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City of Folsom · Statewide General Election

Folsom City Council, District 3

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 your district's seat on Folsom's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, plus appointing the city manager who runs day-to-day government. Folsom's council elects its own Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its five district members each year rather than voters choosing a separate citywide mayor -- there's no 'Mayor of Folsom' contest on this ballot. A 4-year term.

Incumbent Sarah Aquino faces challenger Jagadish "Jag" Nagendra for Folsom City Council District 3. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

This person holds District 3's seat on Folsom's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, plus appointing the city manager who runs day-to-day government. Folsom's council elects its own Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its five district members each year rather than voters choosing a separate citywide mayor. A 4-year term.

Aquino is running on continuity and constituent access -- she highlights giving out her personal cell phone number and, in 2021, working a shift as a restaurant server to draw attention to the city's service-industry labor shortage. Nagendra, a first-time candidate, is running on a 35-year engineering and program-management career and more than a decade of civic volunteering, with fiscal responsibility and government transparency as his central themes.

Sarah Aquino

The incumbent, whose own ballot designation is "Councilwoman/Small Businesswoman"; she served as Folsom's Mayor as of the city's own directory snapshot in January 2025 (the council elects the Mayor from among its own members each year -- see above). She says she has "worked hard to be accessible and responsive to residents," citing a 2021 shift working as a server at a local restaurant to help address a labor shortage and "lead by example." Her stated priorities are public safety, a strong local economy, and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars. She was named the 2026 California Woman of the Year for Senate District 6 by State Sen. Roger Niello, cited for her years of public service and local roots.

Strengths

A term that included service as Mayor gives her broader citywide visibility than a typical first-term councilmember, plus a published personal cell number for constituents.

Trade-offs

A full term including as Mayor draws more scrutiny; her materials don't detail specific council votes beyond general priorities.

Keep in mind

No Cal-Access committee could be verified for her in this pass -- see Financial info.

Jagadish "Jag" Nagendra

A Principal Engineer at the California Department of Water Resources since 2012, leading engineering and IT teams supporting the state's water and power dispatching infrastructure. Born and raised in Bangalore, India, he earned a diploma in electronics and telecommunications engineering, founded and led an industrial-automation firm there for six years, and immigrated to the U.S. in 2000, settling in Folsom. He holds Project Management Professional and Certified Change Management Professional credentials and is a Distinguished Toastmaster, with more than 15 years of civic service including Sacramento County board roles, Toastmasters leadership, the PMI Sacramento Valley chapter, and SCORE small-business mentoring; he received the Kannada Sangha of Sacramento's Person of the Year award in 2024. His platform centers on fiscal responsibility, smart economic growth, and government transparency.

Strengths

A long engineering-management career inside state government gives him direct familiarity with large public budgets, distinct from Aquino's small-business background.

Trade-offs

No prior elected office; his platform is broad themes without a detailed list of specific council priorities found in this pass.

Keep in mind

No Cal-Access committee could be verified for him in this pass -- see Financial info.

Source review: Mixed (77/100) · 5 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Jagadish "Jag" Nagendra's own campaign site for Folsom City Council District 3: his engineering career, civic-service record, and platform and Sarah Aquino's own campaign site for Folsom City Council District 3: her framing of her record as the incumbent Councilwoman/Mayor, her priorities, and her 2026 California Woman of the Year honor for Senate District 6 may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • elections.saccounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Sacramento County Voter Registration & Elections — Roster of Candidates, November 3, 2026 General Election
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of Folsom — City Councilmembers directory (archived via Wayback Machine, Jan. 1, 2025 snapshot; folsom.ca.us itself 403s direct fetches): District 1 Councilmember Mike Kozlowski, District 2 Vice Mayor Justin Raithel, District 3 Mayor Sarah Aquino, District 4 Councilmember Barbara Leary, District 5 Councilmember Anna Rohrbough
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of Folsom — City Councilmembers directory (archived via Wayback Machine, Feb. 15, 2026 snapshot; folsom.ca.us itself 403s direct fetches): names, districts, terms ("Current Term ends November, 2026" for Kozlowski/D1, Aquino/D3, and Rohrbough/D5; "...2028" for Raithel/D2 and Leary/D4), and contact info for all five sitting councilmembers, with Raithel shown as Mayor and Rohrbough as Vice Mayor
  • sarahaquino.com (opens in a new tab)Sarah Aquino's own campaign site for Folsom City Council District 3: her framing of her record as the incumbent Councilwoman/Mayor, priorities (public safety, local economy, fiscal stewardship), and her 2026 California Woman of the Year honor for Senate District 6
  • jagnagendra.com (opens in a new tab)Jagadish "Jag" Nagendra's own campaign site for Folsom City Council District 3: his engineering career (Principal Engineer, California Dept. of Water Resources; founder of an industrial-automation firm in Bangalore before immigrating to the U.S. in 2000), civic-service record, and platform

Last updated September 1, 2026.