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City of Santa Barbara · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Santa Barbara

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 be Mayor of Santa Barbara: the only citywide-elected member of a council-manager government, presiding over a 6-member, district-elected City Council that sets the budget, land use, and ordinances for this Santa Barbara County city of about 88,700 residents. A 4-year term, elected directly and separately from the Council seats.

Four candidates are running for Mayor of Santa Barbara: Councilmembers Eric Friedman (District 5) and Kristen Sneddon (District 4), former school board member Wendy Sims-Moten, and Matt Kilrain. Vote for one -- no primary, no runoff.

Santa Barbara's Mayor is directly elected citywide, separately from the six district Council seats, for a 4-year term with an existing four-consecutive-term limit. The winner presides over a council-manager government -- the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Santa Barbara County city of about 88,700 residents -- while a professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. The seat is open: Mayor Randy Rowse is not seeking re-election, described in local reporting as term-limited.

Both Friedman and Sneddon are giving up safe re-election to their current Council seats to run here, opening both of those seats in separate races on this same ballot. The contest is broadly a moderate-vs-progressive choice: Friedman, a business- and labor-backed moderate, opposes the city's rent-stabilization ordinance and favors a more flexible approach to reopening State Street to cars; Sneddon, endorsed by the county Democratic Party and multiple former mayors, supports rent stabilization and wants Paseo Nuevo's redevelopment to go to a public vote. Friedman substantially outraised Sneddon in the first half of 2026. Sims-Moten and Kilrain round out the field with comparatively little independent news coverage found this pass.

Eric Friedman

Eric Friedman is the sitting Councilmember for District 5, a longtime Democrat who works at Trader Joe's. He is recovering from an April 2025 heart attack. His campaign draws support from business owners and worker unions, and he opposes the city's rent-stabilization ordinance while favoring a more flexible, incremental approach to reopening State Street to vehicle traffic rather than keeping it fully closed.

Strengths

A sitting Councilmember's record to run on, a substantial fundraising lead, and support from both business and labor -- a coalition spanning the city's usual political divide.

Trade-offs

Giving up his own Council seat to run means Santa Barbara loses his current representation on District 5 regardless of whether he wins the Mayor's race.

Keep in mind

His opposition to rent stabilization puts him at odds with Sneddon and with the county Democratic Party's own endorsement in this race -- worth weighing for voters focused specifically on that issue.

Kristen Sneddon

Kristen Sneddon is the sitting Councilmember for District 4 and a geology professor at Santa Barbara City College, now in her second Council term. She authored the 2021 legislation creating the State Street Advisory Committee and opposes reopening the closed downtown corridor to cars. Her platform centers on housing affordability, environmental sustainability, and support for the city's low-income and immigrant residents, including a new rent-stabilization ordinance; she has also called for a public vote on the Paseo Nuevo mall redevelopment. She is endorsed by the Santa Barbara County Democratic Party and multiple former mayors.

Strengths

A specific, named legislative accomplishment (the State Street Advisory Committee) rather than platform themes alone, plus endorsements from the county party and several former mayors.

Trade-offs

She enters the race with roughly a third of Friedman's campaign cash on hand as of mid-2026, a real fundraising disadvantage in a citywide race.

Keep in mind

Like Friedman, she is giving up her own Council seat to run -- District 4 is an open contest on this same ballot regardless of who wins here.

Wendy Sims-Moten

Wendy Sims-Moten is executive director of First 5 Santa Barbara County and served two terms (2016-2024) on the Santa Barbara Unified School Board. She was honored by the CAUSE Action Fund in April 2026 for community leadership. This pass found no dedicated 2026 campaign coverage describing a specific policy platform for her beyond her inclusion in local roundups of the mayoral field.

Strengths

Eight years of elected school-board experience and a current executive role in early-childhood public service -- a different kind of public record than either sitting Councilmember's.

Trade-offs

No campaign site or platform statement was found this pass -- a genuine sourcing gap next to Friedman and Sneddon, not a claim that she lacks a platform.

Keep in mind

Her school-board background points toward education and youth-services experience distinct from either Councilmember's land-use and budget focus, though this pass could not confirm how that translates into her mayoral platform.

Matt Kilrain

Matt Kilrain, known locally as "Boat Rat Matt," previously ran for Santa Barbara Mayor in 2021, finishing last in that field with 178 votes. This pass found no dedicated 2026 campaign coverage or platform statement for him beyond his inclusion in local roundups of the mayoral field.

Strengths

None independently confirmed by this pass beyond his filed candidacy and a prior mayoral run.

