City of San Diego · Statewide General Election
San Diego City Council, District 8
Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.
On the ballot
- Gerardo Ramirez — Chief of Staff, District 8
- Antonio Martinez — Governing Board Member, San Ysidro School District
This person holds your district's seat on San Diego's 9-member City Council: city laws, the budget, and land use.
Antonio Martinez and Gerardo Ramirez advanced from a four-Democrat June field for an open South Bay seat — Southcrest, Sherman Heights, San Ysidro, the border-adjacent district KPBS describes as facing unresolved January 2024 flood damage and cross-border sewage pollution (per KPBS and the city clerk's roster).
The winner holds one of nine seats on the San Diego City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and the land-use decisions behind the district's biggest fights. A four-year term.
Both finalists are Democrats, so the choice is not partisan but positional: a school-board member running on infrastructure investment versus the district office's own chief of staff running on continuity. The district's crises — flood recovery, the Tijuana River pollution emergency, a legacy of underinvestment (per KPBS) — will consume whoever wins.
Antonio Martinez
A San Ysidro School District board member and former congressional staffer. His campaign stresses infrastructure investment after the January 2024 floods; he raised about $10,000 in the primary (per KPBS).
Strengths
The field's only elected-office record — a school board seat in the district's own southern communities — plus federal staff experience.
Trade-offs
The smallest reported primary fundraising among the leading candidates (per KPBS), against an opponent with the district office's network.
Keep in mind
School-board governance is real but small-scale; the council seat's flood-and-pollution portfolio is a different order of complexity.
Gerardo Ramirez
The sitting District 8 chief of staff. KPBS's explainer noted little public platform detail from his campaign; his primary raised about $21,000, and an independent committee funded by SDG&E and Phillips 66 spent roughly $100,000 more in the race — money that is not his campaign's (per KPBS).
Strengths
Day-one command of the district office's active files — he runs the office now — in a seat where continuity has real value mid-crisis.
Trade-offs
KPBS found little stated platform to evaluate; voters are asked to infer his agenda from the office he staffs.
Keep in mind
The roughly $100,000 in independent utility- and oil-funded spending that supported his primary (per KPBS) is not his money and not his doing — but whom it chose to help is information.
Source review: Very strong (95/100) · 2 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with a narrow source base.
- sandiego.gov (opens in a new tab)San Diego City Clerk — 2026 election information (November runoff rosters)
- kpbs.org (opens in a new tab)KPBS — San Diego City Council races explainer, Districts 2, 4, 6, 8 (Apr 30, 2026)
Last updated August 22, 2026.