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City of Santa Clara · Statewide General Election

Santa Clara City Council, District 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 would hold one of six district seats on the Santa Clara City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Santa Clara County city of about 128,000, alongside a separately elected, citywide Mayor (also on this ballot) and five other district Council members. A 4-year term, term-limited to two terms.

Two candidates -- Yvonne Inciarte and Kimberley Williams -- are running for Santa Clara's open City Council District 2 seat, vacated by term-limited-out incumbent Raj Chahal. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright; this is a plurality election, not ranked-choice.

This person would hold Santa Clara's District 2 seat on the City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Santa Clara County city of about 128,000, alongside a separately elected, citywide Mayor (also on this ballot -- six candidates are running for that open seat) and five other district Council members. A 4-year term, term-limited to two terms.

District 3 is also open this cycle (see that contest); Districts 1, 4, 5, and 6 -- held respectively by Albert Gonzalez, Kevin Park (also a 2026 mayoral candidate), Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain, and Kelly G. Cox -- aren't up again until 2028. This seat is open because Raj Chahal, its incumbent, is term-limited out; unlike District 3, no sitting councilmember chose to give it up.

Yvonne Inciarte

Yvonne Inciarte, 37, is a first-generation college graduate and longtime Santa Clara resident who grew up in District 2. She previously served as director of intergovernmental strategy for Rep. Ro Khanna, working with local governments, community organizations, and federal agencies, and currently sits on the city's Historical and Landmarks Commission, Chief's Advisory Committee, and Economic Development Committee, plus the West Valley-Mission College Foundation board. Her platform centers housing affordability, public safety, fiscal responsibility, infrastructure, and economic growth; on the city's budget deficit, she says the council needs to make difficult decisions while protecting parks, services, and community programs. Her campaign committee has registered with the city (paperwork filed May-July 2026) but had filed no itemized Form 460 as of this retrieval, so no dollar figures are available.

Strengths

A direct, federal-level government-affairs background plus multiple current city-commission appointments -- more familiarity with Santa Clara's own government than her one opponent has shown.

Trade-offs

No fundraising record exists yet to compare against Williams; her background is in government relations rather than the education and parent-organization work Williams emphasizes.

Keep in mind

she frames her candidacy around representing "the District 2 community where she grew up" -- a lived-experience pitch worth weighing against Williams's community-building one.

Kimberley Williams

Kimberley Williams, 48, has lived in Santa Clara more than 18 years and has spent roughly a decade involved with local schools and parent organizations, including helping establish the PTA at Central Park Elementary; she currently serves on the California State PTA Board of Managers and the Santa Clara Schools Foundation. Her platform centers education, housing, parks, transportation, infrastructure, and neighborhood safety; she has also emphasized repairing the city's relationship with the San Francisco 49ers, arguing Levi's Stadium is a city asset both sides have a responsibility to make work for residents. No campaign committee was found under her name in the city's NetFile portal as of this retrieval, so no financial record -- not even an initial registration -- exists for her campaign.

Strengths

A decade of hands-on parent-organization and school-advocacy leadership, plus a specific, concrete position -- repairing the city's relationship with the 49ers -- distinct from Inciarte's.

Trade-offs

No campaign committee registered at all means even less of a public paper trail than Inciarte's; her platform draws on schools and PTA work rather than city-government experience.

Keep in mind

this is a fresh matchup between two first-time candidates with different civic bases -- government relations versus schools and parent organizing -- not a race with an obvious insider.

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 3 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • vote.santaclaracounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters -- the "City of Santa Clara" List-of-Officeholders page: confirms Mayor, City Clerk, and Chief of Police are elected at-large and City Council is six district seats (1-6), each a 4-year term, and shows Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor, District 2's Raj Chahal, and District 3's Karen Hardy all up for "NEXT ELECTION" in 2026, while Districts 1, 4, 5, and 6 (Albert Gonzalez, Kevin Park, Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain, Kelly G. Cox) aren't up again until 2028. A live fetch of the county elections domain 403s in this pass; retrieved instead via a Wayback Machine snapshot dated 2025-09-10.
  • sanjosespotlight.com (opens in a new tab)San José Spotlight -- "Four candidates face off for two Santa Clara council seats" (Maryanne Casas-Perez, Aug. 20, 2026), read in full via a Wayback Machine snapshot (a live sanjosespotlight.com fetch 403s in this pass): confirms both District 2 seat candidates (Yvonne Inciarte, Kimberley Williams, running for the seat held by term-limited-out Raj Chahal) and both District 3 seat candidates (Eric Crutchlow, Kyle Madej, running for the seat Karen Hardy is vacating to run for mayor instead of seeking re-election), with ages, backgrounds, platforms, and a direct on-record quote from each.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Santa Clara's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (aid=CSC), queried directly by name via its own QuickNameSearch and filings/byCandidate JSON API (reverse-engineered from the portal's own downloaded JS bundle; this bundle version keys on aid/candidateId/agencyCode params, not the byFilerId variant an earlier pass in this file documented for a different NetFile bundle version), with each available candidate's Form 460 downloaded directly via the portal's own CampaignDocuments/download endpoint (one, Kathy Watanabe's, a scanned image PDF with no extractable text layer, read by rendering it to an image and reading the figures directly). Mayor's race: Watanabe reported $15,362.54 in total contributions ($10,362.54 monetary, $5,000 in loans) against $6,222.63 in expenditures, ending cash $9,139.91; Kertes reported $12,422.80 in total contributions ($950 monetary, $11,472.80 in loans -- per Schedule B, all of it loaned by Kertes to himself) against $11,462.80 in expenditures, ending cash $960.00 and $11,472.80 in outstanding debt owed to himself; Ferraris's committee, formed July 7, 2026, reported $0 in contributions and $0 in expenditures for the Jan.-June 2026 period; Hardy's committee has registered but filed no Form 460 yet; Park has no 2026 mayoral committee or filing on record at all (only a routine 2025 annual Form 470 tied to his existing District 4 officeholder committee); Wiltberger has no committee registered under any name searched. District 2: Inciarte has registered a committee but filed no Form 460 yet; Williams has no committee registered at all. District 3: Madej has registered a committee ("Madej for City Council 2026") but filed no Form 460 yet; Crutchlow has no committee registered at all. None of this is evidence of any candidate's final fundraising totals for the cycle -- it documents exactly what could and couldn't be confirmed as of this retrieval.

Last updated August 31, 2026.