4 candidates battle for 2 seats on Victorville council as city moves to district elections

With the Nov. 8 General Election just 10 weeks away, council candidates are stretching their campaign muscles as they vie for several seats on the Victorville City Council.

The November election will be the first time Victorville council members will be elected by district after the city transitioned away from at-large elections in December 2021. 

District 2

Council seats for Districts 2 and 4 will be on the November ballot, with candidates for District 2 including at-large incumbent Mayor Debra Jones and Rafael Porras.

Jones, 62, won her council seat in 2018 and stepped down from her Adelanto Elementary School District board member position. She has a background in executive management and community outreach.

Her opponent is Rafael Porras, a pastor and the CEO of NuevaVision Radio, which provides Spanish Christian programming from a studio in Victorville.

District 4 

The candidates vying for the vacant District 4 seat are Robert Harriman and Lizet Angulo.

Harriman is a 42-year resident of Victorville. He is the owner/president of High Desert Concrete and serves as a Victorville planning commissioner and on the Victorville Community Services Advisory. He’s also served as Little League president.

Lizet Angulo is president of Ladies Taking Key Opportunities, a nonprofit that distributes clothing to women veterans, memory loss centers, women’s shelters, and the homeless.

Angulo served on the Bassett Unified School Board District in the La Puente Valley for four years, beginning in 1997.

She is no stranger to campaigning, running and coming up short in her bid for a Victorville Council seat in 2018 and 2020.  

The election

When the newly elected council members take the oath of office in early December, Victorville will have a fully seated, five-person council for the first time since March 2021 when at-large Councilwoman Rita Ramirez was ousted from office for failing to reside in the city.

The council candidates elected in November will be sworn in at the first council meeting in December. 

Mayor Pro Tem Leslie Irving, and Councilwomen Elizabeth “Liz” Becerra and Blanca Gomez will remain at-large representatives of the entire Victorville community until the end of their terms in 2024. 

The seats for Districts 1, 3, and 5 will be up for election on the November 2024 ballot.

The districts

District 1 is located in the southeast portion of the city, with general boundary lines Bear Valley Road, Seventh Street, D Street and the BNSF railroad tracks.

District 2 is located in the southwest portion of the city, and extends on the west and east sides of Highway 395. Its general boundary lines include the California Aqueduct, Interstate 15, Palmdale Road and White Road.

District 3 is located on the west and east sides of Interstate 15, with general boundary lines the BNSF railroad tracks, Bear Valley Road, Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue/Arrowhead Drive.

District 4 is located on the west and east sides of Interstate 15, with general boundaries Seventh Avenue/Arrowhead Drive, Dos Palmas Road, Eucalyptus Street and the L.A. Bureau of Power and Light Road. 

District 5 is the largest of the districts and is located mostly in the northern part of the city. The general boundary lines include Palmdale Road, Hwy. 395, Interstate 15 and Sonoma Road.

Additional information about Victorville’s transition to by-district elections is available at victorvilleca.gov.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz