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City of Antioch · Statewide General Election

Antioch City Council, District 1

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person would hold one of four district seats on Antioch's City Council (four district members plus a separately, directly elected Mayor): city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Contra Costa County city of about 115,000, under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. A 4-year term. Antioch's four council seats elect on a staggered schedule -- Districts 1 and 4 are up this cycle; Districts 2 and 3, and the separately elected Mayor, are not.

A third consecutive matchup: incumbent Tamisha Torres-Walker faces former Councilwoman Joy Motts, the same two candidates who ran against each other in 2020 and 2022.

This person would hold one of four district seats on Antioch's City Council (four district members plus a separately, directly elected Mayor): city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Contra Costa County city of about 115,000, under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. A 4-year term. Antioch switched from at-large to district elections in 2020 after a threatened voting-rights lawsuit; Districts 1 and 4 are up this cycle, Districts 2 and 3 are not.

This is the closest kind of rematch there is: Torres-Walker beat Motts by 212 votes in 2020, then by just 3 votes -- 1,467 to 1,464, after a hand recount -- in the certified 2022 result. A third candidate, former school board trustee Diane Gibson-Gray, pulled nomination papers this cycle but never filed, leaving a direct two-candidate contest with no one else splitting the vote. Whichever candidate gets more votes wins outright -- there is no runoff.

Tamisha Torres-Walker

The incumbent, first elected in 2020 and seeking a third term; her filed ballot designation is "Councilwoman/Nonprofit Executive." She is Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Safe Return Project, a Richmond-based nonprofit focused on securing the freedom and reintegration of formerly incarcerated people. Her 2026 campaign centers on renter protections, affordable homeownership, community violence prevention, homelessness response, police accountability, and government transparency.

Strengths

Two terms already in the seat, including a 2022 win close enough to require a hand recount, plus a nonprofit career built around reentry and community-safety work relevant to Council decisions.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent (non-official, non-campaign) reporting evaluating her council record specifically, beyond the Herald's own campaign-announcement coverage.

Keep in mind

This dataset located no campaign-finance filing for her 2026 campaign -- Antioch's NetFile portal returned no extractable data for any candidate in this race -- so there is no fundraising picture to weigh.

Joyann Motts

A former Antioch City Council member (2016-2020) and Antioch school board trustee (2010-2014), publicly known as Joy Motts. She has long served as president of the Celebrate Antioch Foundation, which organizes community events citywide, and has led efforts on the RiverTown Square event-center project proposed for the former Antioch Lumber Company lot downtown. This is her third run against Torres-Walker, after losing in 2020 and by 3 votes in 2022; her 2026 slogan is "A Fierce Advocate for Antioch."

Strengths

A full term on the Council plus four years on the school board, and sustained civic involvement between campaigns via the Celebrate Antioch Foundation and the RiverTown Square project.

Trade-offs

Has lost this same seat to the same opponent twice, most recently by the narrowest of margins -- voters already have a direct, recent basis for comparison between the two.

Keep in mind

This dataset located no campaign-finance filing for her 2026 campaign either -- Antioch's NetFile portal returned no extractable data for any candidate in this race.

