Become part of the movement for unbiased, accessible election information. Donate today.
San Jose, California
| San Jose, California | |
 | |
| General information | |
Mayor of San Jose
Matt Mahan | |
| Last mayoral election: | 2024 |
| Next mayoral election: | 2028 |
| Last city council election: | 2025 |
| Next city council election: | 2026 |
| City council seats: | 11[1] |
| City website | |
| Composition data | |
| Population: | 1,013,240 |
| Race: | White 27.3% African American 2.9% Asian 38.5% Native American 1.4% Pacific Islander 0.4% Multiple 11.2% |
| Ethnicity: | Hispanic or Latino origin 31.2% |
| Median household income: | $141,565 |
| High school graduation rate: | 85.5% |
| College graduation rate: | 46.5% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 census and 2023 ACS data. Percentages are rounded to the nearest 0.1%. | |
| Related San Jose offices | |
| California Congressional Delegation California State Legislature California state executive offices | |
San Jose is a city in Santa Clara County, California. The city's population was 1,013,240 as of 2020, according to the United States Census Bureau.
Click on the links below to learn more about the city's...
- Mayor
- City council
- Other elected officials
- Elections
- Census information
- Budget
- Contact information
- Ballot measures
- County government
City government
- See also: Council-manager government
The city of San Jose utilizes a council-manager system. In this form of municipal government, an elected city council—which includes the mayor and serves as the city's primary legislative body—appoints a chief executive called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations and implement the council's policy and legislative initiatives.[2]
Mayor
The mayor presides over council meetings and makes recommendations on policy, program, and budgetary initiatives. The mayor also represents the city in official civic ceremonies and on the state, national, and international levels.[2][3]
The current Mayor of San Jose is Matt Mahan (nonpartisan). Mahan assumed office in 2023.
City manager
The city manager is the city's chief executive. The responsibilities of the city manager include overseeing the city's day-to-day operations, planning and implementing the city's operating budget, and appointing departmental directors and other senior-level positions.[2][3]
City council
The San Jose City Council is the city's primary legislative body. It is responsible for adopting the city budget, levying taxes, and making or amending city laws, policies, and ordinances.[2]
The San Jose City Council is made up of 11 members, including the mayor. While the mayor is elected at large, the other 10 members are elected by the city's 10 districts.[3]
The widget below automatically displays information about city council meetings. The topic list contains a sampling of keywords that Voterheads, a local government monitoring service, found in each meeting agenda. Click the meeting link to see more info and the full agenda:
Other elected officials
Ballotpedia does not cover any additional city officials in San Jose, California.
Mayoral partisanship
San Jose has a Democratic mayor. As of September 2025, 66 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 23 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, three are independents, five identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and two mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Elections
2025
The city of San Jose, California, held a special general election for City Council District 3 on April 8, 2025. A special runoff election was scheduled for June 24, 2025. The filing deadline for this election was January 10, 2025.[4]
2024
The city of San Jose, California, held general elections for mayor and city council on November 5, 2024. A primary was scheduled for March 5, 2024. The filing deadline for this election was December 8, 2023.
2022
The city of San Jose, California, held general elections for mayor and city council on November 8, 2022. A primary was scheduled for June 7, 2022. The filing deadline for this election was March 11, 2022.
2020
The city of San Jose, California, held general elections for city council districts 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 on March 3, 2020. A runoff election was scheduled for November 3, 2020. The filing deadline for this election was December 6, 2019.
2018
The city of San Jose, California, held general elections for mayor and city council on November 6, 2018. The primary was on June 5, 2018. The deadline for candidates to file to run in this election was March 9, 2018.
2016
The city of San Jose, California, held elections for five of its nine city council seats on June 7, 2016. While the June election was called a primary, it was functionally a general election.
If no candidate won a majority (50 percent plus one) of the votes cast in a primary, the top two vote-getters in the race advanced to an election on November 8, 2016. The November election was called a general election, but it was functionally a runoff election.[5]
2015
The city of San Jose, California, held a special election for city council on April 7, 2015. A runoff took place on June 23, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was January 9, 2015. The city held the special election to fill the District 4 seat of former council member Kansen Chu, who won election to the California State Assembly in 2014.[6]
2014
The city of San Jose, California, held nonpartisan elections for mayor and city council on November 4, 2014. A primary election took place on June 3, 2014. In any race where a candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, they were declared elected and were not required to run on November 4. This happened in District 5, where Magdalena Carrasco defeated incumbent Xavier Campos, and District 9, where incumbent Donald Rocha defeated Lois Wilco-Owens.[7]
In total, six of San Jose's eleven council seats, including the mayor's, were scheduled for elections in November 2014. But due to outright primary victories in districts 5 and 9 in June, only four seats were up for election in the November 4 general elections. These included the mayor and districts 1, 3 and 7. All four were open seats, meaning that no incumbent ran for re-election.[7]
Census information
The table below shows demographic information about the city.
