Eduardo Martinez is the mayor of Richmond, a retired West Contra Costa schoolteacher elected in 2022 after nearly eight years on the City Council. He finished third in the June 2, 2026 primary, so he is not on the November 3 ballot, and his term ends in January 2027.
Background
Eduardo Martinez was born in 1949 in Dumas, Texas, and moved to the Bay Area in the 1970s, according to the City of Richmond. He earned a bachelor's degree and a teaching credential at San Francisco State, began teaching in 1989 and spent many years in the West Contra Costa Unified School District before retiring in 2010. He won a City Council seat in 2014 and pressed for environmental protection, stronger police review, a higher minimum wage and rent stabilization. In November 2022 he was elected mayor as a member of the Richmond Progressive Alliance. KQED reported that he is the city's first Latino mayor and a second-generation Mexican American.
In office
Martinez sat on the council committee, with Claudia Jiménez and Doria Robinson, that negotiated with Chevron after the council placed a refinery tax on the November 2024 ballot. In August 2024 the council unanimously approved a $550 million settlement paid over ten years, and the tax came off the ballot. In September 2026 city finance staff warned that the money could dwindle if spending continued; Martinez cast the lone vote against continuing a community process on how to spend it.
In October 2023 the council approved, 5 to 1, a resolution he backed supporting Palestinians in Gaza. In December 2025 he reposted LinkedIn content about the Bondi Beach attack in Sydney that the Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council called antisemitic. He deleted the posts, apologized on December 17 and told Richmondside he had been ill and his head had not been clear. Supervisor John Gioia and council members Jamelia Brown and Cesar Zepeda called for censure or resignation. On January 6, 2026 the council did not reach the two-thirds vote needed to add an emergency censure item; Martinez was one of five members voting no. On February 22, 2026 the Richmond Progressive Alliance endorsed Jiménez for mayor instead of Martinez.
On the Chevron settlement, Vice Mayor Claudia Jiménez, a member of the negotiating committee, credited “leaders like me, Mayor Martinez and Doria Robinson who pledge to not take corporate money” with holding firm in the talks. Tolly Graves, director of the Chevron Richmond refinery, thanked the council members and the mayor for “the recent productive dialogue” and supported the settlement, while Kerry Guerin, a CBE attorney who wrote the refinery tax measure, urged the council to reject it, saying the tax campaign had not been launched so that “Chevron can cut a deal that is pennies to them” (Richmondside, August 14, 2024).
On the ballot
Martinez ran for re-election in the June 2, 2026 primary and finished third with 4,355 votes (19.5 percent), so he is not on the November 3 ballot. Council member Claudia Jiménez (38.6 percent) and Ahmad Anderson (28.0 percent) meet in the November runoff. Martinez remains mayor until January 2027, and the office is next on the ballot November 5, 2030.
What supporters say
Opposed censure. She said his posts were hurtful and used antisemitic tropes, but added: “I have found him to be genuinely concerned and apologetic.”
Cat Zavis, Rabbi, Beyt Tikkun, Berkeley; Richmondside, January 6, 2026 Source
What critics say
Called the reposts “deeply offensive, disrespectful, anti-semitic and unacceptable” and urged the council to censure Martinez and have him apologize publicly.
John Gioia, Contra Costa County Supervisor, District 1; Richmondside, December 19, 2025 SourceSaid the mayor made Jewish residents feel unsafe and that the city “should not be led by a mayor who reposts offensive and false misinformation”.
Ahmad Anderson, Mayoral candidate; Richmondside, December 19, 2025 Source
SFBAYHCC does not endorse candidates in these pages. Every candidate in a contest gets the same fields, listed in the order the official source lists them. How we write these profiles. Profile last reviewed October 17, 2026.
