26 Feb Richmond City Council Member Claudia Jimenez Running for Mayor With RPA Backing

Claudia Jimenez is running for mayor of Richmond. (Claudia Jimenez via Bay City News)

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By Samantha Kennedy

Richmond City Council member Claudia Jimenez is running for mayor, where she’s expected to face off against the current mayor — fellow Richmond Progressive Alliance member Eduardo Martinez — and three other candidates in the June primary, the first such election in the city’s history.

Jimenez announced her mayoral run Wednesday in the upcoming election, days after the RPA opted to endorse her over Martinez, who received widespread attention and criticism for social media posts that, among other things, called the Bondi Beach attack in Australia a “false flag.”

“To continue moving in the right direction, Richmond needs a capable leader, one who knows how to take good ideas and turn them into real world improvements that uplift every person in every neighborhood. I believe that leader is me,” Jimenez wrote in a statement on her website.

The announcement came less than a day after a public commenter at Tuesday’s Richmond City Council meeting shared information about Jimenez’s intention to enter the race. Others had previously suggested the same.

The RPA said in a Wednesday statement that Jimenez’s candidacy “represents a historic opportunity as Richmond’s first immigrant and Latina mayor.”

“Claudia represents the strength, commitment, and working-class leadership our city needs,” the organization wrote in the statement posted on social media.

Jimenez told the Bay Area News Group after the announcement that the RPA endorsement could have been in part due to Martinez’s social media posts.

Alongside Martinez, Jimenez joins the race with nonprofit director Ahmad Anderson, former City Council member and vice mayor Demnlus Johnson III and controversial frequent public commenter Mark Wassberg. This is Anderson and Johnson’s first time running for mayor and Wassberg’s fourth.

Jimenez has served on the City Council since 2021, after she was elected to the District 6 seat in the city’s first district elections.

In that time, she says, she had a hand in negotiating the $550 million Chevron settlement and introduced the $1 million in immigration legal support the City Council passed last year.

In 2024, she served out the last year of her first term as vice mayor, months after taking time off due to a thyroid cancer diagnosis. Voters reelected her in November 2024 to another four-year term.

Voters also approved Measure J in that election, changing Richmond city elections to a primary system. That means that candidates in the June election will have to be one of the top two vote-getters to move on to the November general election. If a candidate in the June election wins at least 50% of the vote, that candidate automatically wins.