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City of Gilroy · Statewide General Election

Gilroy 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 would hold your district's seat on Gilroy's City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Santa Clara County city of about 59,500, alongside the separately elected Mayor (Greg Bozzo, not on this ballot) and five other district-elected council members. A 4-year term. This is Gilroy's first district-based council election -- Districts 1, 2, 3 and the Mayor's seat are up in 2028.

Three candidates are running for Gilroy's District 6 City Council seat: Rebeca Armendariz, Brad Starks, and Elizabeth Bracco. None currently holds the seat, though Armendariz represented the area before.

The winner serves a four-year term on Gilroy's seven-member City Council (six district members plus a separately, at-large elected Mayor): city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Santa Clara County city of about 59,500. This is Gilroy's first-ever district council election -- the city adopted its six-district map (Map F) in May 2025 after a California Voting Rights Act legal notice, moving off a fully at-large council. Districts 1, 2, 3, and the Mayor's seat aren't up until 2028.

The area's outgoing councilmember, Dion Bracco, is retiring after 21 years, telling the Gilroy Dispatch, 'I think it's my turn to step aside. I think it's time for a younger generation to step up and take over.' He is not a candidate here, but Elizabeth Bracco -- one of the three candidates for the seat -- is his daughter, per the Dispatch's independent reporting. Rebeca Armendariz previously held this seat (2020-2024) and is running to return to it; Brad Starks has no prior elected-office record.

Rebeca Armendariz

Rebeca Armendariz is a fourth-generation Gilroyan who represented the east side of Gilroy, now District 6, on the City Council from 2020 to 2024, per her own filed Candidate Statement -- consistent with the Gilroy Dispatch's independent description of her as a former councilmember. (Her own campaign site's homepage describes her as 'currently serving' and 'seeking reelection,' language this dataset treats with caution since it conflicts with both her own statement's past-tense account and the Dispatch's reporting.) She co-founded Gilroy Growing Smarter, which advocates for building housing responsibly so younger residents and longtime families can afford to stay, and works with CARAS on youth life-skills and leadership programs. Her stated priorities are investing in district infrastructure (street lighting, landscaping, pedestrian and traffic safety), responsible housing growth, and youth and community engagement.

Strengths

Four years of direct experience already representing this same area on the council, plus an ongoing housing-advocacy and youth-mentorship record outside office.

Trade-offs

No independent reporting in this pass evaluates her 2020-2024 term itself; her site's "currently serving" framing conflicts with her filed statement and the Dispatch -- worth asking her to clarify.

Keep in mind

A former officeholder running to return gives you an actual term to evaluate, unlike either of her opponents -- but that record isn't independently reported on in this pass beyond her own account of it.

Brad Starks

Brad Starks works in corporate marketing and is raising two children, Cooper and Casey, in Gilroy with his wife Nirza, an elementary school teacher. He is a first-time candidate for elected office. His stated priorities are listening and collaborative leadership, transparency and accountability, safe neighborhoods, strong local businesses, quality city services, and opportunity for every family. No campaign site or independent news coverage of him was found in this pass beyond his filed statement.

Strengths

A marketing/communications background outside government is a distinct professional lens compared to either opponent's.

Trade-offs

No campaign site, endorsement, or independent coverage was found in this pass, so his platform rests entirely on his one filed statement.

Keep in mind

Of the three District 6 candidates, he has the thinnest public paper trail beyond his own statement -- worth factoring into how much you can learn about him before voting.

Elizabeth Bracco

Elizabeth Bracco is a fourth-generation Gilroyan and the daughter of retiring 21-year Councilmember Dion Bracco, per the Gilroy Dispatch's independent reporting (her own filed statement does not mention the relationship). She recently completed an undergraduate degree in Public Policy in Sacramento and describes herself as a young professional who has networked with the city's past and current elected and appointed leaders; she has volunteered with National Night Out and Youth Taskforce events. Her stated priorities are bringing a business-informed, generationally minded perspective to the council, representing younger residents, and building trust through common-sense decisions. No campaign site was found for her in this pass.

Strengths

A Public Policy degree and direct youth-civic-engagement volunteer work are relevant, if unelected, preparation for the seat.

Trade-offs

No independent coverage of her platform beyond the Dispatch's confirmation of her family connection was found in this pass, and she has never held elected office.

