- fresnocountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Fresno County elections office — certified June 2, 2026 primary results
- gvwire.com (opens in a new tab)GV Wire — Central Valley election coverage, Assembly District 27
- netfile.com (opens in a new tab)NetFile official public agency registry and live county campaign portals — candidate/committee searches run for Fresno (CFRE), Merced (MCO), San Bernardino (SBD), Ventura (VCO), Monterey Elections (MCE), and Placer (PLA), with the registry also checked for Siskiyou and Tuolumne
- gvwire.com (opens in a new tab)GV Wire — What Fresno County Candidates Have to Say About How They Would Judge
- gvwire.com (opens in a new tab)GV Wire — Fresno County Judge Race Narrows. Will Hammerschmidt Face a Runoff?
Last updated September 24, 2026.
County
Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 7
A countywide seat on the Fresno County Superior Court, the state trial court (6-year term).
Jeff Hammerschmidt led the June 2 primary with 48.9%. Jose L. Salazar took 35.6%. Hammerschmidt fell just short of the majority that would have won the seat outright. So the two meet again on November 3. This is a nonpartisan countywide seat.
A Superior Court judge serves a six-year term on California's trial court — the court where criminal cases, family law, probate, small claims and most civil disputes are actually decided. One judge's rulings affect thousands of people a year, and judicial elections draw far less attention than the stakes warrant. Judges may be reappointed or re-elected for decades, so a six-year term is often the start of a much longer tenure.
Unlike the other Fresno judicial contest on this ballot, this one offers a genuine difference in professional perspective: one candidate has worked both sides of the courtroom, the other is a public defender. That distinction is the clearest documented basis for a choice here, since judicial ethics limit what either may say about how they would rule.
Jeff Hammerschmidt
Jeff Hammerschmidt has worked in law for 38 years. They were an associate at the firm McCormick Barstow, then worked in several units at the Fresno County District Attorney's Office, including homicide, and later at the Fresno City Attorney's Office. In the 1990s they prosecuted Dana Ewell in a triple homicide case.
Judicial ethics rules limit what a candidate can say about how they would rule. Asked about sentencing, Hammerschmidt said answering would violate the ethics law for a judicial candidate. They say the law itself sets the sentencing factors they would use, including the mitigating and aggravating factors in the state's Rules of Court.
Beyond following the sentencing rules already set by law, their campaign says little else, since ethics rules limit what a judicial candidate may promise.
Jose L. Salazar
Jose Salazar is a public defender in Fresno County with more than ten years in criminal law. They work on the office's Major Crimes Team, which handles the most serious cases.
Judicial ethics rules limit what a candidate can say about how they would rule. Salazar says they will apply the sentencing rules already set by law to each case, the same as any judge must. As a defense attorney, they argue the side of the courtroom this contest would otherwise not offer at all.
Salazar promises to apply the same sentencing rules in the law to every case. They also say the court's new computer filing system works well for them so far.
Your pick
A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.