Voters across South San Diego County on Tuesday cited a range of issues motivating their votes. Almost none of those issues were local.
Instead, voters from National City to Imperial Beach said their attention was fixed firmly on the fate of the nation. Feeling alarmed and disgusted, they said they were determined to use their votes to send a message to the administration of President Donald Trump.
“We need to get rid of the Republicans,” said Silvia Monge of the Nestor neighborhood of San Diego at a vote center at the neighborhood library. “It’s just hate coming from them…You don’t go and destroy our country just because you think someone is an immigrant.”
“The law should be for all of us,” said Imperial Beach resident Alicia Lopez as she prepared to cast her ballot. “I’m a proud San Diegan. My parents lived here and I was born and raised here. I don’t want to be profiled because of the color of my skin.”
Voters in South County cities and in San Diego City Council District 8 faced a number of important local races this year, including the choice of mayor in three cities, the councilmember representing District 8 and a county sales tax ballot measure.
Many voters confessed they simply were not informed about those races even as they voiced strong opinions about national issues.
“I don’t necessarily agree with Democrats always, but I’m voting for them anyway,” said Imperial Beach resident Josh Espindola. “With the state of politics, it’s anything that’s not Republican.”
Espindola, 29, confessed he was “less interested in local races.” He said he simply voted along with a group of friends who researched local candidates and issues and marked up what he called a “cheat sheet.”
“The political system in general feels like it’s not a democracy,” he said.
There were some exceptions to the focus on national issues.
Monge, of Nestor, said she cast a ballot for District 8 candidate Gerardo Ramirez because, she said, “I was tired of” Ramirez opponent, San Ysidro School District Trustee Antonio Martinez.
“Too much money [at the San Ysidro district] went missing from him,” Monge said, referring to budget problems the district has been digging itself out of this year.
Monge, 53, spoke at a voting center at the Otay Mesa-Nestor branch of the San Diego Public Library. She was joined by her twin sister, Neticia, who said she works as an assistant student monitor at a local school.
The sisters, who live together, said they had been inundated by campaign mail, social media posts and door-to-door volunteers for Martinez. None of it changed their minds.
“I made them run so quick,” Silvia Monge said of the volunteers. “I said, ‘What did your candidate do? Money went out the door.’”
Nestor resident Martha Fernandez said she did vote for Martinez.
She confessed she didn’t know much about him. But, as a fan of San Diego’s growing Democratic Socialists of America chapter, she said she simply voted according to the group’s recommendations, which included Martinez.
“I went on a D.S.A. website,” she said. Martinez “is more progressively aligned.”
Fernandez, 31, a student in an online Arizona State University degree program, said her top issues are the cost of living and what she described as America’s growing wealth inequality.
“Proposition 40 [a California ballot measure that would tax billionaires] was big for me,” she said. “In California, people have ridiculous amounts of money and live outrageous lives while everyone else struggles.”
Like most other voters interviewed Tuesday, Martinez said she voted for Measure B, a county ballot measure that would raise countywide sales taxes by half a cent to pay for healthcare services and efforts to solve the Tijuana River sewage crisis.
Making up her mind about the measure was “tough because [the sales tax] affects everyone,” Martinez said. But she said she was swayed by D.S.A.’s recommendation and her belief that the tax increase “benefits everyone in the long run.”
National City stood out as the one place in South County where almost every voter appeared informed, and opinionated, about local races.
Voters in the city were set to decide on a new mayor and two City Council seats. The campaign for mayor, between two current city councilmembers, was expensive, hard-fought, sharply negative and, voters said, divisive.
The race comes following the surprise retirement of long-serving Mayor Ron Morrison, and amid a severe budget crisis. Voters, sensing a fork in the road for their city, said they are paying attention.
“The Council is divided,” said Rosie Diaz, 52, an employee at a local community garden. “We need to focus on our deficit.”
Diaz said she voted for City Councilmember Marcus Bush because she said he seems more likely to unite the city than his opponent, City Councilmember Jose Rodriguez.
“The only one who listens to what we say is Marcus Bush,” Diaz said. “I reach out to all of them [by email] and he’s the only one who responds. He’s always been there. We need someone who hears.”
Diaz said she took note that Bush campaigned by convening neighborhood gatherings to hear residents’ concerns.
“That’s the kind of campaigning we need,” she said. “Listening to people…[The City Council] has the feeling of a circus. It’s like a brother and sister fighting and pointing fingers. We’re tired and we need to make a shift.”
National City resident Jessica Villa said she, too, feels her city needs to change. And that motivated her to vote for Rodriguez, she said.
“There should be more money going to healthcare and schools,” she said outside a vote center at the National City Library. “The money spent on ICE agents should go to health. Healthcare is so messed up right now.”
Rodriguez campaigned on standing up to federal immigration enforcement and seeking to lower the cost of living by investing in affordable housing and taxing businesses to generate revenue for city services that benefit lower income residents.
Villa said that message resonated with her. “We barely make enough to pay rent,” she said. “The cost of living is so high.”
Two years ago, many South County voters appeared to be drifting rightward in their political views. Judging by voters’ sentiments Tuesday, that shift has reversed sharply.
Said Silvia Monge in Nestor: “Every time we have Republicans, we go back.”