Kevin Lee Faulconer[1] (born January 24, 1967) is an American politician who served as the 36th mayor of San Diego, from 2014 to 2020.

He entered politics in the 1990s to work on the campaigns for then-Governor Pete Wilson; he began to run in San Diego City Council elections to represent the 2nd district in the early 2000s.

While at San Diego State, Faulconer served as student body president as a fifth-year senior and was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

[10][12] After college, Faulconer won a fellowship with the Coro Foundation and worked for Solem & Associates, a public relations firm based in San Francisco.

[18] The ban has not been challenged since with the community generally approving of cleaner beaches and fewer emergency calls, and lifeguards and police said it has made their jobs easier.

However, the long-term economic impact, claimed by one individual to be a 160,000 person reduction in attendance on holiday weekends and a 50% drop in revenue for beach businesses, has not been studied.

He promoted the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan, a project seeking to redevelop the San Diego bayfront.

[25] He was endorsed by the local Republican Party[26][27] and by former mayor Jerry Sanders, now president of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce.

[29] In the runoff, Faulconer was endorsed by former San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre, a Democratic mayoral candidate who had placed fourth in the first round of the election.

[31] His opponents in the election were former state assemblywoman Lori Saldaña and former San Diego City Council member Ed Harris.

[38] In 2018, Faulconer proposed pursuing a city-run Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program to meet the plan's goal of purchasing 100 percent renewable energy by 2035.

[39] By September 2019, Faulconer had convinced four other nearby cities (Encinitas, La Mesa, Imperial Beach and Chula Vista) to join San Diego's CCA through a joint powers authority.

[44] A major issue during his first term was a bid by the San Diego Chargers to move to the Los Angeles area.

[47] In 2017, Faulconer put forth a measure that would fund the expansion of the San Diego Convention Center by increasing the hotel tax, but the City Council declined to call for a special election.

Faulconer said these reforms were needed to combat San Diego's housing crisis, reduce homelessness and improve the environment.

[52][53][54] In both his 2018 and 2019 State of the City addresses, Faulconer vowed to reduce the growing number of people who are street homeless in San Diego.

[56] Just a month before the end of his term as mayor, Faulconer put a package of affordable housing proposals before the San Diego City Council called Complete Communities.

It also creates an "ongoing funding stream" for public transportation via fees on more suburban developers, and prioritizes improvements in parks in low-income areas.

Faulconer's administration relied upon a dual agent who represented both the seller and the buyer (the city of San Diego) in the transaction.

[61] An October 2017 news article on the San Diego epidemic noted that, in the summer of 2016, as part of preparations for the MLB All-Star Game, "the city was locking and removing bathrooms," contributing to what one infectious disease researcher described as "the perfect storm.

"[62] Faulconer and his staff learned of the Hepatitis A outbreak in June 2017 and proposed plans to combat it, including installing hand washing stations near homeless encampments.

"[63] In an interview about the causes of San Diego's rapidly escalating Hepatitis A epidemic and the high rates of death, it was noted that "When those emergency tents [for PEH] were permanently closed, we began to see a dramatic increase in the number of people living on the streets."

To enforce social distancing, Faulconer issued an executive order on March 16 closing all bars and nightclubs and only allowing takeout from restaurants.

[67] In response to an estimated $250 million reduction in revenue associated with the outbreak, Faulconer proposed major budget cuts, including the elimination of 354 jobs.

[73][74] Following the murder of George Floyd in June 2020, Faulconer pushed for a ban on the use of chokeholds by the San Diego Police Department.

[83][84] Faulconer strongly criticized Newsom following the scandal at The French Laundry, an expensive, five-star restaurant in Yountville which the governor had attended for a birthday party in November 2020, in violation of state gathering rules that he himself had enacted.

Faulconer was described as a "top contender" and The San Diego Union-Tribune said that the "state may be ready to pick a Republican" in the race for governor, considering that he needs a minimum to reach second place in the nonpartisan blanket primary to advance to the general election.

[87] Faulconer was compared to fellow moderate Republicans Larry Hogan of Maryland and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, who hold such positions in deeply Democratic states like California.