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Karen Goh
Karen Goh is the Mayor of Bakersfield in California. She assumed office on January 3, 2017. Her current term ends in 2029.
Goh won re-election for Mayor of Bakersfield in California outright in the primary on March 5, 2024, after the general election was canceled.
Mayoral elections in Bakersfield are nonpartisan. Media outlets have reported that Goh is affiliated with the Republican Party.[1][2][3]
Biography
Goh attended Bakersfield High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in music and a graduate degree in music education from the University of Southern California. After graduating, she taught music at Bakersfield Christian Life Schools and then moved to New York to work at the McGraw-Hill Companies, where she held several positions including vice president of publishing operations. After returning to Bakersfield in 2005, Goh volunteered at Garden Pathways for five years, and then became the president/CEO in 2013. She was the fifth district supervisor of Kern County from 2010 to 2013.[4]
Elections
2024
See also: Mayoral election in Bakersfield, California (2024)
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Bakersfield
Incumbent Karen Goh won election outright against Gregory Tatum in the primary for Mayor of Bakersfield on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Karen Goh (Nonpartisan) | 83.2 | 44,735 |
 | Gregory Tatum (Nonpartisan) | 16.8 | 9,039 | |
| Total votes: 53,774 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Goh in this election.
2020
See also: Mayoral election in Bakersfield, California (2020)
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Bakersfield
Incumbent Karen Goh won election outright against Gregory Tatum, Joseph Caporali, Mark Hudson, and Joey Harrington in the primary for Mayor of Bakersfield on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Karen Goh (Nonpartisan) | 83.5 | 60,579 |
| Gregory Tatum (Nonpartisan) | 10.1 | 7,336 | |
| Joseph Caporali (Nonpartisan) | 6.2 | 4,519 | ||
| Mark Hudson (Nonpartisan) (Write-in) | 0.1 | 74 | ||
| Joey Harrington (Nonpartisan) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 15 | ||
| Total votes: 72,523 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
The mayor's chair and three seats on the Bakersfield City Council were up for general election in 2016. The filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was March 16, 2016. A primary was held on June 7, 2016, and the general election took place on November 8, 2016. Karen Goh defeated Kyle Carter in the Mayor of Bakersfield general election.
| Mayor of Bakersfield, General Election, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Karen Goh |
52.75% | 59,355 |
| Kyle Carter | 47.25% | 53,157 |
| Total Votes | 112,512 | |
| Source: Kern County Elections, "Official Final Results," December 1, 2016 | ||
| Mayor of Bakersfield, Primary Election, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Karen Goh |
33.03% | 20,116 |
| Kyle Carter |
31.80% | 19,369 |
| Alex Merrill | 5.15% | 3,139 |
| T.J. Esposito | 4.06% | 2,470 |
| Tony Martinez | 3.26% | 1,983 |
| Gregory Tatum | 2.58% | 1,570 |
| Gilberto De La Torre | 2.57% | 1,567 |
| Nannette Gonzalez | 2.43% | 1,477 |
| Marc DeLeon | 2.24% | 1,364 |
| Addison Chavez | 2.05% | 1,250 |
| Kevin Blanton | 2.02% | 1,232 |
| Tanner Thompson | 1.42% | 865 |
| Tyrone Smith | 1.19% | 722 |
| Opal Morland | 0.91% | 554 |
| Brett Vigil | 0.76% | 463 |
| Roy Charles Keenan | 0.68% | 415 |
| Michael Harmon | 0.64% | 392 |
| Valiant Robinson | 0.62% | 379 |
| Kenneth Whitchard | 0.60% | 363 |
| Scotty Monroe | 0.54% | 327 |
| Joseph Crotwell | 0.45% | 274 |
| Benjamin Weigel | 0.44% | 265 |
| William Minnick | 0.29% | 174 |
| Kameron Kephart | 0.20% | 119 |
| Nathan Nemnich | 0.10% | 58 |
| Total Votes | 60,907 | |
| Source: Kern County Elections, "July 7 Primary Election Results," June 30, 2016 | ||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Karen Goh did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Karen Goh did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Noteworthy events
Events and activity following the death of George Floyd
Goh was mayor of Bakersfield during the weekend of May 29-31, 2020, when events and activity took place in cities across the U.S. following the death of George Floyd. Events in Bakersfield, California, began on Friday, May 29, 2020.[5] No curfews were issued. The national guard was not deployed.
| To read more about the death of George Floyd and subsequent events, click [show] to the right. | |||
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See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 23ABC News Bakersfield, "Kern County Republican Party serves cease and desist letter to Kyle Carter campaign, Carter responds," November 7, 2016
- ↑ WBUR News, "California Republicans Quietly Embrace Medicaid Expansion," November 21, 2011
- ↑ U.S. News & World Report, "Newsom Pledges More Vaccines for Central Valley Farmworkers," February 22, 2021
- ↑ Karen Goh campaign website, "About," accessed July 12, 2016
- ↑ KGET, "Protests over death of George Floyd take over streets of downtown Bakersfield," May 30, 2020
- ↑ Washington Post, "The death of George Floyd: What video and other records show about his final minutes," May 30, 2020
- ↑ The New York Times, "8 Minutes and 46 Seconds: How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody," May 31, 2020
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 USA Today, "Medical examiner and family-commissioned autopsy agree: George Floyd's death was a homicide," June 1, 2020
- ↑ Associated Press, "Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death," April 20, 2021
- ↑ CNN, "Protests across America after George Floyd's death," accessed June 2, 2020
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
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Mayor of Bakersfield 2017-Present |
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