November election will decide majority of Phoenix City Council
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The race for a west Phoenix district will pit four candidates — including two state lawmakers and a former council member — against one another, with the majority of the Phoenix City Council on the ballot in November.
The big picture: Five of the council's nine seats will be up for election, including the mayor's office.
- Council member Ann O'Brien, who represents the northwest Phoenix-based District 1, is running unopposed.
- In races where no candidate wins an outright majority, a runoff election will take place on March 11, 2025.
- District 7, which covers parts of Maryvale and central Phoenix, is the only race with more than two candidates, meaning it's the only one that could go to a runoff.
Why it matters: Phoenix City Council may not be as prominent in voters' minds as Congress or the state Legislature, but city government is responsible for the services that are often closest to the people, like public safety, garbage collection and street maintenance.
Mayor: Mayor Kate Gallego, a former City Council member first elected in a 2019 special election and re-elected the following year, is seeking her second full term as the city's top elected official.
- Her opponent is Matt Evans, a software engineer.
District 3: Incumbent Deb Stark is the city's former city planning and development director; she's served on the council since 2016.
- Her challenger is Ayensa Millan, an attorney who runs a law practice specializing in immigration, personal injury and criminal defense.
District 5: Incumbent Betty Guardado is a former union organizer with Unite Here Local 11; she was first elected in 2019.
- JJ Martinez, who retired in 2020 after 26 years as a Phoenix police officer, is running against her.
District 7: The seat is open after former Council member Yassamin Ansari resigned to run for Congress. The four candidates are:
- Martyn Bridgeman, a real estate agent and Phoenix Center for the Arts board chair.
- Anna Hernandez, a state senator who's spent most of her career in the mortgage and banking industry.
- Michael Nowakowski, a former Spanish-language radio station operator who represented the district from 2007 to 2021 and previously worked for the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.
- Marcelino Quiñonez, a former state representative and teacher.
Meanwhile, Carlos Galindo-Elvira was appointed to fill the District 7 seat and is running in a special election to fill out the rest of Ansari's term, but is not seeking a full term in the November election.
- A fifth District 7 candidate, Emilio Avila Solis, withdrew from the race last month.