Stephen Whitburn
2020 - Present
2028
4
Stephen Whitburn is a member of the San Diego City Council in California, representing District 3. He assumed office on December 14, 2020. His current term ends on December 11, 2028.
Whitburn ran for re-election to the San Diego City Council to represent District 3 in California. He won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Whitburn completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Stephen Whitburn's professional experience includes working as the Southern California director of American Cancer Society. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: City elections in San Diego, California (2024)
General election
General election for San Diego City Council District 3
Incumbent Stephen Whitburn defeated Coleen Cusack in the general election for San Diego City Council District 3 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Stephen Whitburn (Nonpartisan) | 57.5 | 38,344 | |
| Coleen Cusack (Nonpartisan) | 42.5 | 28,303 | ||
| Total votes: 66,647 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for San Diego City Council District 3
Incumbent Stephen Whitburn and Coleen Cusack defeated Kate Callen and Ellis California Jones in the primary for San Diego City Council District 3 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Stephen Whitburn (Nonpartisan) | 52.4 | 17,033 | |
| ✔ | Coleen Cusack (Nonpartisan) | 20.9 | 6,811 | |
| Kate Callen (Nonpartisan) | 16.7 | 5,417 | ||
| Ellis California Jones (Nonpartisan) | 10.0 | 3,254 | ||
| Total votes: 32,515 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
2020
See also: City elections in San Diego, California (2020)
General election
General election for San Diego City Council District 3
Stephen Whitburn defeated Toni Duran in the general election for San Diego City Council District 3 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Stephen Whitburn (Nonpartisan) | 63.0 | 49,119 | |
| Toni Duran (Nonpartisan) | 37.0 | 28,813 | ||
| Total votes: 77,932 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Watch the Candidate Conversation for this race!
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for San Diego City Council District 3
Stephen Whitburn and Toni Duran defeated Chris Olsen, Michelle Nguyen, and Adrian Kwiatkowski in the primary for San Diego City Council District 3 on March 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Stephen Whitburn (Nonpartisan) | 31.1 | 14,844 | |
| ✔ | Toni Duran (Nonpartisan) | 22.7 | 10,836 | |
| Chris Olsen (Nonpartisan) | 20.3 | 9,705 | ||
| Michelle Nguyen (Nonpartisan) | 17.5 | 8,340 | ||
| Adrian Kwiatkowski (Nonpartisan) | 8.4 | 3,996 | ||
| Total votes: 47,721 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Stephen Whitburn completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Whitburn's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Before voters elected him to the San Diego City Council in 2020, Stephen was an award-winning nonprofit leader. He supported cancer patients and their families as director of the American Cancer Society in Southern California, he advanced equality for the LGBTQ community as executive director of San Diego Pride, and he helped sick and injured San Diegans at the American Red Cross.
Before that he was a highly-regarded radio news director, journalist, and member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).
As a committed community volunteer, Stephen served on a number of advisory panels for the City and County, as a member of the San Diego Human Dignity Foundation Board of Directors, on the Greater San Diego Business Association Advocacy Committee, and as Vice Chair of the North Park Planning Committee.
Stephen is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. He earned his Leadership Certificate from UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management. Stephen is also proficient in Spanish.
As a member of the San Diego City Council, Stephen has been a solutions-oriented thought leader and has been credited with advancing compassionate and necessary initiatives to address homelessness, affordable housing, and public safety.
- Taking action on homelessness: Encampments on our sidewalks are both a humanitarian tragedy and a neighborhood health and safety concern.
To reduce street homelessness, Stephen spearheaded the opening of two Safe Sleeping Sites last year, enabling people to move into safer and healthier spaces. The sites have security, restrooms, showers, laundry, meals and connections to housing. They help people stabilize and get back on their feet.
So far, over 500 people have moved off the streets and into these sites. That has contributed to a significant drop in street homelessness in our area. - Helping people afford housing: The cost of housing consumes too much of many people’s income, leaving them little for other expenses. To help people afford housing costs, Stephen has approved creating thousands of new affordable housing units citywide with rents capped at 30% of a person’s income. Stephen has also approved rent subsidies to help senior citizens stay in their current apartments. It continues to be a top priority to ensure more people can afford their housing.
- Improving quality of life: Our neighborhoods deserve modern amenities and quick repairs when problems arise. To improve our neighborhoods, Stephen has prioritized neighborhood infrastructure with increased street paving, streetlight repairs, and traffic calming measures. Stephen has also secured new outdoor spaces for people to enjoy, including new parks and dog parks, pedestrian promenades, and outdoor dining patios.
We also have challenges like homelessness and high housing costs.
The legacy I would like to leave is for our part of San Diego to be closer to its full potential - to be even better than it is today.
That is why I am working diligently to reduce homelessness and make housing more affordable while at the same time adding amenities like more parks and dog parks to improve our neighborhood quality of life.
San Diego County Democratic Party
San Diego & Imperial Counties Labor Council
San Diego Municipal Employees Association
San Diego City Firefighters
San Diego Police Officers Association
Deputy City Attorney's Association
AFSCME 127
National Union of Healthcare Workers
Laborers International Union Local 89
Carpenters Union Local 619
SEIU-UHW
San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce
Downtown San Diego Partnership
California Restaurant Association
Building Industry Association
Greater San Diego Association of Realtors
LGBTQ+ Victory Fund
San Diego LGBTQ Vote
Congressman Scott Peters
Congresswoman Sara Jacobs
Senate President pro tem Toni Atkins
Assemblyman Chris Ward
Mayor Todd Gloria
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2020
Stephen Whitburn did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate San Diego City Council District 3 |
Officeholder San Diego City Council District 3 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 5, 2024
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Christopher Ward |
San Diego City Council District 3 2020-Present |
Succeeded by - |
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