Six years after moving to the city, first-time candidate and attorney Dan Shimell is on the brink of becoming Santa Ana’s next mayor, about to beat out police union-backed, four-year incumbent Valerie Amezcua – a longtime local politician.
Shimell managed to come back from trailing by 13% of the vote behind Amezcua on initial Election Night results over the course of four days, claiming the lead on Saturday for the first time before widening that lead on Monday and then again on Tuesday.
Amezcua, who became Santa Ana’s first elected Latina mayor, conceded shortly after Monday’s result update in a city where about 77% of residents are Latino.
Shimell’s massive vote tally from residents came despite receiving no advertising spending from outside groups while Amezcua – an incumbent who many establishment interests pegged to win – had received over $110,000 from the police union to support her campaign in a town facing police accountability questions and still reeling from widespread ICE raids.
“There’s only so much that money can do in an election if you have a population that has been treated for years as though we’re on probation, when you have a politician that has been, if not, actively openly supporting ICE and their immigration activities, at least not speaking out against it and not really doing anything tangible to stop it,” Shimell said.
“That builds up a lot of frustration, and that builds up a lot of desire and hunger for a change in leadership.”
Earlier Tuesday, Shimell met up for an interview and photos with the Voice of OC, being stopped repeatedly by residents – both young and older – and city staff to congratulate him as he is expected to beat an incumbent that referred to herself as “the people’s mayor.”
He says that type of reception he is getting from residents is because he has been out in the community listening to their concerns, the biggest of which, he says, are about immigration and police accountability.
“That’s a big part of why the city has put their trust in me, and I think that combined with my legal background and that my wife and all of her family are immigrants too,” said Shimell, whose wife is from Peru.
“It’s a personal thing for me and so I think taking those bold stances translated into trust,” Shimell said.
He also says the support he has gotten from residents is indicative that people voted for him not as a rebuke of Amezcua but because people were excited about his campaign and what it could mean for the future.
When reached Tuesday, Amezcua pointed to the concession statement she posted on social media Monday congratulating Shimell before hanging up on a reporter – something she has routinely done when asked for official comment.
Shimell, backed by progressive groups like Chispa and OC Action, is not the only candidate on track to beat a police union-backed politician in a city where the Santa Ana Police Officers’ Association is one of the biggest spenders on local elections.
In the three other city council races, three progressive backed candidates have maintained or expanded their lead against their police union-backed counterparts – including in Ward 4 against Councilman Phil Bacerra, a seven-year incumbent and Ward 6 against candidate Giovanni Chavez.
Shimell, 40, was born in San Diego and raised in El Cajon by his adoptive parents Ron, who sold electronics, and Linda, a nurse. He got a bachelor’s degree in political science from UC San Diego.
Between 2009 to 2011, Shimell served as a volunteer for the peace corps in a village in Guyana – a country in South America bordering Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname – before graduating law school from UC Davis.
Shimell moved to Costa Mesa in 2016 with his wife Melissa, who is also an attorney and whose family immigrated from Peru, after she got a new job in the region. They later moved to Tustin before moving to Santa Ana in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It wasn’t right in Costa Mesa. It wasn’t right in Tustin, and we realized that we keep ending up in Santa Ana because there’s great people in Santa Ana and there’s culture and community and there’s restaurants and all this cool stuff that makes this city unique and special,” he said.
Shimell said he became civically engaged with local politics when the deportation raids ramped up across Santa Ana in 2025 and was enraged by the city’s response – particularly Amezcua’s – about the subsequent protests against ICE.
“I was mad about ICE but that response enraged me, and that got me activated,” he said.
In the wake of those protests, Amezcua faced demands for her resignation after she put out a statement on social media questioning the futility of the protests and calling them “pure violence” and “destruction” of property and the city – a response many credit with losing her the election.
Shimell said by May and June it seemed no one was going to challenge Amezcua for the top elected role in town and he decided to step into the race.
At first, Shimell said he had a small team of consultants for the first month of his campaign but he parted ways with them because he didn’t feel they were heading in a direction he wanted to take his campaign.
According to campaign filings, his campaign paid Epic Strategies Group about $2,000 for campaign consulting services but received a $1,000 refund in October from them. He mainly funded his campaign through self loans.
He said ultimately his campaign team consisted of his family – particularly his wife and his father-in-law, who would use his lunch breaks to help Shimell canvas– along with friends and volunteers like Ray Diaz, an OC Parks Commissioner and local teacher.
Diaz said he backed Shimell because he was endorsed by the Santa Ana Educators Association and his support of police accountability. He said Shimell is winning because residents want change.
“In the directly-elected mayor’s race, we are unseating an incumbent and it really draws to the hunger for change in the city,” Diaz said.
“The public was asking for change in terms of our approach as a city to immigration, our approach to public safety, and our approach to affordability.”
Why Did Santa Ana Elect a Newcomer?
Santa Ana Councilman Ben Vazquez said residents voted for Shimell because of Amezcua’s poor response to the ICE raids and how she treats council members and critical residents from the public dais.
“The honeymoon was over and her personality came through,” Vazquez said in a Monday interview.
In 2024, Amezcua beat Vazquez in the mayoral race, garnering about 60% of the vote – about 15,000 more votes than the councilman.
Vazquez also said Shimell is likeable and spoke well at candidate forums before the election – giving residents hope.
“I think that just translated over and people were tired of not being listened to,” he said.
Immigrant Rights Advocate Sandra De Anda, who is on track to win the Ward 4 City Council race, said Shimell’s values strongly aligned with the changes residents want in the city.
“I also saw Dan doing the work, meeting folks throughout Santa Ana,” De Anda said in a Monday phone interview.
“He just had the drive and vision – even just speaking up and saying that what we are doing as a city to respond to ICE is not enough is something that thousands of people want to hear and they want to feel seen and I think that that is something that Dan did very well.”
Planning Commission Chair and Chispa Executive Director Isuri Ramos, who is on track to win the Ward 6 City Council race, said Shimell stepped up because the city needed a mayor.
“We know that Dan was there last summer, speaking at the city council meeting, asking and pleading the city council to do more to protect our neighbors – our residents – from ICE and I think that he has been received with overwhelming support from the voters as a newcomer because they saw the sincerity of those actions,” Ramos said.
What is Next For Santa Ana?
Shimell said while the city denies cooperating with ICE, they still responded to a call from ICE agents that led to the arrest of two immigrant advocates that were observing ICE agents last month.
Shimell also said he wants to get rid of Flock cameras and fast track the investigation into the viral violent arrest of resident Florentino Lopez and supports making the findings public.
“Our PD, for whatever reason, is still stuck in that mindset that ICE is part of the law enforcement community and that they are entitled to some degree of trust and deference so they need to be disabused of that notion very quickly so I intend to lead on that,” he said.
He also disagreed with the “laying low” approach to immigration his predecessor had taken, especially in a majority Latino city and OC’s only Sanctuary City.
“This city will have a target on its back, no matter what we do at council,” he said.
“The question is going to be — are we going to sit idly by and let them continue business as usual, or are we going to do something to protect our residents and deal with the consequences that may arise from that?” he said.
“For me, the answer is – we’re absolutely going to do everything that we can to keep our people safe.”
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