City of Chowchilla · Statewide General Election

Chowchilla City Council, District 1

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On the ballot

Dennis Haworth — Executive Director
Chad Middleton — Nursing Home Administrator

This person would hold one of four district seats on Chowchilla's five-member City Council -- the Mayor, elected citywide at large, plus four Council Members elected by district to 4-year terms -- setting the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Madera County city of 19,039 residents (2020 Census). Chowchilla adopted by-district Council elections in 2024 (Ordinance No. 521-24); the Mayor is a separate, directly elected office not up in this race.

Two candidates, neither currently on the City Council, are running for Chowchilla's open District 1 Council seat: Dennis Haworth and Chad Middleton.

This seat is one of four district seats on Chowchilla's five-member City Council -- the Mayor, elected citywide at large, plus four Council Members elected by district to 4-year terms -- setting the budget, land use, and municipal ordinances for this Madera County city of 19,039 residents (2020 Census). Chowchilla began electing Council Members by district in 2024 (Ordinance No. 521-24); District 1 is one of the two district seats up this cycle, alongside District 2. The Mayor is a separate, directly elected office not on this ballot.

The county's own certified candidate list shows no incumbent seeking reelection to this seat, making it a genuinely open race between two newcomers. Whichever of the two current District 1 or 2 Council Members isn't running for Mayor this cycle chose not to seek another Council term; which specific district that member represented was not confirmed this pass.

Dennis Haworth

Dennis Haworth's only confirmed detail is his printed ballot designation, "Executive Director," from Madera County's own certified candidate list. No independent news coverage, campaign website, or biography of him was found this pass despite a multi-engine search (Bing web and news search, the Madera Tribune's own site search, and Google search, which was blocked by an access-troubleshooting page on every attempt this pass).

Strengths

Nothing beyond his ballot designation could be independently confirmed this pass.

Trade-offs

No news profile, campaign site, or biography was found for him -- the same gap that applies to his opponent.

Keep in mind

With neither candidate independently documented, this is a race this dataset can name but not meaningfully compare on background; both are first-time candidates for this seat as far as the record found this pass shows.

Chad Middleton

Chad Middleton's only confirmed detail is his printed ballot designation, "Nursing Home Administrator," from Madera County's own certified candidate list. Like Haworth, no independent news coverage, campaign website, or biography of him was found this pass.

Strengths

Nothing beyond his ballot designation could be independently confirmed this pass.

Trade-offs

No news profile, campaign site, or biography was found for him -- the same gap that applies to his opponent.

Keep in mind

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 7 cited sources

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

votemadera.com (opens in a new tab)Madera County Elections Division -- own "Contest/Candidate Proof List" for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Election (posted 8/12/2026 5:10 PM): Contest 5120 (Mayor, ON BALLOT) lists Waseem Ahmed and Kelly Smith (the sitting incumbent); Contest 5121 (Councilmember District 1, ON BALLOT, no incumbent) lists Dennis Haworth and Chad Middleton; Contest 5122 (Councilmember District 2, ON BALLOT, no incumbent) lists Josh D. Moore as the sole qualified candidate -- marked ON BALLOT, not NOT ON BALLOT, distinguishing it from the document's genuinely cancelled single-candidate races.
cityofchowchilla.org (opens in a new tab)City of Chowchilla -- own "City Council" page (live fetch): states the Council "consists of five members total: four are elected by district to overlapping four-year terms, and one mayor is elected at large to a 2-year term," and that the Council selects its own Mayor Pro Tem each December. Names the current roster (Mayor Kelly Smith; Council Members Jeff Troost, Waseem Ahmed, Ray Barragan, John Chavez).
cityofchowchilla.org (opens in a new tab)City of Chowchilla -- own "District Elections" page: documents the city's 2024 transition to by-district Council elections under Ordinance No. 521-24.
maderatribune.com (opens in a new tab)Madera Tribune -- own published "Notice of Election" legal notice for the City of Chowchilla: independently confirms the same three offices up this cycle (Council District 1, Council District 2, Mayor At-Large), the nomination-period dates, and the standard Section 10229 boilerplate -- not a record that a cancellation happened.
cityofchowchilla.org (opens in a new tab)City of Chowchilla -- Aug. 11, 2026 City Council agenda packet (read in full via pypdf), which includes the July 28, 2026 meeting minutes quoting City Clerk McClendon on the routine nomination-period-extension mechanism. No election-cancellation or Section 10229 agenda item appears in either the Aug. 11 or the Aug. 25, 2026 packet (also checked in full).
en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Chowchilla, California": used narrowly for the dated 2020 Census population figure (19,039) -- does not cover the 2026 election.
cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches attempted for all five Chowchilla candidates (Waseem Ahmed, Kelly Smith, Dennis Haworth, Chad Middleton, Josh D. Moore): every query returned only a blank/challenge response, not usable results, the same recurring access-block pattern documented elsewhere in this dataset. No Madera County-specific NetFile/eRetrieval campaign-finance portal was found linked from either the county's or the city's own election pages.

Last updated September 2, 2026.