Election 2020: Tito Ortiz, Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser lead Huntington Beach City Council returns
With no candidates running for reelection and three spots up for grabs, the Huntington Beach City Council race promised to deliver three fresh faces to City Hall.
Former mixed martial arts star Tito Ortiz, a conservative, took the lead late Tuesday night in updated results released by the Orange County Registrar of Voters.
Two candidates endorsed by the Democratic Party of Orange County in the race — Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser — sat in the second and third positions and also appeared poised to join the City Council.
As of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Ortiz had 34,643 votes, or 14.22% of the total amount.
Kalmick, who is on the Planning Commission and led the early results, had 26,890 votes, or 11.04% of the votes cast. Moser, chairperson of the Huntington Beach Human Relations Task Force, tallied 26,569 votes, or 10.91% of the total.
Rep. Harley Rouda is slightly behind challenger Michelle Steel in the race for the 48th Congressional District, which comprises much of the Orange County coastline, including Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach and Newport Beach.
Gracey Van Der Mark had moved up to fourth with 19,592 votes, with Oscar Rodriguez in fifth with 19,049.
The rest of the candidates had the following number of votes as of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday:
- Brian Burley, 18,049 votes
- Matthew Harper, 17,281
- Casey McKeon, 16,652
- Jeff Morin, 14,460
- Billy O’Connell, 14,440
- Sonya Green, 9,637
- Eric Silkenson, 8,672
- John Briscoe, 8,229
- Thomas LaParne, 7,184
- Amory Hanson, 2,274
Ortiz, known as the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” during his fighting career and without previous political experience, has pledged his loyalty to President Donald Trump and used “Make Huntington Beach Great Again” as a campaign slogan.
“People know where I came from, they know my views, they know what I stand for,” Ortiz said Monday night at an event put on by Huntington Beach Awareness. “They’re mad at all of the politicians coming in here and doing what they’ve been doing for the last 10 years. It’s not working. Now it’s about the patriots stepping up and fighting for what’s theirs, and this is ours. I was born and raised here. I’m living the American Dream and I don’t want to lose it.”
Trump accuses Democrats of trying to steal the election, making false claims
Kalmick said in a text message Tuesday night that he was really excited that his team’s hard work had paid off.
“We couldn’t have done it without our amazing volunteers and supporters,” Kalmick said.
Moser said she was “cautiously optimistic” and showed excitement that community organizer Oscar Rodriguez, the other Democratic Party endorsed candidate, also was in contention.
“I will say that I’m so proud of Oscar and Dan,” she said. “I think we’ve run a really clean and positive race.”
Ortiz ran with two other conservative candidates, Van Der Mark and McKeon.
The Huntington Beach Civic Center was quiet for much of the day Tuesday, though poll workers said they expected crowds to pick up at night at City Hall, one of 11 vote centers around the city. Three workers stood out by the parking lot, ready to take any ballots for those who preferred to use a ballot box.
David Holbert of Huntington Beach, 62, called himself a moderate Republican. He said he is not mad at California’s response to the coronavirus pandemic — “I follow science, so that doesn’t bother me” — but other issues in the state have been concerning to him.
School board election results for the Newport-Mesa Unified, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach City, Huntington Beach Union and Laguna Beach Unified school districts.
“[I was interested in] just getting more Republicans in Congress, flipping Orange County back to red,” Holbert said Tuesday afternoon after casting his ballot at City Hall. “It bothers me they want to take John Wayne’s statue down because of a few things he might have said back in the ‘50s.”
Courtney Echeveste, 26, and her younger sister, Carly, 23, were both first-time voters Tuesday. Both sisters said that issues like supporting Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community were factors that led them to the ballot box this year.
“There are just a lot of big concerns that could go in a way that affects a lot of our communities, a lot of different types of people,” Carly Echeveste said. “I don’t know the word to describe it, but I’m glad that I can make an impact. I’ve always thought, ‘Oh, what does my vote matter?’ but I think it really does.”
Garrett Golobay of Huntington Beach, 39, said he voted for Trump, as well as Ortiz, McKeon and Van Der Mark for City Council.
“I don’t want this to be a socialistic country,” he said. “I don’t like where our country’s going now. I want to make it great again.”
Check dailypilot.com for continuing election coverage and results.
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