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City of Fresno · Statewide General Election

Fresno City Council, District 7

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 Fresno's seven district-elected City Council seats: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for California's fifth-largest city, home to roughly 555,600 residents. Fresno's Mayor is elected separately under the city's strong-mayor charter and is not on this cycle's ballot. This seat is open: none of the cycle's three sitting district incumbents filed to keep their council seats.

An open seat: Nav Gurm, an attorney and small-business owner, faces Ariana Martinez Lott, a small-business owner and former City Hall staffer. The June 2, 2026 primary was a near-tie between the two -- Gurm 38.96% to Martinez Lott's 38.71%, per GV Wire -- and the top two meet here in the November 3, 2026 general, where whoever gets more votes wins outright.

This person would hold Fresno's District 7 seat on a 7-member, district-elected City Council under the city's strong-mayor charter: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for California's fifth-largest city, home to roughly 555,600 residents. Fresno's Mayor (Jerry Dyer) is elected separately and isn't on this cycle's ballot. This dataset found no source confirming this seat's exact term length or the city's council term-limit provision; GV Wire's own reporting mentions that Council President Nelson Esparza has proposed expanding the current limit -- a change Martinez Lott has criticized this cycle and Gurm says he doesn't support, saying he'd rather see term limits applied to county supervisors instead.

None of this cycle's three sitting district incumbents -- Annalisa Perea (District 1), Miguel Arias (District 3), and Esparza (District 7) -- filed to keep their council seat, per the county's own filing record, so all three of Fresno's Nov. 2026 council races are open seats rather than incumbent contests. Mayor Jerry Dyer has endorsed Gurm in this race, per GV Wire.

Nav Gurm

An attorney and small-business owner; his own campaign site says he began volunteering at Poverello House, a Fresno homelessness-services organization, as a child. GV Wire describes him as a former City Hall employee. His filed ballot designation is "Attorney/Small Businessman." He led the June primary by a slim margin, 38.96% to Martinez Lott's 38.71% -- separated by roughly a quarter of a percentage point. Mayor Jerry Dyer has endorsed him. His platform centers on cost of living, public safety, economic development, and parks and recreation, including an annual parks survey.

Strengths

a City Hall employment background per GV Wire, an incumbent Mayor's endorsement, and the largest fundraising total of the three district races this dataset reviewed.

Trade-offs

no independent reporting evaluates his record or City Hall role beyond GV Wire's brief description; his site omits his credentials and education.

Keep in mind

he opposes Council President Esparza's proposal to expand council term limits, preferring term limits aimed at county supervisors instead -- a stance worth weighing against Martinez Lott's criticism of the same proposal.

Ariana Martinez Lott

A small-business owner born in Madera to farmworker parents and raised in District 7, where she also raised her own two children; a 2010 Fresno State graduate who substitute-taught and volunteered in special-education classrooms before serving as Community Relations Director for Council District 3 (Arias's district), where her own site says she tracked infrastructure projects and contributed to the city's Blighted Vacant Building Ordinance. Her filed ballot designation is "Small Business Owner." She trailed Gurm in the June primary by roughly a quarter of a percentage point, 38.71% to 38.96%. Her platform opposes the Southeast Development Area expansion, and includes a Residential Response Team for public safety, limits on local ICE collaboration, and expanded affordable-housing and home-repair funding.

Strengths

direct City Hall policy and constituent-service experience via her Council District 3 role, plus deep roots in the district she'd represent.

Trade-offs

her fundraising this period trailed Gurm's, and this dataset found no independent reporting evaluating her District 3 staff work beyond her own campaign site's account.

Keep in mind

she has publicly criticized Council President Esparza's council-term-limit-expansion proposal, a live local issue this cycle, per GV Wire.

Source review: Strong (82/100) · 7 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: Nav Gurm's own campaign site: describes him as a small-business owner and public servant who began volunteering at Poverello House (a Fresno homelessness-services organization) as a child; states his District 7 platform as cost of living, public safety, economic development, and parks and recreation. and Ariana Martinez Lott's own campaign site: born in Madera to farmworker parents, one of six children, raised her own two children in District 7; a 2010 Fresno State graduate who substitute-taught and volunteered in special-education classrooms before serving as Community Relations Director for Council District 3, tracking infrastructure projects and contributing to the city's Blighted Vacant Building Ordinance; her platform opposes the Southeast Development Area expansion and includes a Residential Response Team for public safety, limits on local ICE collaboration, and expanded affordable-housing and home-repair funding. may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • 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 Fresno's three City Council district contests (5061, 5063, 5067), each Vote For 1 with exactly two qualified candidates -- Naindeep Singh ("Nonprofit Director/Trustee") and Rob Fuentes ("Educator/College Trustee") for District 1; Joaquin Arambula ("Doctor/Assemblymember") and Keshia Thomas ("Fresno Unified School District Trustee") for District 3; Nav Gurm ("Attorney/Small Businessman") and Ariana Martinez Lott ("Small Business Owner") for District 7 -- and carries each candidate's filed campaign website
  • 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 all three Fresno City Council district contests as ON BALLOT, and separately lists each seat's incumbent-of-record as not among the two November candidates -- Annalisa Perea (District 1, Elected), Miguel Angel Arias (District 3, Elected), and Nelson Esparza (District 7, Elected) -- confirming all three are open seats. Candidate statement filing dates for all six November candidates fall between 8/06/2026 and 8/07/2026
  • fresno.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Fresno -- City Council page: names the sitting 7-member Council by district -- Annalisa Perea (District 1), Mike Karbassi (District 2), Miguel Arias (District 3), Tyler Maxwell (District 4), Brandon Vang (District 5), Nick Richardson (District 6), and Nelson Esparza (District 7, Council President)
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Fresno, California article: population 542,107 (2020 census), estimated 555,549 (2025); confirms Fresno's "Strong Mayor" form of government with Jerry Dyer as the sitting Mayor and Georgeanne White as City Manager
  • gvwire.com (opens in a new tab)GV Wire (a Fresno-based nonprofit newsroom) -- "What Does the Money Say About Fresno City Council Races?" by Edward Smith (published 8/4/2026, fetched and read directly): reviews each of the six November candidates' FPPC campaign-finance filings for the May 17-June 30, 2026 period, reports each candidate's June 2, 2026 primary vote share, and covers each candidate's biographical background including two documented controversies -- Joaquin Arambula's March 2026 alcohol-rehab and divorce-filing disclosures, and Keshia Thomas's ongoing defamation lawsuit -- plus, for Rob Fuentes, a summary of Fresnoland's separate reporting on his ICE-related legal work and subsequent administrative leave
  • navgurm.com (opens in a new tab)Nav Gurm's own campaign site: describes him as a small-business owner and public servant who began volunteering at Poverello House (a Fresno homelessness-services organization) as a child; states his District 7 platform as cost of living, public safety, economic development, and parks and recreation
  • ariana4fresno.com (opens in a new tab)Ariana Martinez Lott's own campaign site: born in Madera to farmworker parents, one of six children, raised her own two children in District 7; a 2010 Fresno State graduate who substitute-taught and volunteered in special-education classrooms before serving as Community Relations Director for Council District 3, tracking infrastructure projects and contributing to the city's Blighted Vacant Building Ordinance; her platform opposes the Southeast Development Area expansion and includes a Residential Response Team for public safety, limits on local ICE collaboration, and expanded affordable-housing and home-repair funding

Last updated September 1, 2026.