Source review: Very strong (92/100) · 10 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • contracostavote.gov (opens in a new tab)Contra Costa County Elections Division -- "Positions Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election" (the same PDF used for the county's Board of Education contests above): under "Cities Offices," Antioch lists exactly three offices -- City Clerk (2-year term), District 1 - 1 Councilmember, District 4 - 1 Councilmember -- matching the local-authoring queue's estimate of 3 exactly
  • antiochca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Antioch -- official "City of Antioch Elections" page (antiochca.gov/240/City-of-Antioch-Elections, read directly): confirms the same three offices up Nov. 3, 2026 (City Council District 1, City Council District 4, City Clerk -- Partial-Term, 2 years) and adds that "The Mayor, City Clerk, and City Treasurer positions are at-large seats" and a City Clerk "is elected to a 4-year term," confirming the 2-year figure is a partial/unexpired term rather than Antioch's normal Clerk term; links to the city's Notice of Nomination and FINAL Status documents cited separately below
  • antiochca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Antioch -- "FINAL Status of Antioch City Council Candidates - November 3, 2026" (DocumentCenter/View/4845, updated 8/10/2026, read directly as a PDF): the certified qualified-candidate roster with each candidate's documents-issued, documents-filed, and date-qualified dates. District 1: Joyann Motts (qualified 8/3/2026) and *Tamisha Torres-Walker (qualified 8/7/2026) both qualified; Diane Gibson-Gray (documents issued 7/17/2026) has no filed/qualified date and is not on the ballot. District 4: Metty Mathews Alappat, Sandra White, Monica Wilson, and Andrew Becker all qualified (8/4-8/7/2026). City Clerk: only Michael Mandy qualified (8/3/2026)
  • antiochca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Antioch -- "Notice Regarding Nomination Papers" (DocumentCenter/View/4821, read directly as a PDF), signed by City Clerk Michael J. Mandy: confirms the same three offices (Member of the City Council, District 1; Member of the City Council, District 4; City Clerk) shall be filled at the Nov. 3, 2026 election, that nomination papers were issued to incumbents for all offices as of Aug. 4, 2026, and that "Redistricting has not affected the eligibility of the current incumbents to run"
  • antiochca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Antioch -- official "City Council" roster page (antiochca.gov/738/City-Council, read directly): names Mayor Ron Bernal (at-large), Mayor Pro Tem Donald P. Freitas (District 3), Louie Rocha (District 2), Tamisha Torres-Walker (District 1), and Monica Wilson (District 4) -- independently confirming Districts 1 and 4 (this cycle's two council contests) are held by the current District 1 and District 4 incumbents, and that the Mayor's seat and Districts 2/3 are not up this cycle
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Antioch, California article -- "Government" section: council-manager government, a Mayor elected at-large and four Council Members elected by district; "Antioch historically elected its Councilmembers in at-large elections, but in response to threats of a lawsuit alleging violations of state law and underrepresentation of people of color, the Antioch City Council voted to switch to district elections in 2018, holding the first such elections in 2020"; names the same five sitting officeholders as the city's own roster page; gives the city's 2020-census population (115,291)
  • antiochherald.com (opens in a new tab)Antioch Herald -- "Antioch City Council, Clerk races set for November election" (Aug. 7, 2026): the fullest single roundup of all three Antioch races -- names Torres-Walker vs. Motts for District 1 (their third matchup, Torres-Walker having won in 2020 and 2022, the latter by just four votes after a recount); Wilson vs. White, Becker, and Alappat for District 4 (Wilson seeking a fifth term); and Mandy running unopposed for City Clerk's remaining two years, following Melissa Rhodes' unexplained August 2025 resignation
  • antiochherald.com (opens in a new tab)Antioch Herald -- "Torres-Walker announces campaign for re-election to Antioch City Council" (Aug. 25, 2026): her own background as Executive Director/Co-Founder of the Safe Return Project (a Richmond nonprofit for formerly incarcerated people), her filed ballot designation ("Councilwoman/Nonprofit Executive"), her 2026 platform priorities, and confirmation this is a direct Torres-Walker-vs.-Motts contest with no other candidate splitting the vote
  • antiochherald.com (opens in a new tab)Antioch Herald -- "Former Antioch councilwoman, school board trustee Joy Motts announces another run for council" (July 29, 2026): her prior City Council service (2016-2020) and school board service (2010-2014), her presidency of the Celebrate Antioch Foundation and the RiverTown Square downtown event-center project, her 2020 and 2022 losses to Torres-Walker, her 2026 slogan ("A Fierce Advocate for Antioch"), and that she then faced competition from Diane Gibson-Gray, who did not ultimately file (see antioch-clerk-final-status-2026)
  • antiochherald.com (opens in a new tab)Antioch Herald -- "Following hand ballot count Torres-Walker beats Motts by 3 votes in Antioch Council race" (Dec. 2, 2022): the certified final 2022 District 1 tally, Torres-Walker 1,467 (34.36%) to Motts 1,464 (34.29%), a three-way field that year -- used here for the exact, contemporaneous certified margin rather than a later piece's rounder "four votes"

Last updated September 1, 2026.