EDITORIAL: Endorsement: David Cohen is Santa Clara and Alameda counties' best hope in state Senate

May 8-Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It's the season of churn.

Sen. Aisha Wahab's decision to run for former Rep. Eric Swalwell's vacant congressional seat in D.C. has opened her job up in Sacramento.

Now, there is an unpredictable, expensive six-way race in Senate District 10, which includes Fremont, Hayward, Milpitas, Newark, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Union City and northeast San Jose.

The candidates are a who's who of local elected officials in Alameda and Santa Clara counties, including San Jose Councilman David Cohen, Union City Councilman Scott Sakakihara, Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano and West Valley Mission Community College District Trustee Anne Kepner, among others.

This district - which Wahab, 39, has led since 2022 and where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly four to one - is a case study in the Bay Area's contradictions:

Its million residents, spread out across Alameda and Santa Clara counties, are among the world's most highly educated, highly paid workers, many of whom are pioneering the future of manufacturing, aviation, transportation and automation. And yet, their transit agencies, school districts and county health systems are on the brink.

The lights here are flashing red for public school students, rail riders and low-income patients.

This job isn't for the faint of heart. But David Cohen is up to the challenge.

The 57-year-old chemical engineer brings more than 20 years of elected experience, including 14 years on the Berryessa School Board and six on the San Jose City Council. Also, Cohen sits on the boards of two regional transit agencies, the VTA and Caltrain; and he is a senior leader at the California League of Cities, where he has worked on policies affecting hundreds of municipal governments statewide.

Tangible accomplishments

His record is encouraging:

In San Jose, Cohen has developed a reputation as a principled realist who has pursued progress over purity. On a council that has often been split between labor and business, he has played peacemaker, focusing on policies that can pass and last. He has prioritized reducing unsheltered homelessness, burying the hatchet with Santa Clara County to unlock new housing developments, opening new parks and spearheading an urban forestry plan.

Modest achievements, to be sure, but also tangible ones for his constituents.

Cohen's main differences from the woman he's seeking to replace are more stylistic than substantive. Wahab, a progressive now running for Eric Swalwell's vacant House seat, is a bulldog; Cohen is more of a Golden Retriever.

His moderating influence will be an asset in Sacramento. Federal funds for health care are drying up. Volatile state revenues are forcing belt-tightening amid constant budget shortfalls. Accordingly, cities and counties will be asked to do more with less. The state's Democratic supermajority needs practical legislators who are willing and able to make hard choices. Cohen's record shows he'll be able to do just that.

If elected, Cohen told this editorial board his top three priorities will be reducing the cost of home building; addressing the gaps in health care coverage created by recent federal cuts to Medi-Cal; and electrifying our economy to reduce carbon emissions.

Differentiating factors

What distinguishes Cohen most from his competitors is his nuanced understanding of state mandates. He knows first-hand from San Jose City Council and Cal League of Cities that any state law requiring local government action must be both firm enough to be taken seriously yet flexible enough to achieve worthwhile results.

Of the five others in this race, Scott Sakakihara does stand out. The 41-year-old Union City councilman, active U.S. Navy Reserve officer and former senior finance executive at Palantir Technologies is a serious, thoughtful candidate. He offers realistic proposals to jumpstart housing production, and his technocratic emphasis on government accountability is sorely needed in Sacramento. However, Sakakihara does not have Cohen's breadth and depth of policy know-how.

Anne Kepner brings experience in local education to the race. The 57-year-old Santa Clara-based attorney has been a trustee at West Valley Mission Community College District since 2014; and her emphasis on workforce development and vocational training is a worthwhile agenda amid AI-driven job disruption. But she did not demonstrate how she would translate her priorities into a statewide legislative agenda.

Other candidates in this race, including Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano, Fremont Councilman Raymond Liu and businesswoman Linda Price, are not running serious campaigns.

This need not be a hard choice for Alameda and Santa Clara counties' voters: We encourage them to send David Cohen to Sacramento.

Editor's note: The main candidates in this race answered our editorial boards' questions on a wide range of issues affecting the million people who live in District 10. Read those interviews here.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 10:25 AM.