Mark Nagales

Background

Mark Nagales grew up in South San Francisco's Westborough neighborhood, attending Los Cerritos Elementary, Alta Loma Middle School and South San Francisco High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in history and political science from San Francisco State University in 2003. He worked as an aide to former Assemblymembers Fran Pavley and Gene Mullin and to Congresswoman Jackie Speier, and served as Speier's constituent services director, a role in which the city says he helped recover more than $5 million in veterans' benefits. His campaign says he was San Mateo County outreach coordinator for the housing counseling nonprofit Project Sentinel from 2018 to 2023. He now works in government and community relations at BART, according to Hoodline and his campaign, and is a member of AFSCME Local 3993. He and his wife, Amy, have two children in South San Francisco public schools.

In office

Nagales served on South San Francisco's Parks and Recreation Commission from 2008 to 2014, chairing it in 2013, and on the Planning Commission from 2015 to 2018, chairing it in 2018. Voters elected him to the City Council in November 2018, and the city describes him as one of the first Filipinos elected in South San Francisco. He served as mayor in 2022, and his campaign lists him as vice mayor in 2021, 2023 and 2026. On November 5, 2024 he won the District 2 seat with 3,296 votes (65.05 percent) to Vivian Ramos's 1,771, and his term runs to November 2028. He serves with Mayor Mark Addiego and Councilmembers Buenaflor Nicolas, James Coleman and Eddie Flores.

His 2026 regional assignments are the Association of Bay Area Governments, the San Mateo County Transportation Authority, the Caltrain Modernization local policy maker group, the San Francisco International Airport Community Roundtable and, as an alternate, the county's Pre-Hospital EMS Group. On the council he sits on the Measure W Oversight Subcommittee and on ad hoc committees for housing and planning commission matters, naming, and sports fields.

His campaign credits him with a guaranteed basic income program and a childcare master plan it calls the county's first, a regional Economic Advancement Center, $16 million for an early childhood education center, a $28 million state grant for affordable housing, a library and parks and recreation campus, and expanded free shuttle routes. These claims were not checked against city records.

On the ballot

Nagales is on the November 3, 2026 ballot for Member, Board of Supervisors, District 5 (Short Term), with the ballot designation Vice Mayor. The special election fills the last two years of Supervisor David Canepa's term in a district covering Daly City, Brisbane, Colma and parts of South San Francisco and San Bruno; Canepa won the June race for Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder and leaves the board January 4, 2027. His opponent is Daly City Councilmember Juslyn Manalo. Hoodline reported that he said he was responding to encouragement from residents. His campaign lists endorsements from Supervisors Jackie Speier, Noelia Corzo and Ray Mueller, the San Mateo County Democrats, the San Mateo Daily Journal and the county Deputy Sheriff's Association. A win would leave his council seat vacant.