Who is Benjamin Vazquez, the man trying to beat Santa Ana’s first woman Mayor?

Santa Ana City Councilman Benjamin Vazquez is challenging Santa Ana’s first woman Mayor, Valerie Amezcua, in this November’s General Election, which is on Nov. 5.

Vazquez, was first elected to the Santa Ana City Council, in Ward 2, back in 2022. Vazquez barely won that election, prevailing by just 80 votes over the incumbent Councilwoman Nelida Mendoza, out of 4,390 votes cast.

His current Council term ends on December 8, 2026. This means he can safely run for Mayor, and lose, but still hang on to his City Council seat.

After beating Mendoza Vazquez is now taking on another yet another elected woman – an unfortunate trend in a city that has been dominated by male politicians for centuries. If Vazquez wins in November we will be able to refer to him as a “woman-beater.”

Vazquez has been described as a “a radical leftist who teaches Ethnic Studies in the Santa Ana Unified School District,” by the OC Independent.

Vazquez earned a Bachelor’s degree at Cal State Long Beach, and a Master’s degree from UCLA.

Vazquez first ran for Mayor way back in 2016 against then-Mayor Miguel Pulido, but was soundly trounced by 50% to 36%. That will likely be the outcome of this November’s election as well.

 In two years on the Santa Ana City Council, Vazquez has established a 100% anti-law enforcement record, voting against contracts to fund more police officers and opposing quality-of-life measures such as targeting public intoxication.

Vazquez also strongly supports the most heavy-handed rent control law in the state – although it has been proven repeatedly in many communities that rent control results in less housing as landlords get out of the rental business altogether and stop developing new apartments in rent controlled areas.

Most recently, Vazquez strongly supported repeated attempts by his fellow woke City Council colleagues to pass a resolution condemning Israel’s war of self-defense against Hamas and calling for a cease-fire that would leave Hamas in control of Gaza.

Vazquez is also helping lead the campaign to allow non-citizens – including illegal aliens – to vote in Santa Ana city elections alongside U.S. citizens.

And Vazquez supports union-only labor agreements that will shut non-union workers out of the bidding on public projects although the great majority of Santa Ana’s workers do not belong to trade unions.

As one might expect, O.C. Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, whose family has speciliazed in suing police departments and run several shoddy bars and dance clubs that promote alchol in our city’s poorest neighborhoods, has endorsed Vazquez. So have the members of the SAUSD School Board, who like Vazquez are all opposed to law enforcement.

Sadly when it comes to Vazquez you will never convince him that the real problems in our city stem from gangbangers, transients, drug addicts and dealers, etc. In his mind the problem is the rest of us and his mission is to squeeze more taxes out of us and undermine our safety and rights.

You can read Vazquez’ candidate statement here. You can check out his campaign website here.