Skip to main content

City of El Monte · Statewide General Election

El Monte City Council, District 6

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 holds one of six single-member districts on El Monte's City Council, voting alongside the separately elected Mayor -- a 7-member body in all -- on the budget, land use, and city ordinances. A 4-year term; day-to-day city operations run through an appointed city manager.

Incumbent Marisol Cortez faces challenger Ana Elsa Barcelo for El Monte's District 6 council seat. Two other candidates, Manolo Figueroa and Dinorah Jimenez, pulled nomination papers but never filed them, so they aren't on the ballot. There's no June primary for city offices; whoever gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright.

The winner takes a 4-year term on El Monte's 7-member City Council: one vote alongside the separately elected Mayor and five other district councilmembers on the budget, land use, and city ordinances. Day-to-day city operations run through an appointed city manager, not the council directly.

Barcelo qualified on August 13, 2026 — the very last day of the extended filing window — leaving little time for a public campaign to surface in local coverage before this research was done.

Marisol Cortez

Marisol Cortez is the incumbent District 6 councilmember, first elected in November 2022 and now seeking a second term against an opponent. The city has not posted a biographical narrative for her beyond her term dates, and no campaign-finance committee was found under her name.

Strengths

A full term of incumbency, now being tested by an actual opponent rather than going unchallenged.

Trade-offs

The city's own biography page for her carries no narrative — career, education, and platform aren't public record here, and no independent news coverage of her council record was found.

Keep in mind

Cortez was not one of the two dissenting votes on the council's January 2026 vote to study eliminating El Monte's elected Mayor, Clerk, and Treasurer offices, and joined the council's unanimous February 2026 vote to table the idea instead.

Ana Elsa Barcelo

Ana Elsa Barcelo qualified for the ballot on August 13, 2026, the last day of the extended filing window. No biographical or campaign-finance information about her was found anywhere in this research: not on the city's own site, in a Cal-Access filer search, in San Gabriel Valley Tribune or Mid Valley News coverage, on Vote411, or on TheBallotBook.

Strengths

Not established by anything found in this research.

Trade-offs

No platform, career background, or endorsements could be confirmed anywhere.

Keep in mind

This is a documented sourcing gap, not a sign anything is being withheld — a real, multi-source search effort came up empty for Barcelo specifically. Her name and district are independently confirmed by the city's own qualified-candidate record.

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 6 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • ci.el-monte.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of El Monte — Notice of Election, November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election (one Mayor at-large, 2-yr term; Council Districts 2, 3, 6; City Clerk and City Treasurer at-large — all four 4-yr terms)
  • ci.el-monte.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of El Monte — Interested Candidate List, Status of Candidate Pulling & Filing Nomination Papers (current through the extended Aug. 12, 2026 filing deadline; all three Mayor filers reached 'Date Qualified')
  • ci.el-monte.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of El Monte — City Council (official roster: the Mayor plus six single-member district councilmembers, a 7-member body in all; links to each member's biography page)
  • ci.el-monte.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of El Monte — Councilmember Marisol Cortez, District 6 (official biography page: elected Nov. 2022, term expires Nov. 2026; no biographical narrative posted beyond term dates)
  • sgvtribune.com (opens in a new tab)San Gabriel Valley Tribune (Southern California News Group) — El Monte City Council tables vote on making city clerk, city treasurer, mayor appointed roles (unanimous Feb. 25, 2026 vote to indefinitely table the restructuring; effort never reached the Nov. 2026 ballot)
  • midvalleynews.com (opens in a new tab)The Mid Valley News — Council Advances Plan to Restructure Offices (names the Jan. 14, 2026 5-2 council vote to begin outreach on eliminating the elected Mayor/Clerk/Treasurer offices, with Ancona and Herrera voting no; superseded by the SGV Tribune's Feb. 25, 2026 tabling)

Last updated August 31, 2026.