Keep in mind

Her family relationship to the outgoing officeholder is a fact worth knowing and weighing on its own terms -- this dataset reports it because an independent outlet did, not to suggest it determines how she'd govern.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 12 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: Rebeca Armendariz's own campaign site (rebecaforgilroy2026.com), self-description attributed in text: describes her as 'currently serving' on the council and 'seeking reelection' -- language this shard treats with caution, since it conflicts with both her own filed Candidate Statement's past-tense '2020 to 2024' account and the Gilroy Dispatch's independent reporting, both of which describe her as a former councilmember running to return. may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • cityofgilroy.org (opens in a new tab)City of Gilroy -- "Elections & Voter Information" page (cityofgilroy.org/362): November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election overview, nomination-period and candidate-statement review-period dates, and the full qualified roster for Districts 4, 5, and 6, each name linked to that candidate's own filed Candidate Statement PDF.
  • cityofgilroy.org (opens in a new tab)City of Gilroy -- official "Notice of Election," signed by City Clerk/Elections Official Kim Mancera (dated Jun. 19, 2026): confirms exactly three offices this cycle -- one Member of the City Council from each of Districts 4, 5, and 6, each a full four-year term -- states the Jul. 13-Aug. 7, 2026 nomination period (extendable to Aug. 12 for a non-incumbent's office if an incumbent doesn't file), and cites Elections Code Section 10229 as the mechanism for filling a seat by appointment if it draws one or zero candidates.
  • cityofgilroy.org (opens in a new tab)City of Gilroy -- "District-Based Elections" page: confirms the city adopted "Map F" as its official six-district council map on May 19, 2025, transitioning from an at-large council (plus a directly elected, at-large Mayor) in response to a California Voting Rights Act legal notice received in December 2024; Districts 4, 5, and 6 elect in 2026, Districts 1, 2, 3, and the Mayor's seat in 2028.
  • cityofgilroy.org (opens in a new tab)City of Gilroy -- "City Council" page: names the sitting seven-member body -- Mayor Greg Bozzo (term exp. Dec. 2028), Mayor Pro Tempore Zach Hilton (2028), and Council Members Dion Bracco, Tom Cline, and Carol Marques (each term exp. Dec. 2026) and Terence Fugazzi and Kelly Ramirez (each 2028) -- confirming Cline as the only one of the three members whose terms expire this cycle who appears on the qualified candidate roster.
  • gilroydispatch.com (opens in a new tab)Gilroy Dispatch -- "Candidates throw hats into the ring for Gilroy council, school board election," read in full: confirms the full qualified Districts 4/5/6 roster (Fred Tovar and Diana Sanchez Bentz in District 4; Tom Cline, Joseph Garcia, and Christina Tovar in District 5; Elizabeth Bracco, Rebeca Armendariz, and Brad Starks in District 6), independently flags Cline as incumbent and Tovar and Armendariz as former councilmembers, and reports this is Gilroy's first by-district council election, adopted in 2025 to address a potential CVRA violation.
  • gilroydispatch.com (opens in a new tab)Gilroy Dispatch -- "Crowded field runs for three Gilroy City Council seats," read in full: reconfirms the same Districts 4/5/6 roster after the nomination period closed, independently identifies Elizabeth Bracco as the daughter of retiring Councilmember Dion Bracco, and quotes Bracco on the record -- "I think it's my turn to step aside. I think it's time for a younger generation to step up and take over" -- on his decision not to seek reelection after 21 years; also reports that fellow term-expiring Councilmember Carol Marques is not seeking reelection and declined to comment.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)This dataset's own documented record of a dedicated, unsuccessful attempt to retrieve Gilroy City Council campaign-finance filings: California's Cal-Access filer search (cal-access.sos.ca.gov) returned only an Incapsula bot-detection interstitial for every query attempted in this pass (via both WebFetch and direct curl), with no live browser session available in this worktree to work around it; the city's own website sitemap carries no campaign-finance-disclosure or NetFile/eFile page. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source for this contest, not any candidate's actual finances.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Gilroy, California": 2020 census population 59,520; council-manager form of government (Mayor Greg Bozzo, City Administrator Brad Kilger, per the article as retrieved).
  • cityofgilroy.org (opens in a new tab)Rebeca Armendariz's own filed Candidate Statement (District 6), self-authored and filed with the City Clerk; quoted and attributed in text. States she served as the area's councilmember "from 2020 to 2024" -- past tense, consistent with the Gilroy Dispatch's independent characterization of her as a former, not sitting, councilmember.
  • cityofgilroy.org (opens in a new tab)Brad Starks's own filed Candidate Statement (District 6), self-authored and filed with the City Clerk; quoted and attributed in text.
  • cityofgilroy.org (opens in a new tab)Elizabeth Bracco's own filed Candidate Statement (District 6), self-authored and filed with the City Clerk; quoted and attributed in text.
  • rebecaforgilroy2026.com (opens in a new tab)Rebeca Armendariz's own campaign site (rebecaforgilroy2026.com), self-description attributed in text: describes her as "currently serving" on the council and "seeking reelection" -- language this shard treats with caution, since it conflicts with both her own filed Candidate Statement's past-tense "2020 to 2024" account and the Gilroy Dispatch's independent reporting, both of which describe her as a former councilmember running to return.

Last updated August 31, 2026.