Pamela Campos leads San Jose D2 race by thin margin

Educator turned candidate Pamela Campos has a marginal lead over retired sheriff’s deputy Joe Lopez in the race for the San Jose City Council District 2 seat.

As of 5 p.m. Friday, Campos, a nonprofit advocate and former education specialist, is ahead with 52.1% of the vote, or 11,766 votes. Longtime San Jose resident and second-time candidate Lopez trails with 47.8% of the vote, or 10,796 votes. The county’s voter turnout is about 53.9% and more than 565,000 ballots have been cast. As of Friday there are 238,000 ballots left to be counted.

Lopez and Campos have the thinnest margin of any San Jose City Council race this year, according to the Registrar of Voters.

The two are vying for an open seat with Councilmember Sergio Jimenez terming out in December. District 2 stretches from the border of Morgan Hill and up to a portion of South San Jose, ending at Sylvandale Avenue.

Campos said she is cautiously optimistic of her chances to win.

“I’m feeling good knowing that we worked really hard since we found out we would be on the November general election ballot,” she told San José Spotlight. “We worked up until the last hour and I’m really proud of that. My hopes are that with the new council elected we can take San Jose in a new direction. For District 2, we need a leader who will work tirelessly and bring resources services and programs that are community desperately needs.”

Campos is the South Bay Labor Council’s pick who also has the support of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party.

Graduating from San Jose State with a degree in child development, Campos started her career working as an education specialist and child care coordinator. Her experience working with families and fellow educators led her to nonprofit work and community advocacy across South San Jose. If Campos wins, she would continue down a similar path carved out by Jimenez as his endorsed successor.

She told San José Spotlight she chose to run for the District 2 seat because she wants to create more opportunities not just for educators, but also for increased child care and housing. Campos said having access to early childhood education and child care is proven to keep workers satisfied and successful at their jobs.

“We need child care to sustain current workforce and employment levels, but we also need it so that we’re preparing future generations for the workforce,” Campos said. “So we’re doing our community a huge benefit by recognizing that every level of government has a role to play in making sure that our children and our families have the resources and services and support that they need to thrive.”

Lopez gathered in front of the television at his South San Jose campaign headquarters watching the election results with a handful of close supporters by the time the third round of election results dropped around 9:45 p.m., with those around him remaining as optimistic as the trailing District 2 candidate.

“I would have preferred to be ahead, but not having that lead isn’t discouraging — based on these numbers right not we’re still optimistic,” Lopez told San José Spotlight. “It’s definitely going to be a long three weeks, I don’t think we’ll know overnight.”

Lopez, who began his 35-year career with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office with jobs such as a bilingual hostage negotiator, would give the council a pro-public safety and law enforcement voice on the dais — a major shift from Jimenez, recently the sole councilmember on the Public Safety, Finance, and Strategic Support Committee to call for expanded investigations into police misconduct allegations.

Retired nurse Bernice Frampton said she’s enjoyed campaigning for Lopez and is pulling for him to come out on top once the full election results are released.

“He’s done a phenomenal job on this campaign and I think he can win,” Frampton told San José Spotlight. “I like supporting out local city representatives who I know are going to make a difference in our community.”

@sanjosespotlight

Retired sheriff’s deputy Joe Lopez shares his reaction to early election results in the race for the San Jose City Council District 2 seat. As of 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Educator turned candidate Pamela Campos has a marginal lead over Lopez. #sccgeneral24

♬ original sound – San José Spotlight

Organizations like the San Jose Police Officers’ Association continue to tout Lopez as the ideal candidate. In addition to his background in law enforcement, he said being bilingual and coming from a Mexican family helps him connect with less politically active residents.

One of the most important aspects of representing District 2, Lopez said, is making sure more affordable housing is built and evenly distributed across the city, including downtown — and revitalizing local business sectors.

“We need to do more thinking outside of the box, to preserve and build more housing that’s affordable and low income housing where needed,” he told San José Spotlight. “We have to take a closer look across the board about what we’re going to do and how we’re going to accommodate our citizens and what’s really going to work.”

Campos raised $168,065, with $15,728 in loans while Lopez raised $107,469, with $20,380 in loans.