San José City Council District 3 candidates Gabby Chavez-Lopez and Anthony Tordillos speak at a candidates forum at the San José Women’s Club in San José on March 6, 2025. (Gina Castro/KQED)
After an 11-week runoff campaign marked by heavy political spending, Tordillos led nonprofit executive Gabby Chavez-Lopez 65% to 35% in initial returns released shortly after 8 p.m.
Cheers broke out at Tordillos’ election night party as results flashed across two screens above the bar of The Pressroom on Santa Clara Street.
Tordillos entered the race with little institutional support — particularly from the city’s powerful labor unions and business groups. But in the runoff campaign he garnered support from business heavyweights, along with a handful of unions.
“I think the results tonight show folks are ready for a new type of politics in San José — one that focuses on bridging old divides between business and labor, and one that is really focused on delivering results on housing affordability and homelessness and public safety,” Tordillos told supporters.
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An intense and expensive campaign for the District 3 seat on the San José City Council is nearing the finish line, as Gabby Chavez-Lopez and Anthony Tordillos make their final pitch to voters in the city’s downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
The special election will fill the seat vacated by former Councilmember Omar Torres, who resigned last year in the face of sexual abuse charges. With the balance of power of City Hall at stake, spending from outside interests has reached eye-popping levels for a single-seat special election.
In a speech to supporters gathered around standing tables at the Corinthian Ballroom, Chavez-Lopez said, “We live to fight another day.”
“Obviously, not the results we wanted to see, but we’re keeping optimistic,” Chavez-Lopez told KQED. “We know we put in the work, we talked to thousands of voters over the last eight months — made relationships, made connections.”
Chavez-Lopez and Tordillos were the top finishers in an initial April 8 election, though neither received a majority of the vote — setting up the Tuesday runoff.
Chavez-Lopez, the executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, has touted her connections with local elected officials and said her experience organizing for affordable housing and COVID response will allow her to hit the ground running on the city council. She is supported by the South Bay Labor Council and all five Santa Clara County Supervisors.
“This district doesn’t have time to waste. We can’t afford on-the-job training, quite frankly,” Chavez-Lopez told KQED. “We haven’t had a representative in this office for quite some time, and time is moving very fast and things are happening very fast.”
Voters fill out their ballots at the Mexican Heritage Plaza polling place in San José on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Tordillos points to his work as chair of San José’s planning commission as evidence that he will be a champion for more dense development downtown. In addition to being the favored candidate of pro-housing organizations, Tordillos added the support of San José’s Mayor Matt Mahan, after the April 8 election.
“Folks are ready for a council member who takes issues of public policy seriously,” Tordillos told KQED. “Someone who’s willing to be collaborative, to engage with people on both sides of the [business-labor] aisle and who are focused on finding and delivering solutions for the people of District 3.”
The candidates share similar priorities for the district: reducing homelessness, improving public safety, encouraging housing development and invigorating business activity and foot traffic downtown.
In the runoff, Tordillos held a significant advantage in political spending, both from his campaign and outside groups. Between the April 8 election and Tuesday’s runoff, Tordillos spent $196,518, compared to $117,666 by Chavez-Lopez.
The gap in outside super PAC spending was even wider. The South Bay Labor Council spent $135,229 to support Chavez-Lopez, while groups representing realtors, businesses, police officers, and city maintenance workers spent $365,957 through Monday to support Tordillos.
The winner of Tuesday’s election is expected to take their seat when the council returns from summer recess on Aug. 12.
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