Ami Chen Mills, left, and Ryan Coonerty are vying to be the mayor of Santa Cruz. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local file)

SANTA CRUZ >> Ryan Coonerty led Ami Chen Mills for Santa Cruz Mayor in early election results Tuesday night. As of 8:15 p.m. Tuesday, Coonerty had 58.1% of the vote, and Chen Mills had 41.1% of the vote.

Vote tallies will continue to be updated throughout the night and in the coming days. Final election results must be certified by Dec. 3.

“It will be weeks before we know,” the final outcome of the race, Coonerty wrote in a text Tuesday night. “Right now, I’m just grateful to everyone who worked so hard for the future of our community,” he wrote.

Coonerty and Chen Mills were the top two vote-getters of five candidates in the June primary election.

The two candidates offered diverging visions for Santa Cruz’s future.

Coonerty, a former Santa Cruz City Council member and Santa Cruz County supervisor, has touted his political experience and his connections to local businesses. He said he wants to more aggressively challenge large, “out-of-scale” building developments, bring more businesses to Santa Cruz and enforce camping bans. 

Chen Mills has pointed to her long history in grassroots organizing, including with the anti-surveillance group Get the Flock Out which successfully lobbied the city council to drop its contract with the company. She said she wants to pursue a community land trust, consider a tiered tax on businesses and open more shelters for homeless people. 

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