell) responded. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/santa-ana-mayor.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) ## The rest of the ballot Mayor of Santa Ana is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Mayor of Santa Ana — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/santa-ana-mayor (sources last retrieved October 6, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.