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Elected to the San Jose City Council in 2022, Peter Ortiz represents District 5, which encompasses East San Jose. In June 2021, he was the first to announce his run for the open District 5 seat. In the November election he beat Assemblymember Nora Campos, gaining 55% of the vote. Ortiz is a supporter of community development programs, specifically funding for an East San Jose job training program for youth.
Oritz was elected to the Mt. Pleasant Elementary School District Board of Trustees in 2016 and served in the role for two years. At age 29, he was the youngest elected official to serve on the board. He was then elected to the Santa Clara Board of Education in 2018, where he served for four years before gaining his seat on San Jose City Council.
First elected: November 2022
Twitter bio: San José City Councilmember-Elect D5, Renter, advocate for working families, son of the east side, community and labor organizer.
Other offices served: Santa Clara County Board of Education (2018-2022), Mt. Pleasant Elementary School District Board of Trustees (2016-2018)
Notable quote: “There is a lack of resources and intentional infrastructure to support our East San Jose institutions. If there’s one thing we learned, there’s historically been under-resourced neighborhoods, and East San Jose is the number one under-resourced community in the city.” (Source: San Jose Spotlight)
San Jose residents want a neighborhood improvement initiative to restart after it sunsetted last June due to lack of funding.
Latino members of the San Jose City Council are calling for more funding for undocumented immigrant protections as the incoming presidential administration threatens to ramp up deportations.
If no candidate receives a majority on April 8, the top two candidates will run against each other in a special runoff election on June 24. The winner will serve the remainder of the term through 2026.
Housing and business developers in San Jose avoid building public improvements by paying fees to the city, but this often leads to infrastructure projects slowing to a crawl.
