Claudia Jiménez Holds a Lead in Richmond Mayoral Race
Councilmember Claudia Jiménez holds a lead over Ahmad Anderson in Richmond’s nonpartisan mayoral race, with 17,660 votes counted.
As of 10:44 p.m. on election night, Jiménez had 52.46% of the vote, while Anderson, a longtime candidate who has never held elected office, had 47.54%, according to the Contra Costa County clerk-recorder.
If her lead holds, Jiménez would extend two decades of Richmond Progressive Alliance leadership and win the first mayoral race under the city’s new run-off election system.
At the election night party at RPA headquarters, energy was high. Jiménez and supporters danced to a DJ, snacked on pupusas and sipped horchata and wine while intermittently erupting in cheers when news of a big national Democratic win flashed on the TV. A Jiménez campaign sign hung on the wall next to posters that read “Free Palestine.”
As early results came in, Jiménez addressed the room. “If I win,” she said, interrupted by calls of “When! When!” “I will be the first immigrant woman holding this position.”
Jiménez, a two-term City Council member, was born in Colombia, where she worked as an architect and helped rebuild homes in a small Andean community devastated by flooding. She came to the United States in 2007, earned a Master’s degree in Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley and worked as an organizer before winning her council seat.
At his own election night gathering at his childhood home, where he still lives, Anderson was surrounded by supporters, friends and family for salad, chicken wings and corn. “I’m still motivated and encouraged that we’ve done everything possible we can do,” he said. “My vision for the city of Richmond has gotten me where I need to be. And I’m in this to win it.”
The race carries echoes of the contest that launched the era of RPA dominance. Almost exactly 20 years ago, insurgent progressive Gayle McLaughlin ousted incumbent mayor Irma Anderson by 242 votes, bringing decades of more traditional Democratic control to an end.
This year, the two sides of that race were back on the ballot through their heirs: Ahmad Anderson, Irma’s son, and Jiménez, who carries McLaughlin’s political legacy.
The RPA, which McLaughlin co-founded on a pledge to take no corporate money, now backs a majority of the City Council’s seven members. It’s fended off challenges for years, including a $3 million Chevron-funded push in 2014.
Don Gosney, one of the RPA’s most vocal critics and a longtime fixture in Richmond politics, championed the 2024 ballot measure that created the new top-two election system, arguing the old plurality model worked in the organization’s favor. “Time and time again,” Gosney said, “they would encourage everybody else to run against them and split the vote.” RPA supporters dismiss that critique, pointing to a track record of wide-margin wins they say reflect strong community backing.
For years, supporters have celebrated the city of 115,000 as a laboratory of corporate-free governance for the American left, a place that revived rent control, pioneered alternatives to traditional policing and wrested a $550 million settlement from Chevron. Critics, meanwhile, see liberal policymaking run amok. This summer, Fox News held up the city as a dark preview of life under democratic socialist rule.
The RPA has never been tied to a single political party, but much of its leadership today is associated with the Democratic Socialists of America. As national Democrats argue over whether the party’s left wing can actually govern, Richmond’s election is a referendum on 20 years of RPA leadership, centered on the city’s economic future and approach to public safety.
Jiménez and her supporters tout the 10-year settlement she helped negotiate with Chevron in 2024, which, along with a 2020 business tax, helped grow the city’s budget reserves and lift it off the state auditor’s watchlist.
But Anderson and critics see a myopic economic strategy that relies on extracting money from Chevron and large businesses, creating a hostile climate that drives out investment. In their view, the settlement is a temporary windfall that masks underlying operating deficits.
On public safety, Anderson backs a police union initiative that would require a minimum of 187 sworn officers, while Jiménez, who supports non-police crisis response and youth programs, warned it would exhaust city resources.
Campaign finance filings show the candidates pulled in around $130,000 each in individual donations. A PAC funded by the police and building trades unions spent about $430,000 backing Anderson, while a PAC funded by public-sector and service unions and environmental groups put about $250,000 toward Jiménez’s campaign.
Jose Abastida is an organizer with SEIU 1021, the union that represents Richmond city employees, and a campaign manager for East Bay Working Families, the PAC that supported Jiménez. “We have seen the impacts that Chevron has caused over the years,” he said. “We want to see a candidate that stands up to big corporations, to big money, and that lets them know it’s not OK to pollute our city.”
On Tuesday night, Jiménez stressed that this election wasn’t just about her. “It’s all of us doing this for Richmond,” she said. “And I am ready to lead with all of you this new city, this new chapter of this beautiful city, Richmond — the city we all call home.”