Trade-offs

Of the four Mayoral candidates, he has the thinnest public record -- no campaign site, platform statement, or news profile found this pass -- and his one prior run for the office finished last.

Keep in mind

This is a documented sourcing gap, not a claim that he lacks a platform -- no independently verifiable description of his 2026 candidacy was reachable this pass.

Source review: Strong (80/100) · 12 cited sources

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

  • santabarbaraca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Barbara City Clerk -- "Final List of Candidates," City of Santa Barbara, November 3, 2026 Election (dated August 17, 2026, the certified post-nomination-period roster): lists Mayoral (Eric Friedman, Matt Kilrain, Wendy Sims-Moten, Kristen Sneddon), District 4 (Jason Dominguez, Genevieve Taft-Vazquez, Devon Wardlow, Monte Wilson), District 5 (Ian J. Baucke, Cevin Cathell, James G. Zurlinden), and District 6 (Jason Carlton, Gabe Escobedo, Anabella Lehne, Alexander Stoeber) -- 4 contests, 15 candidates
  • santabarbaraca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Barbara -- "Elections" (City Clerk's Office): states the Council approved a resolution calling the general municipal election to fill District 4, District 5, District 6, and Mayor; gives the July 13-August 7, 2026 nomination period and links both the Final List of Candidates and the city's NetFile Public Access Portal for campaign-finance disclosure
  • santabarbaraca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Barbara -- "Mayor & City Council": current-roster page naming Randy Rowse as Mayor and Wendy Santamaria (D1), Mike Jordan (D2), Oscar Gutierrez (D3), Kristen Sneddon (D4), Eric Friedman (D5), and Meagan Harmon (D6) as sitting Councilmembers -- confirms Sneddon and Friedman are each their district's incumbent, now running for Mayor instead of re-election, and that Harmon is not on this ballot; also states Councilmembers represent a district while the Mayor represents the entire city
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Santa Barbara, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (88,665) and the council-manager government type; does not cover the 2026 election
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Mayor of Santa Barbara, California": gives a 4-year term and documents an existing four-consecutive-term limit (citing a court ruling that forced former Mayor Hal Conklin to step down mid-term for exceeding it); used narrowly for term length and the existence of a term limit, not for any 2026 candidate
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Barbara's NetFile-hosted Public Access Portal for campaign-finance disclosure (public.netfile.com/pub2/?AID=csb, redirecting to netfile.com/public/csb/campaign): a client-rendered single-page app -- no filer data loaded via WebFetch this session, and no live-browser workaround was available (the shared Chrome extension was disconnected all session) -- a documented access gap, not a finding about any candidate's actual fundraising
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches attempted for multiple 2026 Santa Barbara Mayor/Council candidates returned only an empty response each time this session, consistent with the Incapsula bot-blocking this dataset has repeatedly hit on this site -- a documented access gap, not a finding of no filer
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "Kristen Sneddon Says She's Running for Santa Barbara Mayor -- 'We're Stuck and We Need Progress, Not Stagnation'" (Nov. 16, 2025): reports Sneddon's mayoral campaign filing, her geology-professor background, two-term Council record, and stated positions on rent stabilization and the Paseo Nuevo redevelopment
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "Four-Way Race for Santa Barbara Mayor?" (Nick Welsh, Jan. 6, 2026): early roundup naming Rowse, Friedman, Sneddon, and Sims-Moten as potential Mayoral candidates
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "With $137K in the Bank, Eric Friedman Holds 3-1 Edge over Kristen Sneddon in Santa Barbara Mayor's Race Fundraising" (Aug. 4, 2026): reports Jan. 1-June 30, 2026 campaign-finance totals -- Friedman $148,310 raised / $136,944 cash on hand; Sneddon $42,945 raised / $34,606 cash on hand -- and states plainly that Mayor Randy Rowse 'is not running. He is termed out'
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "Ready to Race: Who's Running for Santa Barbara City Council and Mayor" (Ryan P. Cruz, Aug. 11, 2026): comprehensive profile roundup of the Mayoral and District 4/5/6 fields, including two mayoral names (Mark Redmond, Michael Stilwell) later absent from the city's Aug. 17 certified Final List and therefore not built as options here
  • independent.com (opens in a new tab)Santa Barbara Independent -- "Wendy Sims-Moten Reflects on Her Eight Years on Santa Barbara Unified School Board" (Callie Fausey, Dec. 19, 2024): confirms Sims-Moten's 2016-2024 school-board tenure, used narrowly for her biographical background

Last updated September 1, 2026.