2026 Elections: Long Beach 1st District City Council appears headed toward runoff – Press Telegram

The race for Long Beach’s First City Council District seat continues to tighten.

Mary Zendejas, Long Beach’s incumbent First District Councilmember, appears to be headed for a November runoff against challenger Anthony Bryson after the latest round of election results released by the Los Angeles County registrar’s office at 4:10 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10.

This marks the registrar’s eighth post-Election Night results update. In total, more than 2.2 million ballots have been counted, though there are still outstanding votes left to be tallied. The registrar’s office is scheduled to post daily updates through the end of this week.

Unless one candidate wins a majority vote during the primary – that is, more than 50% of the votes – the top-two candidates will carry on their campaigns to the November general election. Races with just two candidates will be decided by the results of the June 2 primary.

For Long Beach Council District 1, six candidates were vying for the the seat that represents much of the downtown area. While the incumbent has maintained a relatively stable lead over her challengers since Election Night, Zendejas has not managed to earn enough support to win the race outright and avoid a runoff in November.

Zendejas, as of Wednesday, had 50.28% of the vote — up slightly from her vote count in the previous election results update, which totaled 50.19%. Her nearest challenger, community organizer and activist Anthony Bryson, has 17.70% of the votes cast in his favor.

Other candidates followed with realtor and small business owner Deb Kahookele with 12.82%, Long Beach Continuum of Care board co-chair Tamika Wagner-Osio at 12.04%, trucker and U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary member Brock Goleman with 3.77%, and retired laboratory technician Lori Logan with 3.40%.

The race for Long Beach’s First District, as of Wednesday, appears to be the only City Council race where the incumbent is not poised to win their bid for reelection.

Another close race, though, is in Long Beach’s Fifth District, which runs east and west from the Orange County border to the Los Angeles River, and includes most of the Long Beach Airport.

Incumbent Megan Kerr was challenged by Tara Riggi, a Realtor who also serves on the California Heights Neighborhood Association. Kerr was leading with 53.91% of votes, while Riggi had 46.09% of votes.