Palo Alto: who represents it, and who is running
California General Election (federal and state offices) consolidated with the City of Palo Alto General Municipal Election (three at-large City Council seats) votes on 2026-11-03. It elects city: three full-term (4-year) at-large City Council seats - terms of Ed Lauing, Julie Lythcott-Haims and Vicki Veenker (City Clerk), eight qualified candidates; plus a city ballot measure (not captured). U.S. Representative CA-16; Governor (open seat) and other statewide offices; State Assembly District 23. SD-13 and U.S. Senate are not up in 2026..
Holding office13
the sitting council
On the ballot12
3 sitting members running again
The official candidate list ↗ · What Palo Alto is like — the /local page
Congressional district (city hall): California's 16th congressional district (City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave; the whole city on the 120th Congress layer) — Sam Liccardo (Democratic)
1
City Councilmember
2
Governor
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gavin Newsom Elected | Governor | Democratic | Governor's Proclamation for the November 3, 2026 General Election (signed 'I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California'), via the Secretary of State | |
| Steve Hilton | Governor Running | Republican | California Secretary of State | |
| Xavier Becerra | Governor Running | Democratic | California Secretary of State |
3
State Assembly Member — AD-23
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marc Berman Elected | State Assembly Member | Democratic | California State Assembly - Assemblymembers |
4
State Senator — SD-13
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Becker Elected | State Senator | Democratic | California State Senate - Senators |
5
U.S. Senator
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adam B. Schiff Elected | U.S. Senator | Democratic | @unitedstates congress-legislators (CC0) | |
| Alex Padilla Elected | U.S. Senator | Democratic | @unitedstates congress-legislators (CC0) |
6
U.S. Representative — CA-16
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Liccardo Elected | U.S. Representative → Running | Democratic | U.S. House of Representatives | |
| Peter Sundin Soulé | U.S. Representative Running | Republican | California Secretary of State |
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Notes on this record
How the lists were read, and what could not be.
- Municipal: City of Palo Alto City Council page (www.paloalto.gov/City-Hall/City-Council, read 2026-10-31): 'seven Members elected at-large'; Mayor Vicki Veenker, Vice Mayor Greer Stone, Councilmembers Patrick Burt, Ed Lauing, George Lu, Julie Lythcott-Haims, Keith Reckdahl, each with a printed term expiration. The City Council Elections page: 'Every January, the City Council chooses a Mayor and Vice Mayor by majority vote to serve a one-year term.' No other city-wide elected office. Official @PaloAlto.gov emails recorded; council phones not copied.
- Municipal candidates: City Clerk 'City Council Elections' page and the eight linked 'Meet the Candidates' pages (read 2026-10-31): Brian Hamachek, Bryna Chang, Ed Lauing, Yu "Yudy" Deng, Raymond Lee Goins, Gary Gechlik, Vicki Veenker, Henry Etzkowitz, each with nomination and qualification dates. The Clerk notes nomination papers went to only two of the three incumbents, so the non-incumbent period was extended to August 12, 2026. Lythcott-Haims is not running. Several candidate pages print a street address and phone: none were copied; free-mail addresses not campaign-named were left null. No candidate statements were found on the City's pages, so standsFor is null. Next municipal election: November 2028 (four at-large seats whose terms expire December 31, 2028: Stone, Burt, Lu, Reckdahl).
- Federal/statewide rows (Senators Padilla and Schiff; CA-16 Sam Liccardo incumbent-running vs Peter Sundin Soulé; Governor Newsom; Becerra and Hilton) are copied from us-san-jose.json, whose candidates came from the CA SOS Certified List of Candidates (2026-08-27). AD-23 candidates are NOT recorded: the SOS file host 403s robots.txt (per earlier agents; not re-tried), the Santa Clara County ROV is Cloudflare-blocked (per the Sunnyvale record; not re-tried), and San Mateo County ACRE's 'Candidates and Measures' page (robots allows) shows no 2026 candidate roster.
- Districts: Census geocoder at City Hall (250 HAMILTON AVE, matched at 37.444812, -122.160542): CA-16, SD-13, AD-23. A 6x6 grid (16 points inside 'Palo Alto city') was entirely CA-16, SD-13 and AD-23.
- Robots/terms: www.cityofpaloalto.org 301 -> www.paloalto.gov (robots read for both; generic '*' group, no AI-crawler group; the council and election pages are allowed), www.senate.ca.gov and www.assembly.ca.gov (allow roster pages), smcacre.gov (allows), geocoding.geo.census.gov (robots 404). Photos linked, not copied. Wikipedia, Ballotpedia and news not used for any status.
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Sources
Prepared 2026-10-31. Nomination papers are never opened: they carry home addresses. After voting day a candidate list becomes a result; these rows are reconciled, not deleted.
- City of Palo Alto - City Council 7
- California Secretary of State — Certified List of Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election (dated 2026-08-27) 3
- @unitedstates congress-legislators (CC0) — senate.gov not fetched (returned 403 to earlier agents) 2
- Governor's Proclamation for the November 3, 2026 General Election (signed 'I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California'), via the Secretary of State 1
- California State Senate - Senators 1
- California State Assembly - Assemblymembers 1
- U.S. House of Representatives — Directory of Representatives (California) 1
- City of Palo Alto City Clerk - City Council Elections, candidate page 'Brian Hamachek' (November 3, 2026) 1
- City of Palo Alto City Clerk - City Council Elections, candidate page 'Bryna Chang' (November 3, 2026) 1
- City of Palo Alto City Clerk - City Council Elections, candidate page 'Gary Gechlik' (November 3, 2026) 1
- City of Palo Alto City Clerk - City Council Elections, candidate page 'Henry Etzkowitz' (November 3, 2026) 1
- City of Palo Alto City Clerk - City Council Elections, candidate page 'Raymond Lee Goins' (November 3, 2026) 1
- City of Palo Alto City Clerk - City Council Elections, candidate page 'Yu "Yudy" Deng' (November 3, 2026) 1