- ocvote.gov (opens in a new tab)OC Registrar of Voters — Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 (169 contests, 430 candidates filed)
- en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — Cypress, California article: cited only for the current City Council roster (Mayor Leo Medrano, Mayor Pro Tem Kyle Chang, Council Members David Burke, Bonnie Peat, and Rachel Strong Carnahan) confirming which three of the county's Nov. 2026 candidates are sitting incumbents; not relied on for the article's own prose description of the city's election method, which appears to predate the county's Nov. 2026 candidate document's by-district contests
Last updated August 31, 2026.
City of Cypress
Cypress City Council, District 5
This person holds your district's seat on Cypress's five-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. An appointed city manager runs daily operations. Cypress has no separately elected mayor. The council picks one member as Mayor. It picks another as Mayor Pro Tem. Only Districts 1, 2, and 5 have terms expiring this cycle. Districts 3 and 4 are not on the ballot. The term is four years.
Incumbent Rachel Strong Carnahan faces Randy Harper for Cypress City Council District 5. Whoever gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright. There is no runoff.
This person holds District 5's seat on Cypress's 5-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Cypress has no separately elected mayor -- the council chooses one of its own members as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem. Only Districts 1, 2, and 5 have terms expiring this cycle. The term is four years.
Carnahan is a sitting Cypress councilmember who joined the council by appointment, per their own filed ballot designation ('Appointed Council Member') and independently confirmed by Wikipedia's current roster for the city -- though this dataset has no source giving the date of their appointment or which vacancy they filled. Beyond that, no independent profile, platform statement, or news coverage was found for either candidate in this pass despite a real, time-boxed search effort -- documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation.
Rachel Strong Carnahan
Rachel Strong Carnahan is a sitting Cypress City Councilmember. They reached the council by appointment, not election. No campaign website or city biography about them could be found. No news coverage of their background or platform was found either.
Randy Harper
Randy Harper filed under the ballot designation "Emergency Manager and Firefighter." No campaign website or news coverage about their background or platform could be found. No other source was found either.
Your pick
A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.