The District 3 candidate believes her experiences translate to understanding the city’s most pressing issues

By Devan Patel | [email protected] | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: February 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM PST

On the day Gabby Chavez-Lopez came home from the hospital with her newborn son, one of the first questions that ran through her mind was where she wanted to raise him.

The 37-year-old was living in New Mexico at the time but wanted the best opportunity for her family — a similar feeling she experienced after spending most of her childhood and adolescence in Fresno.

Born to professors at Fresno State University, she gained a foundational understanding of how to build power through community, even walking with her father as a young child in the funeral procession for Cesar Chavez. But when her father took a new job in San Jose during the tech boom, it presented a new level of excitement — as if the sky was the limit. Chavez-Lopez later realized she wanted to replicate that for her son and now for the city’s residents as she seeks the District 3 City Council seat.

“San Jose represents a lot of things to a lot of people, but one consistent thing that I recognize as I’ve really been involved in this community for so long is that it’s really been a place of opportunity and possibility for so many people,” Chavez-Lopez said. “I want to make sure that it remains a place for folks and families like mine and others where they can come here and realize their dreams and their potential as I have.”

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