The first direct-election for mayor in the city’s history was held in 1988. All such elections have been held under state laws that make municipal elections in California officially non-partisan.
The 1992 mayoral election, held on November 3, was the first Irvine mayoral election to be consolidated with the statewide general election[1] (the two previous direct mayoral elections had instead been held coinciding with the statewide primary elections). Mike Ward was elected.[1]
The 2010 mayoral election was held on November 4. Sukhee Kang was elected, becoming the first Korean American mayor of a major U.S. city. He defeated former mayor Christina L. Shea.
The 2020 mayoral election was held on November 3. Mayor Pro Tem Christina Shea, who had taken office on April 13, 2019, when Mayor Donald P. Wagner vacated the seat after winning a special election to the Orange County Board of Supervisors,[2] lost the seat to Councilwoman Farrah Khan, the first Democrat to be elected since 2010.
Declared candidates:
Katherine Daigle, small business owner and perennial candidate[3] (party preference: Republican)
Luis Huang, solar engineer and advocate[3] (party preference: Democratic)[4]
Farrah Khan, business consultant and city council member[3] (party preference: Democratic)
Christina Shea, incumbent mayor and former city council member[3] (party preference: Republican)
The 2024 mayoral election will be held on November 5, 2024.[6] Incumbent mayor Farrah Khan, who was first sworn into office in 2020, was prevented from seeking re-election by term limits.[7]
Background
Although Irvine's municipal elections are officially nonpartisan, candidates tend to associate themselves with either the Democratic or Republican Party.[6] In July 2023, term-limited incumbent mayor Farrah Khan had announced that she would run for the 3rd district seat of the Orange County Board of Supervisors against incumbent supervisor Don Wagner.[8] In March 2024, Khan lost to Wagner, who received greater than the 50% vote threshold to avoid a runoff election.[9]
In June 2022, ahead of the 2022 mayoral election, councilmembers Tammy Kim and Mike Carroll had introduced an agenda item to the Irvine City Council, which would have removed the mayoral seat from the ballot and switched it to an office appointed by the city council.[10] Kim alleged that she had never endorsed the move to change the seat, and had only agreed to serve as a second on the motion vote in exchange for Carroll's support for a different motion on the agenda. The day before the meeting, Carroll had attempted to pull the agenda-setting rule off the agenda following "strong public backlash", including official condemnation from the Orange CountyDemocratic Party; nonetheless, it was brought to a vote and the city councilmembers voted to repeal the rule.[11] Had the rule passed, Irvine would have been the largest city in the United States without a directly elected mayor.[10]
In 2014, Irvine voters had approved a rule to its city charter such that councilmembers and the mayors can serve no more than two full two-year terms for life.[6] Agran was one of the longest serving city council members in Orange County, having served for over three decades on and off the city council since 1978,[12] alongside serving as mayor for five non-consecutive two-year terms.[13] In December 2022, Agran had resigned with a week left on his term in order to run for another four years on the city council, which prompted his colleague and fellow mayoral contender Tammy Kim to call it a "slippery power grab" and ask Agran if "40 years on the city council [was] not enough".[14]
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