Six candidates are competing for two Antioch City Council seats on November 3, with District 1 incumbent Tamisha Torres-Walker facing a familiar rival in Joy Motts for a third time, while District 4 incumbent Monica Wilson defends her seat against three challengers. The races arrive as the city grapples with a projected $15 million budget deficit and lingering fallout from its rejection of millions in state homelessness funding.
A Rivalry Renewed for a Third Round
Antioch will hold elections for its City Council seats representing District 1 and District 4, with the incumbents in both districts seeking reelection, according to thepress.net. The District 1 contest pits Torres-Walker against Motts, marking the third time the two have squared off for the seat. Torres-Walker unseated Motts in 2020, then defended her seat from Motts again in 2022, per the same account. Motts previously served as Antioch City Council vice mayor and as president of the Antioch Unified School District Board of Trustees, and first ran for city council in 2018, according to the East Bay Times, which also reports she now serves as president of the Celebrate Antioch Foundation.
Their 2022 contest was razor-thin, though accounts of exactly how thin diverge. The official recount results were reported 45 days after polls closed for the Nov. 8 election; they left Torres-Walker ahead by four votes. Recount figures posted by Contra Costa County election officials show Torres-Walker with 1,467 votes to Motts’s 1,463, also a four-vote gap. The recounts had been requested more than two weeks before the results were reported. Either way, the margin was among the closest in recent Antioch history, and it set the stage for this third rematch.
A Crowded Field in District 4
In District 4, incumbent Monica Wilson is running for reelection against three challengers: Metty Mathews Alappat, Sandra White and Andrew Becker, per the same thepress.net account. Becker and Mathews Alappat are both first-time City Council candidates, while White previously chaired the Antioch Police Crime Prevention Commission and has run for office twice before, in 2020 and 2022. Wilson described Antioch as a tale of two cities, the East Bay Times reports.
Antioch’s November election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, according to the City of Antioch. City rules require candidates to be Antioch residents, registered voters living within the district they seek to represent.
Budget Pressure Shapes the Campaign
Both races are unfolding against a tight fiscal backdrop. Antioch shaved about $12 million from its deficit in the 2026-27 fiscal year budget, which included $7.3 million in true adjustments and drew roughly $4.6 million from stabilization funds, the East Bay Times reports. The city still faces a projected $15 million deficit heading into the 2027-2028 budget cycle, even as it projects about $20 million in revenue from a voter-approved 1% sales tax, according to a staff report cited by the outlet, after projecting $20.1 million in sales-tax revenue during the 2025-26 cycle. City officials have pointed to a flatlining revenue base, with Antioch’s more than 118,000 residents relying on property and sales taxes that have not kept pace with costs.
That fiscal strain was on display in July, when the Antioch City Council turned down a $34.9 million state Homekey+ grant in a 3-1 vote, according to the Mercury News, with Wilson casting the lone dissenting vote. The plan would have converted the Comfort Inn on Mahogany Way into 85 permanent supportive housing units, but the city would have incurred up to $1.2 million annually for 15 years under the grant’s terms, the East Bay Times reports. Becker has criticized the rejection, saying the city did not do enough due diligence to make Homekey+ happen.
Homelessness Remains a Flashpoint
Antioch had 251 people experiencing homelessness in the latest Contra Costa County Point-in-Time Count, down from 413 counted in 2024, per the Mercury News. The city currently spends about $2.4 million annually across multiple departments on homeless-related programs and services, and has spent roughly $7.16 million on homelessness efforts from 2024 through 2026, according to the same report. Antioch has also invested in a safe parking program for people and families unable to afford housing, the East Bay Times notes.
Candidates differ on next steps. Torres-Walker has said not every homeless person struggles with substance abuse or mental illness, and she supports building regional and county-level relationships to address the issue, per the East Bay Times. White has proposed a county mental health stabilization center for evaluation and referrals, saying it would connect people to mental health services or housing. Motts has suggested a community-driven model involving nonprofits, faith-based organizations, veterans, businesses and the county.
Economic Development Takes Center Stage
Beyond homelessness, candidates are focused heavily on economic development after Antioch went without a dedicated economic development department for almost a decade before reestablishing it in 2018. Kwame Reed was hired as economic development director that year, later named acting city manager in 2023 and appointed assistant city manager in 2025, before resigning a few months into that role, according to the East Bay Times. The City Council discussed bringing the department back in September.
Torres-Walker said blighted, underutilized and vacant commercial properties have hindered economic development in Antioch, and she wants a vacancy tax targeting absentee landlords along with requirements that commercial properties be maintained and either leased or sold. She plans to focus on small business stabilization and development if reelected. Wilson, meanwhile, said an economic development director with strong commercial-broker relationships is essential to boosting city revenue, while Becker believes strategic incentives could attract development and increase property and sales tax revenues. Motts said Antioch needs robust economic development solutions, especially downtown, according to the East Bay Times report that first detailed the six-candidate field.
