A lifelong nonpartisan candidate is making a serious run for mayor of San Diego against the incumbent Democrat in a left-leaning city.

Retired US Marine Lt. Colonel and now San Diego Police Department officer Larry Turner is in a tough general election campaign against incumbent Mayor Todd Gloria, a career politician who previously served 8 years on the San Diego City Council and 4 years in the California State Assembly before being elected mayor in 2020.

A recent poll by San Diego’s ABC affiliate found the race for mayor of the 8th latest city in the US to be closer than many pundits expected, with Gloria at 34% and Turner at 33% and about 30% undecided between them.

Turner survived the primary election where Gloria only received 49.9% to Turner’s 23%. Three other candidates split the remainder of the votes.

The City of San Diego’s voter registration leans Democratic: 46.6% of the city’s nearly 800,000 voters are Democrats, but nonaffiliated voters make up 24.8% of registered voters, more than the 21.4% registered as Republicans.

The runoff election will be on November 5 but early mail-in ballots will be sent to voters beginning on October 8.

The winner of the election will take office in December