Here’s what’s on the ballot for the City of Cudahy

SELA Voting Guide|CALÓ News Midterm Coverage

With close to 23,000 residents, 97% of whom are Latinos, the City of Cudahy is small but mighty. The Nov. 3 general and municipal elections will show that strength.

Alongside the larger California ballot, Cudahy voters will be tasked with electing three council members and deciding the fate of two measures on the city’s sales tax and rent stabilization ordinance. 

The Cudahy City Council has five seats in total and this year, there are three seats up for re-election. There are five candidates running for those spots. When the new four-year term begins in December, the council will elect one of its members to serve as mayor for one year.

Cynthia Gonzalez, incumbent

Current Cudahy Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez is running for re-election to the city council. Gonzalez was raised in nearby Huntington Park and has lived in Cudahy for the past 12 years, according to her council member biography.

She was elected to the city council in 2022 and was appointed mayor by the council last December.

Gonzalez holds two master's degrees in education from UCLA as well as a doctorate in educational leadership. In addition to her work on the city council, she is an administrator within the L.A. Unified School District and has held several leadership positions in schools throughout L.A.

Gonzalez was involved in a controversy last year after she posted a social media video that some took as her calling on gang members to stand up against immigration officials carrying out raids in the area.

Gonzalez, then vice mayor, later apologized for the video at a July city council meeting. In a December 2025 opinion piece published by CALÓ News, Gonzalez wrote that the video was “a call to community and a reclaiming of safety by and for community members.”

Gonzalez is endorsed by the Working Families Party. She has endorsed and is co-campaigning with Cynthia Romo, the only other woman running for a seat.

Cynthia Romo

Romo was raised in Cudahy and is seeking her first election to the city council.

Romo has a master's degree in public administration from CSU Long Beach and a career in healthcare administration. She currently works as the PACE Outreach and Marketing Regional Director for AltaMed Health Services, a community health network serving Southern California.

“My promise is simple: to fight for working families, support better jobs and economic opportunity and work toward a better quality of life,” for Cudahy residents, Romo wrote on social media announcing her campaign.

Her endorsements include UNITE HERE Local 11 and the L.A. County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO.

Martin Fuentes, incumbent

Martin Fuentes has been a Cudahy resident for over 40 years and was elected to the Cudahy City Council in November 2022; he also ran in 2017, placing fifth.

Fuentes previously worked for former Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard and former Sen. Gloria Romero. He also worked as the political director for SEIU Local 1877.

He has worked in the insurance industry for decades and has been with State Farm since 2019, according to his LinkedIn.

In his campaign announcement, Fuentes wrote that he remains “a strong advocate for making Cudahy a more walkable community,” and said that if re-elected, he will continue to pursue funding for the Lugo Teen Center, a youth and community center that has been undergoing renovations.

Fuentes was censured at a March 2026 city council meeting following three allegations of misconduct. An independent investigation found two of the three allegations were credible.

The city kept both the allegations and the independent investigation report private, sparking frustration from the public, according to a Los Cerritos Community News article at the time.

The city council voted 4-0, with Fuentes abstaining, to censure Fuentes. A censure is the strongest punishment a council member can receive besides being essentially forced to resign – it is an official and public reprimand of the councilmember’s behavior and often comes with less responsibilities and perks.

Fuentes was barred from holding individual meetings with most city employees and was required to complete conduct training.

Richard Corvera-Hernandez

Richard Corvera-Hernandez is listed on Cudahy’s candidate filing list as a qualified candidate, though little information about his candidacy is available online.

Corvera-Hernandez served on the city’s planning commission from January 2022 through April 2026. The city council voted on April 21 of this year to remove and replace Corvera-Hernandez with Nathan Nuñez, who pulled candidacy paperwork to run in this year’s municipal election but never officially filed.

Jose Gonzalez

Jose Gonzalez is aiming to return to the city council after two years away. He was first appointed to the council in 2018 to fill a vacant seat and was re-elected in 2020 for a four-year term. During his six years in office, he served as vice mayor and mayor multiple times.

He currently serves as the chief technology officer at the L.A. County Office of Education and is pursuing a doctorate degree in education leadership.

Gonzalez announced his campaign in an August social media post, writing that “it was an honor to previously serve our community,” and that he looks forward to speaking with residents about the future of Cudahy.

Cudahy ballot measures

Cudahy residents will be voting on two ballot measures this year.

The Keep Cudahy Sales Tax Revenues Local Measure would extend the city’s current three-quarter percent sales tax indefinitely until it is repealed by voters. The tax raises an estimated $1.3 million per year and is currently set to expire on March 31, 2029.

Cudahy voters originally passed the tax, then known as Measure R, in 2018. Revenue from the sales tax goes to the city’s General Fund and supports local services like park maintenance and street and sidewalk repair.

The other measure on the ballot will be the Cudahy Rent Stabilization Protection Measure. The resolution adds on to the city’s existing rent stabilization code, which caps annual rent increases at 3%.

This year’s ballot measure would make it so that any increase to the 3% maximum ceiling would need both voter approval and a two-thirds majority of the City Council.

Both ballot measures need a majority ‘yes’ vote to pass.