Johnny Khamis is an American politician from San Jose, California and was a member of the San Jose City Council, representing District 10.
Khamis is a Christian of Palestinian descent. [1] He grew up in San Jose and attended local public schools, graduating from Oak Grove High School. He is a graduate of San Jose State University in Business Management and Communication. [2] He is the former CEO and founder of Western Benefit Solutions, a San Jose-based firm that deals in insurance benefit plan consulting. [3]
He was a member of the Republican Party, until changing his registration to no party preference in protest of the Trump administration family separation policy. [4] City council positions are officially nonpartisan per California law. With his swearing-in on December 31, 2012, [5] he became the first Arab-American to take office for the city of San Jose. [6] He is the former regional director of the California Congress of Republicans, [7] the former chair of the Santa Clara County Human Relations Commission, and the former chair of the San Jose Small Business Development Commission during his time as a councilmember. [8]
In 2022, Khamis was a candidate in the 2022 Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors election for the District 1 seat. He came in second in the primary election and he lost in the general election to Sylvia Arenas.
On March 3, 2020, in the primary election, Khamis lost when he placed 5th place in his race for California's 15th State Senate district behind Republican Robert Howell, Democrat Nora Campos, and the top two vote getters who would move on to general election in November: Ann Ravel who placed 2nd and Dave Cortese who placed in 1st place. [9] Cortese would go on to win the general election.
In the 2012 San Jose city council election, Khamis got the highest vote total of the six candidates in the June primary [10] and won the November general election 52.6% to 47.4%. [11] In his re-election bid in 2016, he received 76% of the vote in the primary election, winning outright forgoing a November general election. [12]
Saren Joseph Simitian is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the State Senator representing California's 11th State Senate district, which encompasses all or part of 13 cities in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties, from 2004 to 2012. Approaching his term limit at the end of 2012, he ran for and was elected as a Santa Clara County Supervisor. He was re-elected to the same seat in 2016 and again in 2020.
Jose "Joe" Santos Esteves was the mayor of Milpitas, California. A Republican, Esteves was born in the Philippines and graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman before immigrating to the United States in 1980. He was elected to Milpitas City Council in 1998 and went on to serve as mayor between 2002 and 2008, and again from 2010 to 2016.
Madison Nguyen is an American politician from California. She served on the San Jose City Council from 2005 to 2014, representing District 7, and she additionally served as Vice-Mayor from 2011 to 2014. She was the first Vietnamese-American elected to the city council.
Nora Campos is an American politician from California. Campos formerly served as a California State Assemblymember and was the Speaker pro tempore during her tenure. In 2020, she was unsuccessful in her campaign for the California's 15th State Senate district. She served on the San Jose City Council representing District 5 (2001-2010). She was unsuccessful in her campaign for the same seat in 2022. Prior to taking elected office she worked for a San Jose City Councilmember.
David Dominic Cortese is an elected official from San Jose, California. He is currently serving in the California State Senate, representing District 15, which encompasses a majority of Santa Clara County. Before being elected to the California State Senate, Cortese served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors for 12 years, as a Councilmember and Vice Mayor for the City of San Jose for eight years, and for eight years as a trustee for the East Side Union High School District in San Jose. Cortese ran for mayor of San Jose and won the primary, losing the general election to District 3 councilmember Sam Liccardo.
Pete Constant is an American politician from California, formerly a councilmember for District 1 of the San Jose, California city council. Constant is a former San Jose police officer (1989–2000) and has owned several photography businesses. He was elected to the city council during the June 2006 primary election and was inaugurated in January 2007.
Pierluigi Oliverio is a former American politician, who was the 6th district Councilmember on the San Jose City Council. He was sworn in on March 20, 2007, and left office in 2016.
The San Jose City Council, officially San José City Council, is the legislature of the government of the City of San Jose, California.
Samuel Theodore Liccardo is an American politician from California who served as the 65th mayor of San José from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Liccardo was elected mayor in November 2014. He was reelected in 2018 with 75.8% of the vote. As the leader of the California Big City Mayors Coalition, Liccardo advocated on statewide issues including homelessness and COVID-19 response.
The 2014 San Jose mayoral election was held on June 3, 2014 to elect the Mayor of San Jose, California. Councilmember Sam Liccardo defeated Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese in a runoff on November 4, 2014.
Kathy Watanabe is the Council Member for District 1 of the City of Santa Clara. She was appointed to the council on March 7, 2016, by a vote of 4-2 by the then current council members, then won the city council election in November 2016 with 48% of the vote to keep her seat and also won every precinct in the City in an at-large election. There has been some criticism that the Santa Clara city council remains all white, however she is also the only councilmember representing the Northside of the city. Kathy serves on the Downtown Revitalization Plan, Audit, Facilities Naming and Honorary Recognition Ad Hoc, Police Activities League (PAL) and Santa Clara Sister Cities Association committees.
The 1982 San Jose mayoral election was held on June 8, 1982 to elect the mayor of San Jose, California. Tom McEnery was elected. Because McEnrery won an outright majority in the initial round of the election, no runoff election needed to be held.
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The 2022 San Jose mayoral election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the next mayor of San Jose for a two-year term. A top-two primary was held on June 7, 2022, and no candidate received more than 50% in this primary election. Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez and San Jose City Councilmember Matt Mahan advanced to a November 8 runoff election. On November 16, Cindy Chavez conceded the race to Matt Mahan.
The 1990 San Jose mayoral election was held to elect the mayor of San Jose, California. It saw an initial election held on June 5, 1990, followed by a runoff election on November 3, 1990 after no candidate managed to obtain a majority in the initial election. The runoff was won by Susan Hammer.
The 1978 San Jose mayoral election was held to elect the mayor of San Jose, California. It saw an initial election held on June 6, 1978, followed by a runoff election on November 7, 1978, after no candidate managed to obtain a majority in the initial election. The runoff was won by incumbent mayor Janet Gray Hayes.
The 1974 San Jose mayoral election was held to elect the mayor of San Jose, California. It saw an initial election held on June 4, 1974, followed by a runoff election on November 5, 1974 after no candidate managed to obtain a majority in the initial election. The runoff was won by Janet Gray Hayes, who became the first female mayor of the city, making San Jose the first United States city of more than 500,000 residents to elect a female mayor.
The San Jose Chamber of Commerce, formerly known as the Silicon Valley Organization, is a chamber of commerce representing business interests in San Jose, California. It is the largest chamber of commerce in the Silicon Valley region. Founded in 1886, the chamber has played a role in the development of the local economy and politics.
The 2022 Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect two of the five seats on the Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County, California. District 1 was an open seat due to the terming out of Supervisor Mike Wasserman. The race was highly competitive and the first since the 2020 United States redistricting cycle which changed the boundaries of the district. Since District 4 was uncontested, incumbent Supervisor Susan Ellenberg did not appear on the November 8th ballot.