Visalia: who represents it, and who is running
California General Election votes on 2026-11-03. It elects governor (open: Becerra D, Hilton R) and the other statewide offices; U.S. Representative CA-20 (Fong (I) R, Van Scotter D) and CA-21 (Costa (I) D, Kirkland R); State Senate SD-12 (open: Magsig R, Brown Jr. L) and Assembly AD-32 (Couch R, only candidate) at City Hall; parts of the city in SD-16 (Hurtado* D, Gonzalez R) and AD-33 (Macedo* R, Cerros D); Tulare County offices and measures; Visalia Unified Measure Z; and the City of Visalia municipal election for Council Districts 4 and 5 (District 3 cancelled — Poochigian appointed in lieu of election). No U.S. Senate seat from California is up in 2026..
Holding office12
the sitting council
On the ballot9
2 sitting members running again
The official candidate list ↗ · What Visalia is like — the /local page
Congressional district (city hall): California's 21st congressional district (City Hall, 220 N Santa Fe St, on both the 119th and 120th maps); on the 2026 (120th) map most of the city is CA-20 (25 of 31 sampled points) and the rest CA-21 (6) — Vince Fong (Republican)
1
Mayor
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brett Taylor ✉️ Elected | Mayor | Independent | City of Visalia |
2
Council Member
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brian Poochigian ✉️ Elected | Council Member | Independent | District 3 | City of Visalia |
| Emmanuel Hernandez Soto Elected | Council Member | Independent | City of Visalia | |
| Liz Wynn Elected | Council Member | Independent | City of Visalia | |
| Steve Nelsen ✉️ Elected | Council Member | Independent | City of Visalia |
3
Governor
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gavin Newsom Elected | Governor | Democratic | Governor's Proclamation for the November 3, 2026 General Election, via the Secretary of State | |
| Steve Hilton | Governor Running | Republican | California Secretary of State | |
| Xavier Becerra | Governor Running | Democratic | California Secretary of State |
4
State Assembly Member — AD-32
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stan Ellis Elected | State Assembly Member | Republican | California State Assembly | |
| David Couch acclaimed | State Assembly Member Running | Republican | California Secretary of State |
5
State Senator — SD-12
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shannon Grove Elected | State Senator | Republican | California State Senate | |
| Nathan Magsig | State Senator Running | Republican | California Secretary of State | |
| William Brown Jr. | State Senator Running | Libertarian | California Secretary of State |
6
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) |
7
U.S. Representative — CA-20
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vince Fong Elected | U.S. Representative → Running | Republican | U.S. House of Representatives | |
| Sandra Van Scotter | U.S. Representative Running | Democratic | California Secretary of State |
8
U.S. Representative — CA-21
| Name | Office | Party / slate | Seat | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Costa Elected | U.S. Representative → Running | Democratic | U.S. House of Representatives | |
| Kyle Kirkland | U.S. Representative Running | Republican | California Secretary of State |
i
Notes on this record
How the lists were read, and what could not be.
- Municipal: five Council Members from the City of Visalia's public Legistar API (webapi.legistar.com/v1/visalia): roll call of the 2026-10-19 City Council meeting (Poochigian, Taylor, Nelsen, Hernandez Soto, Wynn — all 'Present'); minutes name 'Mayor Taylor'; office records for body 138 'Visalia City Council'; official @visalia.city emails from the Legistar person records (none for Wynn, Hernandez Soto). Districts: Resolution 2026-34 staff report (matter 8528, adopted 2026-06-01): 'elections for City Council Members representing Districts 1 and 2 to be held in 2016 and every four years thereafter ... elections for Districts 3, 4, and 5 were held in 2022'. Only Poochigian's district (3) is stated in an official source read; Nelsen (District 5) and Hernandez Soto (District 4) per news only. Non-partisan: party null. No city photos linked.
- City 2026 cycle: Council Districts 3, 4 and 5 (four-year terms, nominations July 13 - August 7, 2026). District 3: one qualified candidate (incumbent Brian Poochigian) — appointed in lieu of election by Resolution 2026-61 on 2026-08-17 and the District 3 contest cancelled. Districts 4 and 5 remain on the November 3 ballot, but their candidate names could NOT be read from an official list: www.visalia.city redirects to www.visalia.gov, which answers a Cloudflare 'Sorry, you have been blocked' 403 even to robots.txt; the Tulare County Registrar (tularecoelections.org -> www.tularecounty.ca.gov/elections) robots.txt names ClaudeBot and anthropic-ai with 'Disallow: /' — not requested. Unverified, news only (not rows): Esther Perez announced for District 5 (Valley Voice, 2026-03-20). For Jim: paste the Tulare County certified candidate list for Visalia Districts 4 and 5. Next municipal election: Districts 1 and 2 in November 2028.
- Candidates (federal/state): California SOS 'Certified List of Candidates for the November 3, 2026, General Election' (dated 27 August 2026), read from the copy fetched earlier in this session (pol-11; elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov answers 403 to robots.txt, so no new request was made). '*' marks state incumbents. U.S. Senators Padilla and Schiff, Governor Newsom, the Governor candidates and CA-20/CA-21 candidates and members carried from us-fresno (2026-10-22); house.gov directory re-read 2026-11-01 (Fong CA-20 R, Costa CA-21 D, Valadao CA-22 R).
- Districts: Census Geocoder (robots 404) at City Hall (220 N Santa Fe St): Visalia city, Tulare County, CD-21 on both the 120th (Current_Current) and 119th (ACS2025_Current) layers, SD-12, AD-32 (2026 and 2024 maps). 8x8 grid over 36.27-36.37 N, 119.40-119.23 W: 31 points inside 'Visalia city' — CD-20 (25) and CD-21 (6) on the 120th map; SD-12 (27) and SD-16 (4); AD-32 (27) and AD-33 (4). Coarse sample. Not recorded as rows (City Hall rule): SD-16 Melissa Hurtado (D, on the 2026 list vs Guillermo Asuncion Gonzalez R); AD-33 Alexandra Macedo (R, on the list vs Hipolito Angel Cerros D).
- Sitting legislators: SD-12 Shannon Grove from senate.ca.gov/senators; AD-32 Stan Ellis from assembly.ca.gov/assemblymembers — neither is on the 2026 list (district office addresses and phones on those pages not copied). No home addresses, phones or personal emails recorded; standsFor null for everyone. Write-ins and primary losers excluded.
s
Sources
Prepared 2026-11-01. Nomination papers are never opened: they carry home addresses. After voting day a candidate list becomes a result; these rows are reconciled, not deleted.
- California Secretary of State — Certified List of Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election (dated 2026-08-27) 7
- City of Visalia — Legistar: roll call, Visalia City Council meeting of 2026-10-19 (event 2185) 4
- @unitedstates congress-legislators (CC0) — senate.gov returned 403 2
- U.S. House of Representatives — Directory of Representatives (California) 2
- City of Visalia — Legistar: staff report for Resolution No. 2026-61, appointment in lieu of election, City Council District 3 (adopted 2026-08-17) 1
- Governor's Proclamation for the November 3, 2026 General Election, via the Secretary of State 1
- California State Senate — Senators 1
- California State Assembly — Assemblymembers (Ellis, Stan; District 32; Republican; counties Kern, Tulare) 1