Recount confirms gay San Jose council candidate Tordillos in runoff

A recount in the contest for a San Jose City Council seat confirmed that gay San Jose Planning Commission chair Anthony Tordillos took second place by six votes. He will now face off against first-place finisher Gabriela "Gabby" Chavez-Lopez in a summer runoff race.

A single mom who is the executive director of South Bay nonprofit the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, Chavez-Lopez finished with 2,712 votes in the special April 8 primary for the District 3 council seat. Tordillos, an engineering manager at YouTube, finished with 2,006 votes.

It put him ahead of Matthew Quevedo, deputy chief of staff to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who took third place with 2,000. The result is the second ballot defeat this month for Mahan, who had solely endorsed Quevedo in his race and had also backed Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor who came up short in his own April 15 special election.

Because the vote difference between Tordillos and Quevedo was less than .25%, it triggered an automatic hand recount of the results. The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters wrapped it up over the weekend, prompting Quevedo to concede on Sunday a day prior to the certification of the final vote tally.

In a brief phone interview Monday evening, Tordillos told the Bay Area Reporter he is confident of his chances in the June 24 runoff, which is coinciding with this year’s Pride week celebrations in cities around the Bay Area and across the country.

During a brief phone interview Monday evening, Tordillos told the Bay Area Reporter he is confident of his chances in the June 24 runoff, which is coinciding with this year’s Pride week celebrations in cities around the Bay Area and across the country.

“It feels good. We were on pins and needles the past few weeks as we watched the results come in,” said Tordillos, who initially landed in third place on election night. “I am feeling very excited to be moving on to the runoff and excited to get back on the campaign trail.”

In an email to his supporters Monday thanking them for backing his candidacy, Quevedo noted he had reached out to both Tordillos and Chavez-Lopez to offer his congratulations on advancing to the runoff. Although he didn’t mention an endorsement in the runoff, Quevedo did state he “will be rooting for nothing but success from our future Councilmember.”

As for his future plans, Quevedo noted, “While I won’t have the honor of serving as your Councilmember, I will continue to serve in the Mayor’s Office and as something just as important - your neighbor.”

Tordillos said they had spoken and that he congratulated Quevedo on his mounting a well-run campaign. He told the B.A.R. he intended to seek Quevedo’s endorsement ahead of the runoff and would welcome the support of Mahan, who had indicated he would favor seeing Tordillos win if Quevedo didn’t survive the primary.

“Absolutely,” responded Tordillos, adding that although he doesn’t agree with the mayor “on every policy,” there is overlap between them on wanting to see San Jose have a “vibrant downtown” with new housing and increased foot traffic to support retail and entertainment offerings.

The District 3 seat covers much of downtown San Jose and its Qmunity LGBTQ district. The special election is to serve out a council term that expires at the end of 2026.

It has been represented since earlier this year by engineering firm owner Carl Salas. He was selected as a caretaker of the seat by the council following the resignation last fall of gay former councilmember Omar Torres due to his arrest for allegedly molesting a cousin years prior.

As the final day of voting was underway April 8 to decide who will serve out the remainder of his term, Torres that Tuesday was in a Santa Clara County courtroom pleading no contest to child sex crimes. He now awaits his sentencing and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Elected in 2022, Torres was the first gay Latino and out person of color to serve on the San Jose City Council, and only its second out councilmember. The governing body had gone 16 years without a member from the LGBTQ community until Torres took his oath of office two years ago.

A candidate needed to capture more than 50% of the vote to win the seat outright earlier this month. While LGBTQ political groups had endorsed Tordillos in the race, the Santa Clara County Democratic Party split its support between him and Chavez-Lopez, who attracted strong support from local unions.

Should she win the seat, Chavez-Lopez, 37, would be the second Latina to represent District 3 and the first since 2006 when Cindy Chavez left the office. Chavez-Lopez and her 6-year-old son, Jaycius, share a home she co-owns with her family in the city’s Hensley historic district.

“Our tremendous lead is clear and the voters have spoken! I’m SO excited to invite you to our Runoff Community Kick-off!” wrote Chavez-Lopez in an Instagram post Sunday announcing the event that begins at 10 a.m. this Saturday, May 3, at the William Street Park at 16th and Williams streets in downtown San Jose. “We’ve built incredible momentum together – and now it’s time to take it even further.”

Tordillos, 33, lives with his husband, Giovanni Forcina, a cancer biologist, near the San Jose State University campus. In a statement released April 27, Tordillos thanked the other five candidates who entered the race, as well as his supporters and campaign team.

“It’s clear that voters are hungry for a councilmember who will go to bat for them, not City Hall special interests, on our urgent housing, homelessness, and public safety crises. I look forward to more conversations with voters across the next nine weeks,” he stated.

At 10 a.m. this Saturday and Sunday, May 4, Tordillos is asking volunteers to gather at the city’s Backesto Park at 551 N 13th Street to help canvass for his campaign.

“While beating the odds and the special interest spending to make it this far is something to celebrate, that also means we have just 58 days left to get the word out to our District 3 neighbors,” he noted in an email to his supporters.

The council race recount was the fourth San Jose contest to go to a recount over the past eight years. Last year, a recount of the results in the March 5 primary race for the state's 16th Congressional District saw Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian (D) fail to advance to the November ballot. Initially, it looked like Simitian would do so after tying for second place with gay then-assemblymember Evan Low (D-Cupertino), with both taking on first-place finisher former San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo (D).

But a former aide to Liccardo sought a recount, claiming he was doing so on behalf of Low. While Low had cried foul, accusing Liccardo of working behind the scenes to bump him out of the race, he emerged victorious over Simitian by five votes. In the fall, Low lost to Liccardo and was just hired as president and CEO of the national LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, which had endorsed Tordillos in his race.

Low also personally endorsed him, one of a number of LGBTQ South Bay leaders to do so. Ken Yeager, the San Jose council’s first gay member who went on to serve as a county supervisor, had also backed Tordillos in his bid to return out representation to their city’s governing body.

“It is very exciting. He worked very hard in the primary, and for someone who was basically unknown, he must have been very well received at the door and was able to get the votes that he did, which was very impressive over some more well-established candidates,” said Yeager. “I think his odds look very good come June.”

Tordillos heads into the runoff as having an upper hand in securing support from voters who sided with Quevedo, and by default Mahan, Yeager told the B.A.R., as well as those who backed fourth-place finisher Irene Smith. She had lost to Torres three years ago.

“One reason it looks good for Anthony is I am not sure where the other votes go to,” said Yeager. “I don’t see Matthew’s or the mayor’s votes going to Gabby, same thing with Irene. I think he is in a very strong position.”