County Supervisor Cindy Chavez is Running for Mayor of San Jose

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez is running for Mayor of San Jose, new filings show. And although she hasn’t  made a formal announcement yet (she’ll do that Thursday), polling shows she is already a frontrunner.

Chavez, who won another term on the Board of Supervisors last November, is a longtime labor ally. She previously served as Executive Officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA. She is also a former member of the San Jose City Council (1999 to 2007). She served as vice mayor from 2005 to 2007.

If Chavez ultimately wins the race, she will become the city’s first labor-aligned mayor in 16 years. The 2022 race will largely be a contest between the competing visions of labor and business in the Capital Of Silicon Valley.

This won’t be Chavez’s first go at the mayor’s office. She ran and lost to Chuck Reed in 2006.

Chavez will be up against three council members who have announced their candidacies so far: Dev Davis, Raul Peralez, and Matt Mahan. They are all vying to replace Sam Liccardo who is termed out of office.

The election is June 2022.