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City of Clovis · Statewide General Election

Clovis City Council, District 5

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 five district seats on Clovis's City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Fresno County city of about 120,000 residents. A 4-year term. This is Clovis's first-ever district election -- the city adopted five single-member districts in March 2025 after a demand letter alleging California Voting Rights Act violations, ending more than a century of at-large elections; Districts 1, 4, and 5 vote this cycle, Districts 2 and 3 follow in 2028. The Council selects a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem from among its own members for two-year terms rather than voters choosing either office directly, and Clovis has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer.

Incumbent Councilmember Drew Bessinger, first elected in 2017 and a former Mayor, faces small-business owner Sarah Almond and repeat candidate Des Haus for Clovis's new District 5 seat.

This person would hold one of five district seats on Clovis's City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Fresno County city of about 120,000 residents. A 4-year term. This is Clovis's first-ever district election -- the city adopted five single-member districts in March 2025 after a demand letter alleging California Voting Rights Act violations, ending more than a century of at-large elections; Districts 1, 4, and 5 vote this cycle, Districts 2 and 3 follow in 2028. The Council selects a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem from among its own members for two-year terms rather than voters choosing either office directly, and Clovis has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer.

Bessinger is campaigning as the district's sitting councilmember, drawing on nearly a decade on the council including a term as Mayor through the city's 2020 pandemic response. Haus, making her second run for the council after a 2022 bid, is campaigning on fiscal oversight, requiring new development to pay its own infrastructure costs, public-safety staffing, and a referendum on council term limits, with two law-enforcement-group endorsements. This dataset found no independent news coverage or stated platform for Almond beyond her filed ballot designation.

Drew Bessinger

Drew Bessinger is the incumbent, first elected to Clovis's at-large City Council in March 2017 and selected by his council colleagues as Mayor in March 2019 -- both confirmed by Clovis Roundup's own article index, which also shows him serving as Mayor through the city's 2020 COVID-19 emergency-order response and winning reelection to his council seat in 2019 on a stated public-safety focus. His filed ballot designation is "Clovis City Councilmember."

Strengths

Nearly a decade of council service, including a term as Mayor managing the city's 2020 pandemic response -- more tenure than either opponent.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent reporting evaluating his council record since his 2019 reelection, only the fact of his continued service.

Keep in mind

No campaign-finance figures could be confirmed for him -- see Financial info.

Sarah Almond

Sarah Almond filed for the District 5 seat with the ballot designation "Small Business Owner" and qualified for the ballot July 23, 2026. This dataset found no independent biography, campaign website, or news coverage for her beyond Fresno County's own candidate filing record and the City of Clovis's own candidate-contact document.

Strengths

A small-business background, a civic-engagement credential shared by several first-time candidates in this dataset.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed public service found in this dataset, and no independent reporting evaluates her background.

Keep in mind

No campaign website or social-media presence was found; this dataset could not confirm any platform beyond her filed occupation.

Des Haus

Des Haus, a 13-year Clovis resident who works in the energy and infrastructure sector on strategic partnerships and large-scale project management, filed with the ballot designation "Business Woman/Mother." She ran for city council once before, in 2022, per Clovis Roundup's own article index. Her own campaign site says she currently co-chairs the city's council-appointed Measure Y Oversight Committee, which reviews spending from the city's public-safety sales tax, and lists endorsements from the Clovis Police Officers Association and the Peace Officers Research Association of California.

Strengths

A second run gives voters a prior record to weigh, plus a stated committee role reviewing public-safety sales-tax spending and two law-enforcement endorsements.

Trade-offs

Her biography, committee role, and platform come entirely from her own campaign site; this dataset found no independent confirmation of her Measure Y committee appointment.

