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Clovis City Council, District 5

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City of Clovis

Clovis City Council, District 5

This person would hold one of five district seats on Clovis's City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Clovis is a Fresno County city of about 120,000 residents. The term is four years. This is Clovis's first-ever district election. The city adopted five single-member districts in March 2025. This followed a demand letter alleging violations of the California Voting Rights Act. It ended 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 picks a Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem from its own members. They serve two-year terms and are not directly elected. Clovis also has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer.

Incumbent Councilmember Drew Bessinger faces two challengers for Clovis's new District 5 seat. They are small business owner Sarah Almond and repeat candidate Des Haus. Bessinger was first elected in 2017 and is a former Mayor.

This person would hold one of five district seats on Clovis's City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Fresno County city of about 120,000 residents. The term is four years. 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 their filed ballot designation.

Drew Bessinger

Drew Bessinger is the incumbent. They were first elected to Clovis's at-large City Council in March 2017. Their council colleagues chose them as Mayor in March 2019. Local news shows they served as Mayor through the city's 2020 COVID-19 emergency response. They also won reelection to their council seat in 2019 on a public safety focus. Their filed ballot designation is "Clovis City Councilmember."

Sarah Almond

Sarah Almond filed for the District 5 seat with the ballot designation "Small Business Owner." They qualified for the ballot on July 23, 2026. No independent biography, campaign website, or news coverage was found for them. The only records are the county's candidate filing and the city's candidate contact document.

Des Haus

Des Haus is a 13-year Clovis resident. She works in the energy and infrastructure sector on strategic partnerships and large scale project management. She filed with the ballot designation "Business Woman and Mother." She ran for city council once before, in 2022. Her campaign site says she co-chairs the city's Measure Y Oversight Committee. That council-appointed committee reviews spending from the city's public safety sales tax. Her site lists an endorsement from the Clovis Police Officers Association. It also lists one from the Peace Officers Research Association of California.

Your pick

A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

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