Chula Vista’s District 1 is shaping up for a five-way showdown as the June 2 primary draws closer. Incumbent Councilmember Carolina Chavez is facing four challengers: family physician Joy Emmanuel, business owner Chuck Sanfilippo, certified public accountant Gregory Martinez and community activist Sergio C. Vargas. On the table are housing, public safety and a push to expand college and workforce training in the South Bay. Voters from Del Rey and Bonita through Eastlake and Bella Lago will decide who represents the district for the next four years.
Who’s on the ballot
The County of San Diego’s Registrar of Voters lists Chavez, Emmanuel, Sanfilippo, Martinez and Vargas as the qualified candidates for the June 2 primary, according to the county’s certified candidate list. The County of San Diego Registrar of Voters confirms the ballot order and the election date.
Candidates and what they’re pitching
Joy Emmanuel is a board-certified family physician who says she has practiced in District 1 for more than two decades. Her campaign highlights neighborhood safety, streamlined permitting for small businesses and traffic fixes as core promises. Those priorities appear on her campaign website and in her professional profile, which lists her medical credentials and local practice history. Vote Dr. Joy and her Sharp clinician profile show her healthcare background and community ties.
Incumbent Carolina Chavez, elected in 2022, points to recent city projects and ordinances as key achievements of her term, including a local policy that limits cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and new services for residents experiencing food insecurity. The city has also converted the shuttered Palomar Motel into a permanent supportive-housing project called Palomar Point and opened a city-operated food pantry at the Civic Center Library, according to the City of Chula Vista announcements. The city’s notices on the food pantry and the Palomar Point project provide more detail on those initiatives.
Chuck Sanfilippo, a business owner who has served on city advisory bodies, is running on a small-business and public-safety platform and has criticized the immigration-policy ordinance and recent state housing bills that change local parking and density rules. He has framed his pitch around local control and what he describes as pragmatic enforcement, with remarks reported in local coverage of the race. For more about his background and issues, reporting in the San Diego Union‑Tribune provides context on his positions and includes interview highlights.
Gregory Martinez is a certified public accountant and small-business owner whose campaign emphasizes fiscal oversight and restraint. City candidate filings list Martinez and his campaign contact information, and regional voter guides show he previously ran for a local water-district seat in 2024. The City of Chula Vista and local voter guides include his prior campaign activity.
Sergio C. Vargas, a longtime South Bay resident and self-employed community activist, is running as a first-time candidate focused on safe streets, reliable city services and support for small businesses. Vargas’s campaign materials list neighborhood priorities and emphasize practical, local solutions. His campaign site lays out his platform and neighborhood roots, and regional reporting on the city’s Millenia library and university efforts shows how higher-education partnerships are becoming a local campaign issue. Sergio Vargas for Chula Vista and coverage of the city’s Millenia library and university efforts outline those education developments.
Why housing and services keep coming up
Housing and homelessness policy are a steady thread in the race. Chavez and city leaders point to Palomar Point, a 27-unit conversion of a former motel with units reserved for veterans, as part of a broader push to add permanent supportive housing. The city also highlights the new Civic Center food pantry as a concrete expansion of services tied to those efforts. For program details, the city’s notices and project pages lay out how the housing and pantry initiatives are structured, per the City of Chula Vista
What to watch next
Voters head to the polls on June 2, in the municipal primary. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two finishers will advance to a November runoff. The contest will test whether the incumbent’s housing and service agenda resonates in neighborhoods that are also watching public-safety funding, parking rules and the effort to bring more higher-education programming to Chula Vista. For the certified candidate list and official election dates, refer to the county’s candidate list from the County of San Diego Registrar of Voters.