Keep in mind

Ran for council once before, in 2022, and was not elected then -- that result is not independently confirmed here.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 12 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Des Haus's own campaign site: describes her as a 13-year Clovis resident working in the energy and infrastructure sector on strategic partnerships and large-scale project management, currently Co-Chair of the city's council-appointed Measure Y Oversight Committee (reviewing public-safety sales-tax spending), campaigning on fiscal oversight, growth paying its own infrastructure costs, public-safety staffing, and a council term-limits referendum, and endorsed by the Clovis Police Officers Association and the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC). may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • clovisca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Clovis -- Municipal Elections page: confirms the November 3, 2026 Consolidated Statewide General Election covers only City Council Districts 1, 4, and 5 (not Mayor, City Clerk, or City Treasurer), a July 13-Aug. 7, 2026 filing period, 4-year council terms, and links to the city's own candidate-contact and election-status documents
  • clovisca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Clovis -- Council Districts page: confirms this is Clovis's first-ever district election, adopted March 10, 2025 via Ordinance 25-02 after a Southwest Voter Registration Education Project demand letter alleging California Voting Rights Act violations, ending over a century of at-large elections; Districts 1, 4, and 5 vote in November 2026, Districts 2 and 3 follow in 2028
  • clovisca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Clovis -- City Council page: names the current, outgoing at-large Council (Mayor Vong Mouanoutoua, Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce, and Councilmembers Lynne Ashbeck, Matt Basgall, and Drew Bessinger) and confirms the Council -- not voters directly -- elects one of its own members Mayor and one Mayor Pro Tem for two-year terms
  • www2.fresnocountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters -- CFMR009 "Candidate List" for the Nov. 3, 2026 Consolidated Statewide General Election (printed 8/12/2026 5:37:13PM, post-filing-deadline): lists Clovis's three City Council district contests (5001, 5004, 5007), each Vote For 1 -- District 1: Mason L. Magsig ("Commercial Banker/Businessman") and Maeketah Sayasane ("Analyst/Mother"); District 4: Matt Basgall ("Clovis City Councilmember") and Brian Wilson ("Retired Fire Captain"); District 5: Drew Bessinger ("Clovis City Councilmember"), Sarah Almond ("Small Business Owner"), and Des Haus ("Business Woman/Mother")
  • www2.fresnocountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters -- CFMR001 "Contest/Candidate Proof List," filtered to Contests on Ballot, for the Nov. 3, 2026 election (printed 8/18/2026 8:39:55AM): independently confirms the same three Clovis City Council district contests as ON BALLOT with the identical seven-candidate field and nomination/qualification dates; each contest's incumbent-of-record is listed as "Vacant/Vacated" because no one has previously held these newly created district seats
  • cms2.revize.com (opens in a new tab)City of Clovis -- "2026 Clovis City Council Candidate Contact Information" (City Clerk's own document, fetched after the city's page link redirected to its cms2.revize.com document host): names the identical seven-candidate, three-district field with each candidate's mailing address, phone, email, and campaign website where filed
  • cms2.revize.com (opens in a new tab)City of Clovis -- "2026 Election Status" (City Clerk's own document, dated 8/3/2026, fetched after the city's page link redirected to its cms2.revize.com document host): lists each candidate's council-packet pickup date and ballot-qualification date, independently matching the county's own filing and qualification dates for all seven candidates
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Clovis, California article: population 120,124 (2020 census), incorporated February 27, 1912
  • des4clovis.com (opens in a new tab)Des Haus's own campaign site: describes her as a 13-year Clovis resident working in the energy and infrastructure sector on strategic partnerships and large-scale project management, currently Co-Chair of the city's council-appointed Measure Y Oversight Committee (reviewing public-safety sales-tax spending), campaigning on fiscal oversight, growth paying its own infrastructure costs, public-safety staffing, and a council term-limits referendum, and endorsed by the Clovis Police Officers Association and the Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC)
  • clovisroundup.com (opens in a new tab)Clovis Roundup's own site-search index for "Drew Bessinger": lists a March 14, 2017 article on his first council election, a Feb. 27, 2019 reelection piece, a March 25, 2019 piece on the Council electing him Mayor, and several 2020 pieces covering his tenure as Mayor during the city's COVID-19 emergency-order response, plus a Sept. 2023 contributed message as councilmember. Full article text could not be retrieved: the outlet's own TLS certificate has expired site-wide (confirmed via a direct curl attempt), so only the index's own titles, dates, and bylines are cited here
  • clovisroundup.com (opens in a new tab)Clovis Roundup's own site-search index for "Des Haus": lists a single Oct. 3, 2022 article, "Meet Clovis City Council Candidate Des Haus" by Adam Solis -- independently confirming she ran for city council once before, in 2022. Full article text could not be retrieved: the outlet's own TLS certificate has expired site-wide (confirmed via a direct curl attempt), so only the index's own title, date, and byline are cited here
  • calaccess.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result campaign-finance search: California's Cal-Access candidate/filer search returned only a TLS hostname/certificate mismatch (against an unrelated Azure Government backend) for every query attempted this session, for all seven Clovis candidates -- the same recurring failure mode documented elsewhere in this dataset. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for this contest, not any candidate's actual finances

Last updated September 1, 2026.