# Mayor of El Monte Compare records and positions simply between Jessica Ancona, Viviana Longoria, or Christine R. Sarmiento for Mayor of El Monte at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. El Monte's Mayor is directly elected and presides over the City Council. The Council has seven members. It includes the Mayor plus six district members. The Council sets the budget and land-use policy. The Mayor's term is two years. That is the shortest term of any elected office in El Monte. An appointed city manager runs day-to-day operations. - Jurisdiction: City of El Monte - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-monte-mayor - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: August 31, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 88 out of 100 (Strong), across 12 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Jessica Ancona** — Incumbent - **Viviana Longoria** - **Christine R. Sarmiento** A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. El Monte elects its Mayor citywide, and this cycle pits incumbent Jessica Ancona against her own Mayor Pro Tem, Viviana Longoria, plus a third candidate, Christine R. Sarmiento. There's no June primary for city offices — all three go straight to the November 3 ballot, and whoever gets the most votes wins outright. The winner takes a 2-year term — the shortest on El Monte's ballot — presiding over City Council meetings and representing the city publicly, while casting one of seven votes on the budget, land use, and city ordinances alongside six district councilmembers. Day-to-day city operations run through an appointed city manager, not the Mayor's office. This is a rematch within one governing team: Longoria serves as Ancona's own Mayor Pro Tem, so the choice turns less on ideology than on how each has used their current office — and how much weight you give a June 2025 censure of the incumbent over a settled lawsuit — against a third candidate with no local record to weigh. ## Jessica Ancona Jessica Ancona is the incumbent Mayor, a lifelong El Monte resident and high school assistant principal first elected to the City Council in 2018 after five years on the El Monte City School District board. She's seeking a second term, pointing to a youth-focused tobacco and vape ordinance and school joint-use agreements from her council years. In June 2025 the City Council censured her 6-1 after the city paid $175,000 to settle a resident's lawsuit alleging retaliation. **Strengths:** Citywide incumbency, an 8-year council and school-board record, and specific policy wins — a youth tobacco/vape ordinance and school joint-use green-space agreements. **Trade-offs:** A June 2025 council censure, 6-1, followed a $175,000 city settlement of a resident's lawsuit alleging retaliation and intimidation. **Keep in mind:** Ancona took responsibility for 'a misstep' but denied sending a gang member and called the censure political; she also voted against studying whether to end citywide mayoral elections. ## Viviana Longoria Viviana Longoria is the sitting Mayor Pro Tem and District 4 councilmember, a Head Start child-development specialist who served as City Treasurer before winning their council seat in 2024. They're running for Mayor on public safety and economic development, framing themselves as building on the city's current fiscal approach rather than breaking from it. They now hold the Mayor Pro Tem title the very incumbent they're challenging helped confer on them. **Strengths:** Two terms as City Treasurer before their 2024 council win give them the field's only elected-finance record, plus the council's own Mayor Pro Tem title. **Trade-offs:** Just one year on the council and no citywide executive record; their stated priorities read as continuity with Ancona's approach more than a break from it. **Keep in mind:** As Mayor Pro Tem they have worked directly under the incumbent they're now challenging — weigh that as insider knowledge or as a break with a colleague. No controversies surfaced in coverage of their. ## Christine R. Sarmiento Christine R. Sarmiento is a Los Angeles County public health nurse from El Monte with no prior elected office or council experience. She's running for Mayor months after an unsuccessful independent run for California Governor in the June 2026 primary, campaigning on similar affordability and accountability themes. No local platform, endorsements, or news coverage specific to her El Monte candidacy were found beyond the city's own candidate-qualification record. **Strengths:** A public-health nursing career — COVID-19 vaccination command posts, Skid Row outreach — is a genuine record of public service, even outside elected office. **Trade-offs:** No prior campaign for local office and no coverage found of an El Monte-specific platform for this race. **Keep in mind:** Her only public candidacy record is a June 2026 run for Governor that didn't advance past the primary; nothing distinctly local to El Monte has surfaced for this race. ## Sources 1. [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)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/7811/NOTICE-CALLING-FOR-ELECTION-NOVEMBER-2026) 2. [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')](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/7854/Interested-Candidate-List---8-13-2026) 3. [City of El Monte — FAQ: 'What are the names of the Mayor and Members of the City Council?' (names Mayor Jessica Ancona, Mayor Pro Tem Viviana Longoria, and the rest of the sitting council)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/faq.aspx?qid=70) 4. [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)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/342/City-Council) 5. [City of El Monte — Mayor Jessica Ancona (official biography: elected Nov. 2024, 2-yr term; prior El Monte City Council since 2018 and El Monte City School District governing board 2013-2018; career educator)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/599/Jessica-Ancona) 6. [City of El Monte — Mayor Pro Tem Viviana Longoria, District 4 (official biography page: elected to Council Nov. 2024, term expires Nov. 2028)](https://www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/642/Viviana-Longoria) 7. [FOX 11 Los Angeles (KTTV) — El Monte Mayor under fire over retaliation scandal (City Council censures Ancona 6-1 after a $175,000 settlement of a resident's retaliation lawsuit; Ancona took responsibility but denied sending a gang member and called the censure political)](https://www.foxla.com/news/el-monte-mayor-under-fire-over-retaliation-scandal) 8. [San Gabriel Valley Tribune (Southern California News Group) — Viviana Longoria, El Monte City Council District 4 candidate, 2024 election questionnaire (career, then-current City Treasurer role, and stated priorities in her own words)](https://www.sgvtribune.com/2024/10/15/viviana-longoria-el-monte-city-council-district-4-candidate-2024-election-questionnaire/) 9. [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)](https://www.sgvtribune.com/2026/02/26/el-monte-city-council-tables-vote-on-making-city-clerk-city-treasurer-appointed-roles-rotating-mayor/) 10. [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)](https://midvalleynews.com/council-advances-plan-to-restructure-offices/) 11. [CA Secretary of State — Cal-Access certified 2026 primary candidate list, Governor (lists 'SARMIENTO, CHRISTINE R.' as a no-party-preference candidate — the same full name and middle initial as the El Monte Mayor filer, corroborating she is a real, previously-statewide candidate, not a name coincidence)](https://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Campaign/Candidates/list.aspx?view=certified&session=2025&mCity=El+Monte) 12. [Philippine Chronicle (syndicated from the Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network) — Filipino American nurse launches bid for California governor (profiles Christine Sarmiento, an El Monte-based LA County Dept. of Public Health nurse, ahead of her June 2026 gubernatorial run)](https://philippinechronicle.com/filipino-american-nurse-launches-bid-for-california-governor/) ## The rest of the ballot Mayor of El Monte is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Mayor of El Monte — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/el-monte-mayor (sources last retrieved August 31, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.