OCEANSIDE — The closely contested race for Oceanside mayor has Deputy Mayor Ryan Keim leading by several hundred votes over incumbent Mayor Esther Sanchez as of Wednesday morning.
With 49.2% of ballots in San Diego County counted, Mayor Sanchez, who first won the office in 2020 after two decades as a council member, still has a chance to close the gap.
Keim, appointed to the District 3 seat on the Oceanside City Council in 2019 and subsequently elected in 2020, is now vying to unseat Sanchez in the mayoral race.
As Keim competes for the mayoral seat, his District 3 spot is certain to see new leadership. Four candidates are in the running: Jimmy Figueroa, Laura Bassett, Tom DeMooy, and Austin Sorensen. Early results show Figueroa and Bassett leading the pack by several thousand votes, with Figueroa currently ahead at 6,993 votes and Bassett following with 6,370 — a 673-vote margin.
In District 4, incumbent Councilmember Peter Weiss is leading his opponents, Amber Kae Niuatoa and Omar Hashimi, by nearly 3,000 votes.
The treasurer’s race is proving equally tight, with incumbent Victor Roy narrowly leading challenger Phyllis Dominguez by just 126 votes. A third candidate, Jack Fernandes, trails behind by roughly 2,000 votes.
Although several races remain unresolved, Measure X, a proposal for a 10-year extension, appears likely to pass with strong support; 69% of voters have backed the measure thus far.
In the Oceanside Unified School District elections, the Trustee Area No. 2 race remains close, with incumbent Eleanor Evans holding a narrow 225-vote lead over challenger Emily Ortiz Wichmann. Meanwhile, in Trustee Area No. 5, incumbent Mike Blessing leads challenger Rosie Higuera by 801 votes.
As ballots continue to be tallied, Oceanside’s races highlight a community on the cusp of potential shifts in local leadership.
