Larry Agran Sally Anne Sheridan The 1990 election was held on June 5, 1990.
Larry Agran, who had previously served two terms as mayor, ran unopposed and was elected.
Mayor Pro Tem Christina Shea, who had taken office on April 13, 2019, when Mayor Donald P. Wagner vacated the seat after winning a special election to the Orange County Board of Supervisors,[2] lost the seat to Councilwoman Farrah Khan, the first Democrat to be elected since 2010.
[6] Incumbent mayor Farrah Khan, who was first sworn into office in 2020, cannot seek re-election due to term limits.
[7] Although Irvine's municipal elections are officially nonpartisan, candidates tend to associate themselves with either the Democratic or Republican Party.
[8] In March 2024, Khan lost to Wagner, who received greater than 50% of votes, avoiding a runoff election.
[9] In June 2022, ahead of the 2022 mayoral election, councilmembers Tammy Kim and Mike Carroll had introduced an agenda item to the Irvine City Council, which would have removed the mayoral seat from the ballot and switched it to an office appointed by the city council.
The day before the meeting, Carroll had attempted to pull the agenda-setting rule off the agenda following "strong public backlash", including official condemnation from the Orange County Democratic Party; nonetheless, it was brought to a vote and the city councilmembers voted to repeal the rule.
[11] Had the rule passed, Irvine would have been the largest city in the United States without a directly elected mayor.
[10] In 2014, Irvine voters had approved a rule to its city charter such that councilmembers and the mayors can serve no more than two full two-year terms for life.
[13] In December 2022, Agran had resigned with a week left on his term in order to run for another four years on the city council, which prompted his colleague and fellow mayoral contender Tammy Kim to call it a "slippery power grab" and ask Agran if "40 years on the city council [was] not enough".