The future makeup of the San Jose City Council remains in flux as two business- and two labor-backed candidates have jumped out to preliminary leads in the four competitive races after the most recent batch of election results Wednesday evening.

Following his strong performance in the March primary, George Casey, an ally of San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and business organizations, has jumped out and continued to build a commanding lead, 59% to 41%, in District 10 over incumbent Arjun Batra with 25,753 votes cast in the district.

“I think ultimately, whether we won or lost, what I’m most proud of is the team we put together and the number of folks our message resonated with,” Casey said. “I think it had a lot to do with me living here and the evolution of the city. It was the right message from the right person, who has lived here and experienced it.”

In District 8, incumbent Domingo Candelas, who earned the endorsement of labor organizations, has built a 54% to 46% lead over Tam Truong.

Meanwhile in District 6, former mayoral candidate and Mahan ally Michael Mulcahy has slowly expanded his lead over Olivia Navarro in a race for a new representative on the Council. Mulcahy holds a 53% to 47% advantage.

“We’re very proud of our results and a campaign focused on public safety, ending the crisis of homelessness and getting San Jose back to creating high-wage jobs,” Mulcahy said. “It’s clear the voters trust my life experience, independence and commitment to neighborhoods — and that positions me well to help address these pressing issues for San Jose.”

In the tightest race so far, Pamela Campos has continued to hold to a small lead over Joe Lopez after he won the most votes in the District 2 primary. However, the margin has continued to shrink, with Campos holding a 50.9% to 49.1% lead, with 336 votes separating the candidates as of Wednesday morning.

“While there are still votes to be counted, our campaign feels positive with the current results,” Campos said. “Our campaign has been clear from the start: This campaign is about fighting for affordable housing, keeping our communities safe and creating a community where all District 2 residents can thrive. We will continue to monitor the results, but for now I want to send a massive thank-you to call the volunteers who spent countless hours speaking to voters about our campaign and thank you to my family and friends for taking this journey with me.”

This year’s election included two rematches for the incumbents in Districts 8 and 10. Nearly two years ago, the City Council appointed candidates to fill the seats vacated by now- Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas and Mahan, who previously represented District 10.

Candelas has served as District 8’s representative since 2023, when the City Council appointed him to the position over Evergreen School District board of trustees President Patricia Andrade, city analyst Salvador Alvarez, software manager Sukhdev Singh Bainiwal and his opponent in 2024, Truong.

But just as in 2023, controversy has surrounded the race. In September, the San Jose Police Department placed Truong on leave after the district attorney’s office charged him with felony grand theft tied to mortgage fraud allegations, prompting Mahan to pull his endorsement. Adding to the political theater, the Santa Cruz County prosecutors, who took on the case due to a conflict of interest in the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office, asked a judge to dismiss the case two weeks ago.

In District 10, Batra, a former Intel and IBM executive, also faced a rematch of sorts as the City Council appointed him to the vacant seat in 2023 over several candidates, including Casey.

In the March primary, Casey, a corporate attorney, held a 451-vote advantage over Batra among voters, and both men advanced to the general election over labor-backed candidate Lenka Wright.

Labor and political organizations, however, have attacked Casey over the past two months over previous work with disgraced Chinese developer Z&L Properties.

Before Casey temporarily worked as a part-time consultant for the company, it was tied to several San Jose and Bay Area projects that have come under scrutiny, including the construction of Silvery Towers. That project was thrown into the spotlight seven years ago after authorities discovered that Job Torres Hernandez, an unlicensed subcontractor, was holding immigrant workers in a warehouse and forcing them to work without pay. Casey said he only became involved in helping sell off Z&L’s properties as the company tried to exit the market.

Adding more gasoline to the fire, a controversial jail diversion project — which both candidates opposed — near the district’s borders became a political issue in the race. Though Batra said he advocated for his constituents to help stop the sale of the interim housing site at Monterey and Bernal Roads to the county for the project, Casey said it was the residents who deserved credit for defeating the proposal and blamed Batra for not being aware of its impacts on District 10 until the eleventh hour.

Though some of the races are still too close to call, what was certain from the outset in this year’s election was that at least two City Council seats would have fresh blood.

Lopez, a retired 35-year veteran of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office backed by Mahan and business interests, and Campos, a labor-supported policy officer at the Low Income Investment Fund, faced off to replace outgoing District 2 Councilmember Sergio Jimenez, who has termed out. The race initially had taken on a respectful tone between the candidates before both claimed political ads targeting them either misrepresented their views or smeared their reputations.

With District 6 Councilmember Dev Davis finishing her second term, Mulcahy, a local businessman and former mayoral candidate, and Navarro, an insurance agent and union adviser, advanced to the general election to represent neighborhoods west of downtown, including Willow Glen, West San Carlos and Fruitdale.

District 4 Councilmember David Cohen received more than 50% of the vote during the March primary, allowing him to clinch another four years on the City Council.