It was set up to be a familiar story in Santa Ana, California: a young, progressive politician of color paying the political price for having the temerity to challenge the city’s powerful police union and real estate interests.

On Tuesday, however, voters in Santa Ana delivered a clear rebuke to the special interests attempting to choke their democracy — rejecting the recall of first-term city council member Jessie Lopez by a margin of more than twelve percentage points.

Lopez’s triumph affects just a slice of a small city. But it sends a message about who is in charge in a changing urban landscape. There is, of course, plenty of wealth in California’s famed Orange County. But Santa Ana is roughly 75 percent Latino and is home to four of the six poorest zip codes in Orange County. Over half of Santa Ana’s population is enrolled in CalOptima, a county-administered public health insurance program set up to serve the county’s most economically disadvantaged residents. As working people and immigrants are increasingly priced out of Los Angeles, many are moving into outlying areas like Santa Ana to the south and San Bernardino to the east.