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City of Coalinga · Statewide General Election

Coalinga 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 Coalinga's five district-elected City Council seats: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Fresno County city of about 17,600 residents. A 4-year term, except this cycle's District 2 seat, a short 2-year term. Coalinga's Council selects a Mayor and a Mayor Pro Tem from among its own members after each election rather than voters choosing either office directly, and the city has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer.

Only one candidate qualified for this seat. Incumbent Abel Arroyo appears unopposed -- so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.

This person holds Coalinga's District 5 seat on a five-member, district-elected City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this Fresno County city of about 17,600 residents. A 4-year term. The Council selects a Mayor and a Mayor Pro Tem from among its own members after each election rather than voters choosing either office directly, and Coalinga has no elected City Clerk or City Treasurer.

With no opponent, the useful question is not who to choose but what's known about the officeholder and what to watch next. An unopposed return means accountability for this seat over the next four years runs through public records and the next election rather than through this ballot.

Abel Arroyo

The incumbent, unopposed for a full term after first joining the Council by appointment; his filed ballot designation is "Appointed Incumbent." A local news outlet (Your Central Valley/KSEE24-KGPE) reported the city's public call for District 5 applicants after Councilman Lonnie Hedgecock's seat came open, with applications due by December 30, 2025. City Council minutes from the January 8, 2026 meeting show three people -- Ron Ramsey, Pedro Garcia, and Arroyo -- addressed the Council about the vacancy; three sitting Councilmembers (Hedgecock, Lowder, and Mayor Pro-Tem Schindler) nominated Arroyo, and the Council approved his appointment by a 4-0 roll-call vote (Ramirez absent). The California Republican Assembly's own 2026 endorsement list names him "Coalinga City Council, District 5 Incumbent." This dataset found no independent biographical detail (occupation or background) for him beyond the meeting record and the county's own filing.

Strengths

A documented appointment process, including a public call for applicants reported by independent local news, and a Council vote in his favor over two other applicants.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent reporting or biography evaluating his record since taking office, and no stated occupation or platform.

Keep in mind

Neither the minutes nor any source found here states why the previous officeholder, Lonnie Hedgecock, left the seat.

Source review: Strong (88/100) · 11 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: California Republican Assembly -- "November 2026 General Election Endorsements" (updated 8/26/2026, PDF fetched and read directly): names "Coalinga City Council, District 2 Incumbent - Jeremy Lowder," "...District 3 Incumbent - Nathan Vosburg," and "...District 5 Incumbent - Abel Arroyo" -- a partisan club's own endorsement list, independently corroborating incumbency for three of the four but not evidence of anything else about the candidates. may have more bias because it is an editorial endorsement source compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • coalinga.com (opens in a new tab)City of Coalinga -- "City Council Elections" page: states the four elected City positions open for nomination this cycle -- Council Districts 1, 2 (a short 2-year term), 3, and 5 -- and the July 13-Aug. 7, 2026 filing period (extendable to Aug. 12 for an unfiled incumbent)
  • coalinga.com (opens in a new tab)City of Coalinga -- "Council Districts" page: confirms Coalinga moved from an at-large system to five geographic Council districts in 2018, each electing one Councilmember, with boundary lines last redrawn in April 2022
  • coalinga.com (opens in a new tab)City of Coalinga -- "City Council" page: names the sitting Council -- Nathan Vosburg (Mayor, District 3), Roger Schindler (Mayor Pro-Tem, District 1), Jeremy Lowder (District 2), Jose Manny Ramirez (District 4, not up this cycle), and Abel Arroyo (District 5) -- plus an appointed City Clerk (Shannon Jensen) and City Treasurer (Dawn Kahikina), neither an elected office
  • 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 Coalinga's four City Council district contests (5008, 5011, 5012, 5017), each Vote For 1 with exactly one qualified candidate -- Roger Schindler (District 1, "Incumbent"), Jeremy Lowder (District 2, "Appointed Incumbent"), Nathan Vosburg (District 3, "Business Owner"), and Abel Arroyo (District 5, "Appointed Incumbent")
  • 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 four Coalinga City Council district contests, each flagged ON BALLOT despite having only one qualified candidate apiece -- not cancelled under Elections Code Section 10229 -- and separately lists each seat's incumbent-of-record, including "Appointed to Vacancy" for Lowder (District 2) and Arroyo (District 5) and "Elected" for Schindler (District 1) and Vosburg (District 3)
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Coalinga, California article: population 17,590 (2020 census), incorporated April 3, 1906
  • leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Government Code Section 36801 (via the Legislature's own leginfo site): the default rule for a city without a charter provision otherwise -- after each general municipal election, "the city council shall... choose one of its number as mayor, and one of its number as mayor pro tempore"
  • coalinga.novusagenda.com (opens in a new tab)City of Coalinga -- Special City Council meeting minutes, November 13, 2025 (fetched and read directly as a PDF): lists Vosburg presiding as Mayor and Horn as the then-Mayor Pro-Tem; records Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Horn's District 2 seat as vacated and three candidates (Jeremy Lowder, Ron Lander, James Horn II) addressing the Council; Councilmen Hedgecock, Schindler, and Ramirez each nominated Lowder, and the Council "approved the appointment of Jeremy Lowder to serve as the District 2 City Council representative" by a 5/0 roll-call vote
  • coalinga.novusagenda.com (opens in a new tab)City of Coalinga -- Special City Council meeting minutes, January 8, 2026 (fetched and read directly as a PDF): refers throughout to "Mayor Pro-Tem Schindler," confirming the Council had reassigned that title to Roger Schindler; recognizes outgoing Councilman Lonnie Hedgecock's service and records his District 5 seat as vacated, with three candidates (Ron Ramsey, Pedro Garcia, Abel Arroyo) addressing the Council; Hedgecock, Lowder, and Mayor Pro-Tem Schindler each nominated Arroyo, and the Council "approved the appointment of Abel Arroyo to serve as the District 5 City Council representative" by a 4/0 roll-call vote (Ramirez absent)
  • newsbreak.com (opens in a new tab)Your Central Valley (KSEE24/KGPE) -- "Coalinga wants someone new for its empty council seat" (Dec. 10, 2025; read via a syndicated NewsBreak republication after the original yourcentralvalley.com domain blocked a direct fetch): reports the city's public call for District 5 applicants ahead of the Jan. 8, 2026 appointment, with an application deadline of Dec. 30, 2025 and residency requirements
  • cragop.org (opens in a new tab)California Republican Assembly -- "November 2026 General Election Endorsements" (updated 8/26/2026, PDF fetched and read directly): names "Coalinga City Council, District 2 Incumbent - Jeremy Lowder," "...District 3 Incumbent - Nathan Vosburg," and "...District 5 Incumbent - Abel Arroyo" -- a partisan club's own endorsement list, independently corroborating incumbency for three of the four but not evidence of anything else about the candidates

Last updated September 1, 2026.