James Coleman is focused on creating a society that leaves no one behind.

James Coleman was born and raised in South San Francisco. His father was a FedEx worker and his mother is a Taiwanese immigrant who worked as a lab assistant at Kaiser. When James was 5, his father suffered a traumatic injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. And his mother had to work two jobs to make ends meet in addition to raising James and caring for his father. When his parents could not find childcare, he would oftentimes be in the breakroom of Kaiser because he was five and that was their family’s only option. Growing up, he wanted to make sure no other child and no other family had to go through the same hardships that they did. This made James want to study biology to learn how people can heal. And he wanted to work to make sure our society worked for everyone, leaving no one behind.

James came home from college—but not to a graduation party or a fancy cake. He came home in the middle of his junior year to a global pandemic that wreaked havoc throughout our country, to widespread calls for public safety reform, and to a community that sought justice and change to a status quo that had failed them. James Coleman ran for city council in 2020, becoming our city’s youngest ever and first openly LGBTQ+ city council member. And in 2023, James was sworn in as South San Francisco’s Mayor.

Through James’ leadership, South San Francisco has become a city of firsts.

During James’ time as an elected official, South San Francisco became the first in the county to pass a 5 dollar Hazard Pay ordinance for our essential workers, the first in the county to pass a guaranteed income pilot program, the first to pass a childcare masterplan and demand universal childcare, and the first to pass an Article 34 authorization to allow SSF to deliver on affordable housing faster and ensure that everyone in South City has a safe warm place to call home.

In addition to his work as Mayor, James serves on the board of Peninsula Clean Energy and the Loma Prieta Sierra Club, working to fight climate change, protect our environment, and address wildfires, drought, and sea level rise. He also sits on the board of Fixin’ San Mateo County, an organization dedicated to ensuring our system of public safety works for everyone; the San Mateo County Asian American Pacific Islander Alliance; and the San Mateo County REACH Coalition.