Santa Monica Mayor Lana Negrete is running for a seat on the City Council in the Nov. 3, 2026, election. The nonpartisan race has three seats to fill, and voters will choose up to three candidates.
Negrete is one of 12 certified candidates, according to BallotReady election data. The other candidates are Ashley Oelsen, Brett Morrow, Caroline Torosis, Daniel S. Ivanov, Derrick Townsend, Doug Trussler, Eli Gill, Ericka Lesley, Lindsay Davis, Phil Brock and Wade Kelley.
Candidate information
Name: Lana Negrete
Party: Nonpartisan
Office sought: Santa Monica City Council
Hometown: Born and raised in Santa Monica, according to a city press release issued when she was selected as mayor.
Business: Owner of the Santa Monica Music Center, a small family-owned business her father and uncle started about 50 years ago, according to her city council biography. She also owns the Culver City Music Center, according to the city press release.
Nonprofit work: Founder and executive director of Outreach Through the Arts, known as OTTA. The nonprofit provides access to music education, instruments and arts programming for at-risk youth in Santa Monica, according to her council biography.
Experience and public service
Negrete has held several elected and appointed roles in Santa Monica government, according to her city council biography:
- Mayor, City of Santa Monica (selected Dec. 10, 2024)
- Mayor pro tem, City of Santa Monica (2022 and 2024)
- City council member, City of Santa Monica (seated June 29, 2021)
- Commissioner, Santa Monica Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission (appointed 2021)
- PTA leader, Santa Monica PTA/PTA Council (fundraising, legislative representative and hospitality roles)
Before joining the council, Negrete served as a commissioner on the city's Public Safety Reform and Oversight Commission starting in 2021. She has also been active in the local PTA, holding roles in fundraising, legislative advocacy and hospitality.
Beyond city government, Negrete serves as an elected board member of the National Association of Music Merchants, a trade group for the music products industry. She is also a board member of Athletes to Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit, according to her council biography.
On the issues
No policy positions were available. No issue responses from Negrete were supplied for this profile.
This profile was built from publicly available records and a producer-reviewed candidate packet. Responses to a candidate questionnaire were not available at the time of publication. This profile will be updated if additional information becomes available.
