Kamala Harris made history as the first woman to be elected as vice president of the United States on Nov. 3. Thousands of miles away from the White House, City Councilmember Anna Velazquez was elected as the first woman mayor of Soledad.
“I’ll be the first female in 99 years,” Velazquez says. “I’m really honored that my community voted for me.”
Velazquez was the first challenger who took on incumbent mayor Fred Ledesma since 2010, when he was first elected. She won with more than 57 percent of the vote.
She ran, she says, because she wants to make sure all voices from Soledad are heard. “It’s not just about people going to city council and voicing their opinion, but really being able to provide different platforms where people can get involved, where people can feel like their voices are heard,” she says.
Velazquez has served on City Council for four years and works as district director for State Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Salinas.
Supporters define Velazquez as a role model. “We’ll have women who listen, who have new ideas,” Monica Andrade says in Spanglish. She and her two teenage daughters volunteered for Velazquez’s campaign.
Andrade says Velazquez pays attention even on trivial matters. When the city installed new street lights, the then-councilmember listened to complaints about them being too bright and affecting sleep. Within days, the lights were dimmed. “Those are the little things I’m talking about,” Andrade says.
Valazquez says she relied on support from younger voters. Some supporters, like 15-year-old Diana Garza, are not old enough to vote, but Garza volunteered on the 2020 Census. “One of the things I like about Anna is that she’s actively informing people about how they can better understand what they can do in their community; even younger people like me, what we can do to be active and make it a better place for us to live in.”
Velazquez isn’t the only one in South Monterey County who dethroned a long-serving mayor.
In Gonzales, former City Commissioner Jose Rios won with more than 52 percent of the votes in a three-way race, ousting Mayor Maria Orozco, Monterey County’s longest-serving mayor who was seeking her seventh term. Orozco has been in the council since 2001.
Gonzales Mayor Pro Tem Scott Funk, who was reelected, says Orozco has done a great job for the city, and thinks voters were motivated by the idea of change: “Sometimes people want to see someone different.”
Funk doesn’t expect drastic changes once Rios is sworn in, but says the mayor-elect is more business-oriented than Orozco. Funk thinks Rios’ experience will be an asset: “We have a couple of large developments that are being planned, his experience there will be very good.”
Other incumbent mayors in Monterey County who were up for reelection won, including Clyde Roberson, who was reelected for his sixth term serving Monterey with almost 60 percent of the vote.