Mark Turner has won another four-year term as Morgan Hill mayor, topping a three-candidate field with 4,703 votes, or 50.2 percent, while two sitting city council members found themselves trailing their challengers as counting continued Tuesday night. Retired nurse Deborah Africa placed second with 3,495 votes, or 37.3 percent, and professional carpenter Kristopher Clayton came in third with 1,042 votes, or 11.2 percent.
The results, reported by San José Spotlight, cap a campaign in which Turner sought his third mayoral term after city voters elected him to two-year terms in 2022 and 2024. This time the stakes were higher: the mayoral seat shifted from a two-year to a four-year term for the first time following the 2024 passage of Measure B, meaning the winner would hold the at-large post well into the next decade.
Turner Leans on Three Decades in Morgan Hill
Turner, a full-time public official who has lived in Morgan Hill for 33 years and has three children who attended the city's public schools, said he was honored to serve four more years as mayor, according to the same report. Before his 2022 election, he was CEO of the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, a post he left to focus on Morgan Hill residents and businesses. During the campaign he identified the city budget and additional revenue generation as top priorities, while championing sports and recreation, economic development, and tourism, including the prospect that Archer Aviation and Heron Power could bring as many as 900 new jobs to Morgan Hill.
Africa, who has lived in Morgan Hill for more than four decades, drew on 30 years of experience in nursing, public administration, education, and advocacy, including stints at Stanford Hospital and hospitals in San Jose, Gilroy, Los Gatos, and Humboldt County. She said her campaign centered on three priorities: safe and healthy neighborhoods, transparent and accountable government, and responsible growth with real affordability, according to an earlier candidate profile from San José Spotlight. Following the results, Africa said she accepted the outcome but remained concerned about Turner's voting record and conduct, adding that the city needs leadership that prioritizes residents and long-term community health.
Clayton, who grew up in Morgan Hill and graduated from Live Oak High School, focused his run on fiscal responsibility, responsible growth, public safety, roads and infrastructure, working families, local businesses, and preserving the city's character, per the same source.
Early Count Showed a Different Snapshot
Those figures are not the only tallies that circulated this week. An earlier account from the Morgan Hill Times reported that, as of 10:15 p.m. on election night, Turner led with 4,694 votes, a 50.33 percent share, while Africa had 3,466 votes (37.16 percent) and Clayton had 1,037 votes (11.12 percent) — slightly different numbers from the same three-way race. The Morgan Hill Times noted that initial reporting from the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters primarily reflects ballots sent by mail or dropped off before Election Day, with further updates expected through election night and daily afterward.
Countywide, Santa Clara County had approximately 337,600 unprocessed ballots as voter turnout stood at 28.4 percent, the report noted. The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters has posted running results on its own site, which voters can track through the county's official election results page.
Council Incumbents Trail Challengers in Both Districts
In District D, which covers eastern Morgan Hill, challenger Dolores Alvarado led early results with 1,469 votes, or 58.5 percent, putting incumbent Marilyn Librers in second with 1,038 votes, or 41.3 percent. The earlier Morgan Hill Times count had shown a similar gap, with Alvarado at 1,461 votes (58.44 percent). Librers, a retired nonprofit executive who has lived in Morgan Hill for nearly 50 years, all within District D, served the city for 12 years, from 2008 to 2016 and again from 2022 onward, and was eligible to seek another term under the city's 12-consecutive-year limit on officials. She did not respond to a request for comment, per San José Spotlight's reporting.
Alvarado, a division director at the Santa Clara County Public Health Department and CEO of Community Health Partnership for 16 years, has lived in District D for more than three decades and brings 50 years of combined experience with county government and nonprofit policy and contracts. She was unavailable for comment at the time of publication. Her platform centered on transparency for herself and other public officials, support for a range of housing types matched to street capacity, school routes and existing neighborhood character, and a push to inform residents about nearby development plans well before decisions are made. She also said the city budget should protect parks, recreation, diverse programming, and public safety. Librers, for her part, had said that if reelected she would focus on accessible city services for homeless residents and families needing support, along with infrastructure improvements for police, fire, water, traffic, and road repairs.
In District B, which covers northeast Morgan Hill, challenger Steven Hayes led incumbent Yvonne Martinez Beltran in early results, 1,486 votes (63.9 percent) to 834 votes (35.8 percent), according to San José Spotlight. The Morgan Hill Times' earlier snapshot showed a comparable margin, with Hayes ahead 1,482 votes to 824, or 64.07 percent to 35.62 percent. Martinez Beltran did not respond to a request for comment.
Martinez Beltran, who holds a master's degree in urban planning from New York University focused on housing and economic development, was completing her second four-year District B term, which began in 2018, having represented Morgan Hill for eight years. Hayes, a career firefighter and fire captain and paramedic in Gilroy, has lived in Morgan Hill for 22 years, including 14 in District B. He said his campaign knocked on thousands of doors over several months, and he prioritized public safety, fiscal responsibility, responsible growth, parks and public spaces, youth, and working families, identifying the city's financial stability as its top concern. He also voiced support for small businesses and infrastructure investment while protecting Morgan Hill's character.
Seven candidates in all competed for three posts in this election — three for mayor and two in each of the two council districts, the Morgan Hill Times reported in its earlier coverage of voters citing affordability and concerns over housing projects as top reasons for turning out to the polls. With hundreds of thousands of ballots still being processed countywide, Morgan Hill's full results — and any further movement in the two council races — were still taking shape as counting continued.
