Moy Valdez, a senior political science student, is running for the Los Angeles City Council’s District 9 seat, which includes USC’s main campus.
“I feel like not only am I a representation of what the district actually consists of, but also I’m a representation of what the lifestyle is here,” he said. “I was housing insecure for a lot of time. I’m on food benefits.
“And the reality is, those types of people don’t serve in City Hall,” he continued. “They don’t serve in the city council. And I think it’s about time that we have someone there who actually represents and has gone through those issues. And I think that no other candidate running for this office has been through.”
Valdez said his main initiatives would be to institute a rent freeze in the district to help make housing in LA more affordable and alter the city structure to reduce pay for city commissioners, aiming to put an end to “back-room conversations” between council members and private interests.
With his position in student government, students from USG said Valdez has had the opportunity to demonstrate his skills and practice politics.
“It’s always been clear that he’s a really passionate student, super engaged with different channels on campus to enact change,” said USG President and a senior studying business administration, Mikaela Bautista. “Even before he joined USG, he would come into the office and engage with different officers. I think that’s a testament to his drive and ability.”
USG Vice President and senior studying political science, Emma Fallon, said that while in USG, Moy has shown a “really good skill” while communicating and addressing problems with people.
Currently, nine candidates are running for the seat. Among these are Jose Ugarte, who has gotten explicit endorsement from the current District 9 representative, Curren Price, as well as other state and district officials. Price, who has served 12 years on the council, is ineligible to run again.
Ugarte has served as senior staff under Price for the past seven years and is currently the deputy chief of staff and is responsible for managing Price’s projects and policy initiatives.
Ugarte has also raised more money than all of his opponents, reporting over $210,000 total funds raised from over 200 donations.
However, Ugarte was hit with a $17,500 settlement fine on October 21 by the LA Ethics Commission for repeatedly failing to disclose outside income he received from lobbying efforts and his position at Ugarte & Associates, a consulting firm that he owns with his sister.
Price, who is facing charges of his own for embezzlement, perjury and public corruption that could lead to a maximum sentence of 11 years and four months in prison, reaffirmed his support of Ugarte, despite the violation.
Fallon said Moy is “all about transparency and communication,” and has “stuck to that” during his time in USG.
Valdez began his campaign in early August without funds, endorsements and team members. Nearly three months later, he said he was still running the campaign on his own with no funding.
“You don’t need [funding] to at least hit the ground running and start a campaign,” he said. “And going forward, I do hope to get more people involved in the campaign. I do hope to get funding specifically from local groups and from the community.”
This lack of financial support is not the only challenge to Valdez’s campaign. Because the city holds a primary nominating election, if a candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the race ends, making it easier for people with better name recognition to win outright during the primary instead of going to a general election.
“They don’t really like to tell people how easy it is [to apply], because if people realize how easy it was, then maybe that would shake up the establishment, or maybe that would shake things up,” Valdez said.
He isn’t alone, though.
Three other candidates, Adriana Cabrera, Chris Martin and Martha Sanchez, also have no reported funds. Candidates Elmer Roldan and Nathan Juarez have not yet filed financial disclosure forms, according to the ethics commission.
The primary for the 2026 election cycle is set for June 2. Interested voters can register to vote at https://covr.sos.ca.gov/
“At the end of the day, my goal is to hopefully win the seat, but more importantly, to inspire more young people like myself to run for office and to show them how easy it is to run for office,” Valdez said. “So if I don’t get it, someone else who’s around my age will.”
While USG refrains from publicly endorsing candidates for office, as an apolitical organization, the executive pair did affirm they support all USG members in their endeavors.
“I think [Moy] will leave a lasting impact and just kind of inspire students who might typically think that they may not fit into this role, or that they just got here, and it’s intimidating to just go for it. And I think that kind of also translates to his campaign, where encouraging young people to run for LA City Council and to just go for it,” Fallon said.
Additional reporting by Ariel Ehrlich.