Todd Gloria
Todd Rex Gloria is an American politician serving as the 37th mayor of San Diego since 2020. As mayor, he is the chief executive officer of the City of San Diego. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the first person of color and the first openly gay person to serve as San Diego's mayor.
Gloria was first elected to public office representing District 3 of the San Diego City Council. He was president of the nine-member council from 2012 through 2014. As council president, Gloria served as interim mayor of San Diego from the August 2013 resignation of Mayor Bob Filner until the March 2014 inauguration of Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Gloria was then elected to represent California's 78th State Assembly district, which encompasses much of San Diego. While in the Assembly, he served as Majority Whip. In December 2020, he became the 37th mayor of San Diego.
Early life
Gloria and his family grew up in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego, where he attended Hawthorne Elementary School. In 1989, he was a finalist in then-San Diego mayor Maureen O'Connor's "Mayor for a Day" program. Gloria then attended James Madison High School in 1992 and held leadership positions such as Battalion Commander and Brigade Commander for Madison High School and the SDUSD JROTC Brigade. His father was a Production Controller at General Atomics. All four of his grandparents moved to the area because of their involvement with the military. Todd Gloria comes from a Filipino, Dutch, Puerto Rican, and Native American background. He is a Tlingit descendant and is a tribal member of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. Gloria completed his college education at the University of San Diego, where he was the student body president.Career
U.S. congresswoman Susan Davis had been Gloria's political mentor since they met in 1993 when Gloria was a freshman in high school. Davis was the director of the Aaron Price Fellows Program, a leadership program for high school students focused on civic education and cross-cultural understanding. Mayor Gloria has spent most of his professional life serving the public. He began his career at the County of San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency and joined the office of Susan Davis as a community representative. In 2002, Gloria became Davis's district director, a position he held until his election to the City Council in 2008. Gloria also served as a San Diego Housing Commissioner from 2005 until 2008. Openly gay, he is also a former chairman of the San Diego LGBT Community Center and was a resident panelist on San Diego's Prostitution Impact Panel.In 2012, he was elected as the President of the City Council. A year later, after Bob Filner resigned from office, he took office as the interim mayor. During this time, he gained popularity and trust from his community by improving the layout of a revolutionary plan for the city’s fight against climate change, strengthening the infrastructure and offered creative resolutions to the severe homelessness of San Diego. Upon his success, he was then elected as a representative of the 78th District of the California State Assembly and rose to the position of Majority Whip. He established legislation addressing issues in San Diego, such as housing and homelessness, gun violence, and global warming. He was the vice chair of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus.
San Diego City Council
Elections
Gloria ran for the District 3 seat on the San Diego City Council vacated by the termed-out Toni Atkins in the 2008 election. He received a plurality of votes in the June 2008 primary, leading to a November run-off election against fellow Democrat Stephen Whitburn, a former journalist, community activist, and ally of then-District 6 Councilmember Donna Frye. Gloria defeated Whitburn with 54.3% of the vote.In the 2012 election, Gloria ran for re-election unopposed and was re-elected in the June primary. As of his second term, District 3 included the neighborhoods of Balboa Park, Bankers Hill/Park West, Downtown San Diego, Golden Hill, Hillcrest, Little Italy, Mission Hills, Normal Heights, North Park, Old Town, and University Heights.
Tenure
Gloria was chair of the city's Budget and Finance Committee from 2011 to 2016. Gloria represented San Diego on the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Board and SANDAG, where he chaired the transportation committee. As the Council member for District Three, he also took charge in the merger of multiple homelessness organizations in San Diego. By doing so, Gloria aimed to consolidate the city's allocated resources to help end homelessness. In December 2012, at its first meeting after new members took office, Gloria was unanimously elected to serve as Council President, replacing retiring President Tony Young.On December 10, 2014, the city council voted 4–5 on a motion to reappoint Gloria as council president for the new term, with Sherri Lightner joining the four council Republicans to defeat the measure. The council then voted 7–2 to appoint Lightner as council president, with Gloria and David Alvarez in opposition.
Interim Mayor
Upon the resignation of Mayor Bob Filner on August 30, 2013, Gloria became the interim mayor of San Diego, with limited powers. His new interim role led to San Diego becoming the second-largest city in the United States, after Houston, with an openly gay mayor. He served until March 3, 2014, when mayor-elect Kevin Faulconer was sworn in. While serving as interim mayor, Gloria remained the City Councilmember for District 3 and retained the title of City Council President; however, City Council President Pro Tem Sherri Lightner carried out the duties of the Council President. Gloria was considered a possible candidate to replace Filner but chose not to run.As interim mayor, Gloria reversed several of Filner's actions. He ordered city police and zoning code officers to resume enforcement actions against medical marijuana, re-hired lobbying firms in Sacramento and Washington that Filner had fired, and ordered public records be made more quickly and easily available to citizens.
Gloria's administration authored and released a draft of the San Diego Climate Action Plan.
California State Assembly
On April 7, 2015, Gloria announced that he would run in 2016 for the California State Assembly 78th district seat held by Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, who was termed out. Gloria was immediately endorsed by Atkins and by Sarah Boot, who had previously announced her own candidacy for Atkins's seat but withdrew upon Gloria's announcement. While running for State Assembly, Gloria promoted the city's climate action plan. On November 8, 2016, Gloria was easily elected over his relatively unknown Republican opponent with the second-highest margin of victory in San Diego County. He was easily re-elected in 2018 with over 70 percent of the vote in both the primary and the general elections.Shortly after assuming office in 2016, Gloria was chosen by Speaker Anthony Rendon to join Democratic leadership in the Assembly as Assistant Majority Whip. In January 2018, he became Majority Whip.
Mayor of San Diego
Campaign
Gloria announced his candidacy for mayor of San Diego in 2020 on January 9, 2019. Gloria's campaign focused on issues such as the housing crisis, affordability, public transportation, and climate change. Gloria was endorsed by several politicians, including Governor Gavin Newsom, former Governor Jerry Brown, and San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott.On August 20, 2019, Gloria won the San Diego County Democratic Party's endorsement vote, allowing the party to spend money on behalf of his campaign. Gloria received 70% of the votes, exceeding the 60% required to win. Fellow Democratic rivals Barbara Bry and Tasha Williamson won 14% and 3% of the votes, respectively.
In August 2019, Gloria was accused of collecting funds for his 2020 re-election campaign to the State Assembly before filing his intent to run with the state, violating state law. Gloria claimed this was a technical oversight and filed the relevant paperwork the next day.
With the Mayor's office being a "voter-nominated" position in San Diego, Gloria and Bry advanced to the general election as the top two vote-getters from the primary. On November 3, he was elected mayor, making history as the first Native American and the first Filipino-American to hold this position in a U.S. city with over a million people. He also became San Diego's first mayor of color and its first openly gay mayor. Gloria was sworn in on December 10, 2020.