Todd Gloria Bio
Todd Rex Gloria (born May 10, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 37th mayor of San Diego since December 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the city’s first person of color and the first openly gay person to hold the office. As mayor, he also serves as the chief executive officer of the City of San Diego.
Gloria previously represented District 3 on the San Diego City Council, where he served as council president and briefly as interim mayor in 2013 and 2014. He later served in the California State Assembly for the 78th district from 2016 to 2020, rising to the position of Majority Whip. Throughout his public career, he has focused on housing affordability, homelessness, climate action, and public transportation in San Diego.
Early Life and Background
Early Life and Background
Todd Rex Gloria was born on May 10, 1978, in San Diego, California, and grew up in the Clairemont neighborhood of the city. He attended Hawthorne Elementary School and later enrolled at James Madison High School in 1992. While at Madison, he held senior leadership roles, including Battalion Commander and Brigade Commander for the high school JROTC program and the broader San Diego Unified School District JROTC Brigade.
Gloria comes from a mixed heritage, with Filipino, Dutch, Puerto Rican, and Native American roots. All four of his grandparents moved to the San Diego region because of their involvement with the military, and his father worked as a Production Controller at General Atomics. He is a Tlingit descendant and a tribal member of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. In 1989, he was a finalist in then-mayor Maureen O’Connor’s “Mayor for a Day” program, an early hint of his future in civic life.
Gloria completed his college education at the University of San Diego, where he served as student body president. His mentor, U.S. Congresswoman Susan Davis, first met him in 1993 during his freshman year of high school, when she directed the Aaron Price Fellows Program, a civic education initiative for high school students.
Path to US Politics
Gloria began his professional life in public service at the County of San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency. He later joined the office of Congresswoman Susan Davis as a community representative, gaining hands-on experience in constituent services and policy work. In 2002, he was promoted to district director for Davis, a position he held for six years.
Alongside his work in Davis’s office, Gloria served as a San Diego Housing Commissioner from 2005 to 2008, deepening his focus on housing policy. He also became a former chairman of the San Diego LGBT Community Center and a resident panelist on San Diego’s Prostitution Impact Panel, reflecting his early engagement with civil rights and public safety issues. These formative experiences laid the groundwork for his transition into elected office in 2008.
Todd Gloria Career
Early Career (2008–2014)
Gloria ran for the District 3 seat on the San Diego City Council in 2008, after the term-limited departure of Toni Atkins. He led the June 2008 primary with a plurality of votes and went on to defeat fellow Democrat Stephen Whitburn in the November runoff with 54.3 percent of the vote, beginning his career in elected office.
In 2012, Gloria ran unopposed and won reelection in the June primary. That same year, he was unanimously elected by his colleagues to serve as President of the nine-member City Council, replacing retiring President Tony Young. He chaired the city’s Budget and Finance Committee from 2011 to 2016 and represented San Diego on the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Board and SANDAG, where he chaired the transportation committee.
Interim Mayor Period (2013–2014)
Following the August 30, 2013, resignation of Mayor Bob Filner, Gloria became interim mayor of San Diego, serving in that limited role until March 3, 2014, when Mayor-elect Kevin Faulconer was sworn in. While interim mayor, he retained his District 3 council seat and the title of City Council President, with Council President Pro Tem Sherri Lightner handling council duties.
As interim mayor, Gloria reversed several of Filner’s actions. He ordered city police and zoning officers to resume enforcement against medical marijuana, rehired Sacramento and Washington lobbying firms that Filner had fired, and directed that public records be released more quickly. His administration also authored and released a draft of the San Diego Climate Action Plan. He chose not to run for the permanent mayoral seat in 2014.
California State Assembly (2016–2020)
On April 7, 2015, Gloria announced his campaign for the California State Assembly’s 78th district seat, which was being vacated by termed-out Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins. Atkins quickly endorsed him, and he went on to win the November 8, 2016, election by one of the largest margins in San Diego County. In 2018, he was easily reelected with more than 70 percent of the vote in both the primary and the general election.
Shortly after taking office in 2016, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon selected Gloria to join Democratic leadership as Assistant Majority Whip, and in January 2018 he was elevated to Majority Whip. He also served as vice chair of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, building a record on housing, homelessness, gun violence prevention, and climate change legislation.
Mayor of San Diego Era (2020–Present)
Gloria announced his candidacy for mayor of San Diego on January 9, 2019, centering his campaign on the housing crisis, affordability, public transportation, and climate change. He earned endorsements from Governor Gavin Newsom, former Governor Jerry Brown, and San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott, and secured the San Diego County Democratic Party endorsement in August 2019 with 70 percent of the vote. He advanced to the November 3, 2020, general election and was elected mayor, becoming the first Native American and the first Filipino American to lead a U.S. city of more than one million people, as well as San Diego’s first mayor of color and its first openly gay mayor. He was sworn in on December 10, 2020.
As mayor, Gloria has pushed major budget and policy initiatives. His Fiscal Year 2023 “Ready to Rebuild” proposal, totaling just under $5 billion, increased funding for street maintenance, parks, and recreation. He proposed 2021 policing reforms that included stronger support for the Commission on Police Practices and limits on military-grade weapons, and he backed housing reforms that helped San Diego nearly double its housing permits in 2023 compared with 2022.
Notable Events and Milestones
One of Gloria’s most significant decisions as mayor was signing the “Unsafe Camping Ordinance” in late June 2023, which prohibits tent encampments in public spaces when shelter beds are available and bans encampments near parks, schools, and transit stations. In April 2024, he also announced a tentative long-term lease to convert a 65,000-square-foot commercial building in Middletown into a 1,000-bed permanent homeless shelter known as Hope @ Vine. He is recognized as the first person of color and the first openly gay person to serve as mayor of San Diego.
Todd Gloria Family
Family Background and Public Service Lineage
Gloria’s family ties to San Diego run through military service. All four of his grandparents relocated to the area because of their military connections, and his father worked as a Production Controller at General Atomics. His Filipino, Dutch, Puerto Rican, and Native American heritage, including Tlingit lineage registered with the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, shaped his identity and his commitment to representing diverse communities.
Personal Life
Gloria lives in downtown San Diego with his partner, Adam Smith. The couple has a dog named Diego. He remains closely connected to the city where he was born, raised, and has spent most of his professional life in public service.