Mayor of Santa Clara

Armando "Gary" Ferraris, 59, is a retired Santa Clara public-works supervisor and current labor representative with AFSCME Council 57. He worked for the city about 15 years before retiring in 2024 and says political tension on the City Council has hurt city employees and the services they provide. His priorities include restoring trust between the council, staff, and residents; addressing deferred infrastructure maintenance directly rather than borrowing for it later (he points to the Measure I infrastructure bond as an example of the latter); and a measured approach to housing and commercial growth. His campaign committee registered July 7, 2026; its first disclosure report, covering Jan. 1-June 30, 2026, shows $0 in contributions and $0 in expenditures -- the committee didn't exist for nearly all of that reporting period.

Karen Hardy, 65, has represented City Council District 3 since 2018 and served as vice mayor in 2020; she is not term-limited out of that seat but is running for Mayor instead of seeking re-election to it. A retired Wilcox High School math and computer-science teacher who also coaches its robotics team, she holds a chemical-engineering degree from Brigham Young University and currently serves as vice chair of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency. Her platform centers housing affordability, keeping utility bills and city fees low, and maintaining infrastructure and city services; she has also pledged to propose a moratorium on new data centers on her first day in office. Her 2026 mayoral committee, "Karen Hardy 4 Mayor 2026," registered between June 22 and July 20, 2026 but had filed no itemized Form 460 as of this retrieval, so no dollar figures are available yet.

David Kertes, 55, has lived in Santa Clara more than 28 years and works in technology sales (his own 2026 campaign filing lists him as vice president of sales at Novanta; other coverage describes him as senior director of sales for North America there) and also serves on the city's Salary Setting Commission. He ran for the District 5 council seat in 2024 and lost to incumbent Sudhanshu "Suds" Jain, then filed papers in 2025 to recall Jain -- and, in a Feb. 15, 2026 press release, called off that recall effort, having gathered about half the needed signatures, saying he'd concluded the city's problems ran deeper than one councilmember and didn't want to "be a hypocrite." His mayoral priorities include a long-term strategic vision for the city, expanded children's and seniors' programming, and balancing commercial development with housing. His 2026 committee reported $950 in monetary contributions plus $11,472.80 in loans -- all of it from Kertes to himself, per his Form 460's loan schedule -- for $12,422.80 in total contributions against $11,462.80 in expenditures for Jan.-June 2026, ending cash $960.00 and $11,472.80 in outstanding debt owed to himself.

Kevin Park, in his mid-50s, has served on the Santa Clara City Council since 2020 (re-elected in 2024) representing District 4 -- a seat not up this cycle -- and is running for Mayor instead of seeking another council term later. He spent about three decades in the technology industry, including as a senior engineer at Google and later designing AI services for data centers, before leaving his job at Datatron in 2022 to focus on the council and his family; he holds a bachelor's degree from Caltech and a master's from Stanford. His priorities include fiscal management, maintaining parks, libraries, pools and infrastructure, and closer scrutiny of data-center siting near residential neighborhoods. He has defended the length of council meetings, saying "meetings are exactly for the purpose of asking questions." No 2026 mayoral campaign committee or Form 460 was found under his name in the city's NetFile portal as of this retrieval -- his only 2026-dated filing there is a routine annual disclosure (Form 470) tied to his existing District 4 officeholder committee.

Kathy Watanabe, 66, served eight years on the City Council before terming out in 2024, then won a seat on the Santa Clara Unified School District board of trustees that same year -- a seat she says she'd resign if elected mayor. Before entering public office she spent four decades as a legal assistant at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York. Her priorities include strengthening the local economy, responsible redevelopment, and infrastructure paid for by growth; she has also emphasized repairing the city's relationship with the San Francisco 49ers, citing a meeting she held with team president Al Guido. She has a longstanding political alliance with outgoing Mayor Gillmor (who has not endorsed a candidate in this race) and is endorsed by Councilmember Kelly Cox, County Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, and Congressman Ro Khanna. She is the only mayoral candidate who declined the city's voluntary campaign-spending limit. Her 2026 committee reported $10,362.54 in monetary contributions plus a $5,000 loan for $15,362.54 in total contributions against $6,222.63 in expenditures for Jan.-June 2026, ending cash $9,139.91 -- the largest disclosed treasury in the mayoral field.

Mike Wiltberger is a longtime Santa Clara resident (more than 40 years) and medical-technology entrepreneur -- a scientist and co-founder of Optimedica, whose work focuses on devices to restore sight to blind patients. His campaign says he holds more than 100 patents and publications and has sold multiple companies. He describes his campaign as 100% self-funded and says he isn't accepting outside contributions. His priorities include restoring fiscal responsibility, rebuilding downtown, attracting retail, and moving past what he calls "establishment politics" and council division. No campaign committee was found under his name in the city's NetFile portal as of this retrieval, consistent with his stated self-funding but meaning no independent financial figures exist to check that claim against. He did not respond to San Jose Spotlight's request for comment for its candidate profile.