By San Diego Monitor News Staff / San Diego Monitor / Oct. 30, 2025
After more than a decade in Congress, Scott Peters is being mentioned as a potential candidate for Mayor of San Diego in 2028. The longtime representative, who first served on the San Diego City Council before being elected to Congress in 2012, has built a reputation as a pragmatic policymaker—someone who favors compromise and long-term solutions over sharp rhetoric.
If Peters enters the race, he would join a growing group of California leaders returning from Washington to local office. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and former Congresswoman Barbara Lee of Oakland have both turned their congressional experience into a platform for local leadership. For Peters, the same move could mark a return to the city where he began his political career.
During his time in Washington, Peters has focused on issues closely tied to San Diego’s economy and environment—clean energy, coastal resilience, innovation, and veterans’ health care. He’s supported bipartisan legislation to strengthen mental health services for veterans and secure infrastructure funding for the city’s coastline and water systems. Those accomplishments have helped shape San Diego’s national profile as both a military and innovation hub. However, a run for mayor would not be without obstacles.
San Diego faces pressing challenges, including an ongoing housing crisis, widespread homelessness, and the effects of climate change on infrastructure and neighborhoods. Many voters are seeking solutions that not only address these problems but also reflect the city’s changing demographics and economic realities.
Political analysts note that Peters, known for his centrist approach, would need to demonstrate his ability to connect with a broader range of communities than in his earlier campaigns. Building strong coalitions across San Diego’s African American, Latino, and working-class neighborhoods could be essential. These communities have become increasingly influential in shaping citywide elections and are often looking for leaders who both understand local inequities and can deliver visible results. Some observers question whether Peters’s background—rooted in federal policymaking and business-oriented problem solving—will resonate with voters seeking more direct, neighborhood-level engagement. Others argue that his experience navigating Washington could position him to bring new federal investments into San Diego’s local priorities, a potential advantage in tackling complex urban issues.
San Diego’s political history adds another layer of complexity. While the city has trended more Democratic over the past two decades, its voters have often favored pragmatic, fiscally moderate mayors leaders who emphasized balance over ideology. The city’s electorate has generally been cautious about embracing a more socialist-driven platform, in part due to concerns about higher taxes, increased regulatory costs, and potential impacts on the city’s business climate and middle-income residents. Candidates seen as too far to the left have sometimes struggled to gain traction with the city’s diverse, but economically moderate, voter base.
For now, Peters has not confirmed any plans for a 2028 run. Still, the idea of an experienced federal legislator returning home to lead the city has captured attention. Whether Scott Peters can translate national connections into local consensus—and whether San Diegans see him as the bridge their city needs—remains an open question.
Don’t bother!
Not enthusiastic. He’s been a nothing to me as my representative–in fact I donate to and follow a different local representative. At this time in history “centrist” and “across the “bipartisan” mean he can’t be relied on for what we need to resist the MEGA Cult.
Even more he would need to convince me (and I assume a lot of neighborhood people I know) that he’s not Gloria or Whitburn and that he would care more about the people of San Diego than the Developers. Talk is cheap as Gloria has demonstrated but we need something more and I just don’t see Peters as that.
Scott Peters is intelligent, a former environmental lawyer, ethical and a centrist for sure.
That’s three out of four.
Having someone like him as Mayor of San Diego might be a refreshing change.
Scott Peters penned and signed a letter to the then FCC Chairman Wheeler railing against Net Neutrality. When we went to his office with cameras his staff told us “that’s not what he meant by the letter to Wheeler opposing net neutrality.” When pressed Peters staff told us he supports legislation to make net neutrality law. Then spent the next 10+ never penning any legislation nor even advocating it on any level.
Peters has not brought one new dime for Section 8 housing back to San Diego. Think about that. Amidst the worst unsheltered catastrophe that we have lived with for the 20 years he’s been in public office it never dawned on him to take meaningful action, ever.
Peters has never made any effort to expand the very successful section 8 housing program at all. Peters only wants to come back because, all the money is where the reckless over-development is. And he wants his share.
I hope Scott Peters reads the comments above and decides against running for mayor. He’s been out of touch locally for too long. He supports the NAVWAR project and for almost a year now, we have tried to meet with him to give him a tour of the current congestion that is now in the area of the proposed site due to massive development at the old post office site across the street from NAVWAR. We’re still waiting.
Scott Peters has also pledged himself to the YIMBY Dem lobbyists.
But he will be deluded to believe that money and support from the Dem party will get him elected. Dream on, the locals are becoming informed voters and read the signs of a career politician who will carry the torch for developers.