| Demographic Data for San Jose | |
|---|---|
| San Jose | |
| Population | 1,013,240 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 177 |
| Race and ethnicity** | |
| White | 29% |
| Black/African American | 2.9% |
| Asian | 38.6% |
| Native American | 1% |
| Pacific Islander | 1.6% |
| Other (single race) | 13.6% |
| Multiple | 14.4% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 31% |
| Education | |
| High school graduation rate | 85.5% |
| College graduation rate | 46.5% |
| Income | |
| Median household income | $141,565 |
| Persons below poverty level | 7.8% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2018-2023). | |
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | |
Budget
The city's budget process operates by fiscal years running from July 1 to June 30 of the next year. The city charter gives responsibility for drafting a proposed budget to the city manager. The mayor also delivers an annual budget message outlining a set of fiscal priorities. The city council is responsible for adopting the budget and is required to hold a public hearing prior to adoption. The city is required by state law to maintain a balanced budget.[3]
Fiscally standardized cities data
The fiscally standardized cities (FiSC) data below was compiled by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to make municipal budgets comparable across cities in the United States.[8]
| “ |
FiSCs are constructed by adding revenues and expenditures of each central city municipal government to a portion of the revenues and expenditures of overlying governments, including counties, independent school districts, and special districts. The allocations to FiSCs are estimates of the revenues collected from and services provided to central city residents and businesses by these overlying independent governments. Thus FiSCs provides a full picture of revenues raised from city residents and businesses and spending on their behalf, whether done by the city government or a separate overlying government.[9] |
” |
| —Lincoln Institute of Land Policy[10] | ||
The tables below show estimated finances within city limits. As such, the revenue and expenses listed may differ from the actual city budget.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Historical total revenue and expenditure
To see the historical total revenue or expenditures as a rounded amount in this city, hover over the bars.[8]
San Jose, California, salaries and pensions over $95,000
Below is a map of the nationwide salaries and pensions in this city over $95,000. To search a different ZIP code, enter it in the search bar within the map.
Contact information
Mayor's office
200 East Santa Clara Street
18th Floor
San Jose, CA 95113
Phone: 408-535-4800
City Clerk's office
200 East Santa Clara Street
14th Floor
San Jose, CA 95113
Phone: 408-535-1260
Click here for city council contact information.
Ballot measures
The city of San Jose is in Santa Clara County. A list of ballot measures in Santa Clara County is available here.
Noteworthy events
2020: Events and activity following the death of George Floyd
During the weekend of May 29-31, 2020, demonstrations and protests took place in cities nationwide, including San Jose, following the death of George Floyd. Events in San Jose, California, began on Friday, May 29, 2020, at the San Jose City Hall.[11] On May 31, City Manager Dave Sykes instituted a curfew.[12] The national guard was not deployed.
2015: Study on city's nondiscrimination laws
In July 2015, the Movement Advancement Project described San Jose, California, as a city or county that prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of gender identity via ordinances that apply to public and private employers. At that time, a total of 71 of America's largest 100 cities prohibited private employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, while 69 of those cities also prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. This did not include those jurisdictions that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity for government employees.[13]
Nondiscrimination laws can cover a variety of areas, including public employment, private employment, housing, and public accommodations. Such laws may be enacted at the state, county, or city level.
See also
- Cities in California
- Santa Clara County, California
- Largest cities in the United States by population
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The mayor is included in this number as one of the city council members.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 City of San Jose, "Office of the City Manager," accessed May 26, 2025
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 City of San Jose, "City of San Jose City Charter," accessed August 28, 2023
- ↑ San Jose Spotlight, "San Jose sets special election dates to fill open seat," December 3, 2024
- ↑ County of Santa Clara Registrar of Voters, "Past Election Information," accessed September 16, 2021
- ↑ County of Santa Clara Registrar of Voters, "Past Election Information," accessed September 16, 2021
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 County of Santa Clara Registrar of Voters, "Past Election Information," accessed September 16, 2021
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities database," accessed August 28, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, "Fiscally Standardized Cities," accessed August 28, 2023
- ↑ San Jose Spotlight, "San Jose: Hundreds protest killing of George Floyd, stop traffic," May 29, 2020
- ↑ KVTU, "Curfews spread across Bay Area: Find rules for your city," May 31, 2020
- ↑ Movement Advancement Project, "Local Employment Non-Discrimination Ordinances," accessed July 7, 2015
 |
State of California Sacramento (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
