What does the National City mayor do?
National City has a council-manager form of government. Under this system, the city council selects a city manager to oversee the day-to-day operations.
The mayor of National City mostly serves as another member of the city council — but with a few added responsibilities. The mayor represents the city at official events and in regional bodies like SANDAG. The city’s mayor also has more of a say in what items are on the weekly city council agenda.
California’s 2026 midterm elections will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Get general information about the election, news coverage, an interactive ballot guide and results on election day.
How much does the National City mayor get paid?
The mayor's annual salary is $69,000 as of 2025, according to the city.
Meet the candidates
Courtesy of Mitch Beauchamp
| Mitch Beauchamp |
- Party: Declined to share
- Professional background: Mitch Beauchamp is the former treasurer of National City. In 2018, Beauchamp was charged with animal cruelty by the San Diego County District Attorney’s office for allegedly trapping skunks and opossums on his property. He agreed to 80 hours of volunteer work and a $900 fine. Beauchamp also runs a biological consulting company and previously served as a City Council member from 1994 to 2002.
- Top three priorities:
- Restore fiscal stability
- Reduce special interests in city government
- Maintain community character
- Beauchamp has not received any endorsements.
None
Courtesy of National City
| Marcus Bush |
- Party: Registered Democrat
- Professional background: Marcus Bush is a current City Council member in National City. He was first elected in 2020 and is currently serving his second term. Bush used to work in affordable housing development as a project manager and public and private sector city planner, according to his city biography and public LinkedIn page.
- Top three priorities:
- Resolve the city’s budget deficit without closing the library, pool or senior nutrition center, and without major cuts to public safety agencies
- Encourage more affordable homes, particularly condos and townhomes, by speeding up permitting and restoring a first-time homebuyer program
- Improve workplace culture at City Hall
- National City Mayor Ron Morrison
- National City Vice Mayor Luz Molina
- CA State Sen. Catherine Blakespear
- CA Assemblymember LaShae Sharp-Collins
National City mayoral candidate Jacobb Castrejon is shown in this undated photo.
| Jacobb Castrejon |
- Party: Registered Democrat
- Professional background: Jacobb Castrejon is a recent college graduate and current science and arts program instructor, according to his public LinkedIn profile. He previously interned for state Sen. Steve Padilla’s office and volunteered for San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre’s campaign.
- Top three priorities:
- Improve road infrastructure
- Affordability crisis
- Environmental sustainability
- Castrejon has not received any endorsements.
None
Courtesy of National City
| Jose Rodriguez |
- Party: Registered Democrat
- Professional background: Jose Rodriguez is a current City Council member in National City. He previously worked as an organizer for San Diego Congressman Juan Vargas’ campaign, a tenants’ rights group and a regional labor union, according to his public LinkedIn page.
- Top three priorities:
- Resolve the city’s budget deficit without hurting 911 response times or reducing funding for the Fire Department, libraries, parks and senior meals
- Promote more affordable homes by using city land to build and strengthening tenant protections
- Ensure police officers are following California’s sanctuary laws and connect immigrant families to legal resources amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign
- National City Firefighters
- San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council
- San Diego County Democratic Party
- San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre
The issues
- Beauchamp said he would reduce staffing and would look to contract out services and pursue grant funding.
- Bush said he would start by outlining the reasons behind National City’s structural budget deficit: that the Council, including himself, approved historic raises for city employees.
“They earned them, but we didn’t build a plan to pay for them,” Bush said in a statement. “We covered the gap with our unassigned general fund reserve that is now almost gone.”
Bush backed the new city manager’s plan to rein in public spending. That plan includes holding monthly public spending reviews, imposing tighter overtime controls and evaluating legal and consulting expenses. Bush also said he would suspend the $100,000 individual councilmember budgets, which he said have been misused by his colleagues.
To bring in new revenue, Bush pointed to the RV park and two hotels that could be coming to National City’s bayfront under a new infrastructure plan. He defended his recent decision to vote against placing a business license tax on the November ballot, arguing it wasn’t transparent enough. But Bush said he had created a committee to engage with businesses and work towards placing a new tax on the ballot next year.
Bush pledged not to close the city’s library, pool or senior nutrition center, or impose cuts to public safety agencies. - Castrejon said he would aggressively pursue state and federal grant opportunities to reduce the burden on the city’s general fund. He said he would also conduct a thorough review of city operations to identify inefficient spending.
Castrejon said he would look at revenue opportunities by holding polluting industries accountable. He said cuts to services would be a last resort. - Rodriguez said he wanted to protect essential services by making out-of-town corporations pay their “fair share” to support the city. He blamed other council members for refusing to let voters weigh in on the issue.
Rodriguez said he would support the National City Essential Services Protection Act, a ballot measure that he said would increase business taxes on larger corporations and use that revenue to pay for emergency responders, fire services, libraries and senior meals.
- Beauchamp said he would maintain individual, private control of housing and rentals. He said he would focus on ADU construction and work to reduce delays between approvals and construction.
- Bush touted his experience as an affordable housing planner and said he would make that a focus of his term as mayor. He argued the city doesn’t have land for single-family home tracts but that it does have land for condos and townhomes.
Bush said he would work to streamline permitting for those types of homes. He added that he would revive the city’s first-time homebuyer program, look at building more affordable homes on city-owned land and make it easier to build ADUs, or backyard cottages. - Castrejon said he would look for creative ways to increase competition and reduce financial pressure on residents. He said he would push for a moratorium on excessive rent increases and look for ways to increase and preserve affordable housing. Castrejon also said he would explore a city-supported grocery cooperative for more affordable groceries and basic items.
- Rodriguez said he would push for stronger tenant protections and citywide rent stabilization as mayor. He touted his work on the City Council to raise the minimum wage and identify city-owned properties to build homes that residents can buy.
Rodriguez said he would continue to develop homes for sale on that land, prioritize local hire and project labor agreements on major city and bayfront projects and enforce worker protection laws.
- Beauchamp said he would work on developing relationships with Coronado, Imperial Beach and Chula Vista for a shared vision on South Bay economic development. He said he would aim to improve access to the Coronado Belt Line for tourists and restore eastern rail access to the port.
- Bush praised the Port of San Diego’s recent approval of the city’s Balanced Plan, including the new splash pad at Pepper Park and $15 million in grant funding lined up for new improvements. He said he would keep up the momentum, getting hotel bids out and the Marina Way realignment built.
Bush said he would keep up pressure on the Port to prioritize local National City businesses and continue expanding the park. - Rodriguez said he would not accept a waterfront where “National City gets the trucks while other cities get the parks.” He said he would push the Port to meet its commitments to keeping up the Balanced Plan, expanding Pepper Park, finishing the Bayshore Bikeway and bringing new hotels and an RV park to the bayfront area.
Rodriguez also said he would work to negotiate a service agreement where the Port would help cover the costs when firefighters and police respond to calls on Port land. He added that he would push for local hire and project labor agreements on every Port and bayfront project.
Campaign finance
- As of late September, Beauchamp had not reported any campaign donations or spending.
- As of late September, Bush had raised over $17,000 and spent about half of the money. Donations to his campaign came almost entirely from individual people, according to the campaign finance data tracker, the Ballot Book. Around a third of those donors said they lived locally, while over two-thirds came from outside National City.
- As of late September, Castrejon had not reported any campaign donations or spending.
- Rodriguez had raised over $45,000, and spent about $28,000 as of late September. Most of his money came from individual donors, according to the Ballot Book, with around $10,000 coming from labor unions. Around a third of his donors were based in National City. Rodriguez himself is his largest single donor so far, contributing a total of $9,000 to his campaign since June.
