The coming election will bring a new mayor and two new councilmembers to Soledad.

More than half of Soledad City Council seats are up for grabs on Election Day, Nov. 3. The council might see three new faces at the dais after incumbents Mayor Anna Velazquez and Councilmember Fernando Ansaldo-Sánchez announced on July 21 that they will not seek re-election.

So far, only one candidate has submitted paperwork to run for office: Fernando Cabrera, a member of council who is running for mayor and launched his campaign on July 25. “I always believe that there is a little bit of something else that I can do,” he says.

Both Ansaldo-Sánchez and Cabrera were elected at-large, but after a redistricting process, are vacating seats representing District 1 and 2, respectively. This is the first time these district seats will be up for election. (Ansaldo-Sánchez was elected in 2024 to serve the remainder of Alejandro Chavez’s term, who resigned because he moved out of the city.)

Velazquez, who was 10 years on the council, six of them as mayor, says she paused her political career to focus on her job as district director for State Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Merced. (Caballero will term out in December 2026. She did not advance beyond the primary election in her campaign for state treasurer.)

“It was a time for me to take a pause, and really make sure that I close out my employment with the senator who has been just an extraordinary, amazing mentor to me, and close that chapter,” Velazquez says.

Ansaldo-Sánchez, who works as the interim director of student outreach and retention at Monterey Peninsula College, says he is focusing on his career and will soon start a doctorate program in education.

Whoever is elected to the next council will inherit fiscal challenges. The council approved an interim budget on June 10 that could face cuts after Measure A, a parcel tax that would have provided funding to the fire department, failed at the polls in March.