In the race to represent Santa Barbara’s downtown neighborhoods on the City Council, Gabe Escobedo was leading the four-way race with 68.3% of the vote in election night results.  

Jason Carlton was second with 12.3% of the vote, and Alexander Stoeber was in third with 11.7%.

Anabella Lehne was fourth with 7.2% of the vote in election night results released around midnight.

District 6 includes most of the main downtown core, the Oak Park neighborhood and parts of the Lower Westside.

The candidates are competing to replace Meagan Harmon, who has served on the council since 2018 and reached her term limit.

Escobedo serves on the Santa Barbara Unified school board and works at UC Santa Barbara.

“I’m feeling good about the fact that our message obviously resonated with voters,” Escobedo said in result to early results. “It centered working class people. We focused on affordable housing, keeping people in their homes with rent stabilization, investing in State Street, sustainability. All of those things affect the day-to-day lives of working-class people.”

Stoeber started his own real estate company in Santa Barbara in 2019. He struggled with housing inequality growing up in Texas before studying political science at UCSB.

Carlton has lived in the city for 25 years with his wife and son. He has worked as an electrician for more than 30 years and has owned his own business for almost 20 years.

It marks his second run for the City Council; he previously ran and lost in 2021.

Lehne is a loan-signing agent born and raised in Santa Barbara. She previously worked for social services at Cottage Hospital and has worked in advocacy for sexual assault education and prevention. 

This is a developing story. Early election results will be updated as more ballots are processed and counted. Semi-official election results are expected late Tuesday night. Final, certified results will be available by Dec. 3.