2024 Long Beach Primary: City Council Candidates Announced

LONG BEACH, CA — The filing deadline for the primary election in March passed on Friday, revealing the candidates vying for the four City Council seats up for the vote next year.

Voters will decide on positions in Long Beach's even-numbered council districts and a total of 11 candidates have submitted the required documents to qualify for the ballot.

In all but one district, current City Council members are seeking reelection including Cindy Allen in the 2nd District, Daryl Supernaw in the 4th District and Suely Saro in the 6th District. Councilmember Al Austin is currently serving his final term allowed in the 8th District, so his seat representing North Long Beach will be filled by a new candidate.

In the 2nd District, the candidates include Vice Mayor Allen and two challengers Ketty Citterio and Sara Zaidi.

The 4th district has four candidates including Councilman Supernaw and Herlinda Chico, Gerrie Schipske and Amrit Singh.

In the 6th district, voters will choose between current councilwoman Saro and Cristino Pinto.

The 8th district also has two candidates to choose between with business owner Sharifa Batts and non-profit president Tunua Thrash-Ntuk.

Each candidate has provided statements to introduce themselves and detail their goals for their district.

The primary election will take place on March 5 and any races where a candidate doesn't secure 50 percent of the vote will go to a run-off vote in November.

In Long Beach, there were 269,645 people registered to vote citywide as of January 2023, according to city data, which is a decline from March 2022 when 273,546 people were registered to vote citywide. Officials are expecting more voter participation in 2024 due to other high-profile elections occurring next year, including the Presidential election.

Residents can visit Vote.org to register to vote in the upcoming Long Beach elections.