Skip to main content

City of Hawthorne · Statewide General Election

Hawthorne City Council

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 one of two seats up this cycle on Hawthorne's City Council: a citywide-elected Mayor (not up this cycle) plus four at-large council members serving staggered 4-year terms, per the city's own structure. City ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions run through the five-member body; day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager.

Three candidates qualified for two of Hawthorne's four at-large City Council seats on the November 3 ballot: incumbents Katrina Manning and Alex Monteiro are both seeking re-election, against challenger Sergio Mortara, the sitting Vice President of the Hawthorne School District Board.

The two winners each serve a four-year term on Hawthorne's council: a citywide-elected Mayor (not up this cycle -- Alex Vargas' term runs to December 2028) plus four at-large council members, per the city's own structure as described on Wikipedia's sourced overview. City ordinances, the budget, and land-use decisions are set by the five-member body; day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager.

Two of the three candidates already hold seats up this cycle, so the choice is less about council experience in general than whether voters want to keep the current representation or bring in a challenger who currently sits on a different elected body -- the school board, not the city council.

Katrina Manning

She was elected to the Hawthorne City Council in November 2022 and served as Mayor Pro Tem from April 2024 to April 2025, per her own campaign site and the city's own bio. She's seeking a second term.

Strengths

One term on the council (elected 2022) plus a stint as Mayor Pro Tem, the position her council colleagues chose her for.

Trade-offs

No specific 2026 platform beyond general re-election messaging was confirmed from available reporting.

Keep in mind

One of two sitting councilmembers seeking re-election in this three-candidate field.

Alex Monteiro

He has served on the Hawthorne City Council since 2018 and was re-elected in 2022, per the city's own bio and Ballotpedia. Before that, he served 12 years on the Hawthorne School District Board of Trustees, first elected in 2007. He's the president and CEO of Moneta Gardens Improvement, Inc., a Hawthorne-based nonprofit serving underprivileged families and children, and has sat on regional bodies including the South Bay Cities Council of Governments and the LA County Sanitation Board. He unsuccessfully ran for California State Senate District 35 as a Democrat in the March 2024 primary, losing to Laura Richardson (Hawthorne's current state senator).

Strengths

Two terms on the council (since 2018) plus 12 prior years on the school board -- the longest documented public-service record of any candidate in this race.

Trade-offs

A 2024 run for a different, higher office (state senate) that he lost -- worth weighing alongside his City Council record.

Keep in mind

The sitting incumbent with the longest tenure of the three candidates on this ballot.

Sergio Mortara

He currently serves as Vice President of the Hawthorne School District Board, confirmed directly on the district's own site. He's a longtime Hawthorne resident and local business owner (tied to Continental Gourmet Market, per business-registration records), and ran previously for the Hawthorne School Board in 2013. He has not previously served on the City Council.

Strengths

Current service on a different elected city body (school board Vice President) and a documented local business background.

Trade-offs

No City Council experience, and no specific 2026 platform could be confirmed from available reporting.

Keep in mind

The only non-incumbent in this three-candidate field for two council seats -- a genuine outside option against two sitting councilmembers.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 9 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: Katrina Manning's own 2026 campaign site (elected Nov. 2022; Mayor Pro Tem April 2024-April 2025; FPPC #1450748) may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • cityofhawthorne.org (opens in a new tab)City of Hawthorne -- "Notice of Qualified Candidates for Public Office," General Municipal Election, November 3, 2026, signed by Deputy City Clerk Diana Cucalon, dated Aug. 17, 2026: names Katrina Manning, Alex Monteiro, and Sergio Mortara for City Council (2 seats); Dayna Williams-Hunter for City Clerk (1 seat, unopposed); and L. David Patterson and Raymond Vergara for City Treasurer (1 seat)
  • cityofhawthorne.org (opens in a new tab)City of Hawthorne's own Elected Officials page: Mayor Alex Vargas, Mayor Pro Tem Faye Johnson, Council Members Katrina Manning, Angie Reyes English, and Alex Monteiro
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Hawthorne, California article, Government section: a citywide-elected Mayor plus four at-large council members on 4-year terms; sourced current-officeholder table shows Manning and Monteiro both term-ending Dec. 2026 (up this cycle) while Vargas, Reyes-English, and Johnson all run through Dec. 2028; City Clerk Dayna Williams-Hunter and City Treasurer Marie Poindexter-Hornback both also term-ending Dec. 2026
  • vote4manning.com (opens in a new tab)Katrina Manning's own 2026 campaign site: elected to the Hawthorne City Council in November 2022; served as Mayor Pro Tem April 2024-April 2025; FPPC filer #1450748
  • cityofhawthorne.org (opens in a new tab)City of Hawthorne's own officeholder bio for Council Member Alex Monteiro: president and CEO of Moneta Gardens Improvement, Inc., a nonprofit serving underprivileged Hawthorne families and children
  • ballotpedia.org (opens in a new tab)Ballotpedia's candidate/officeholder page for Alex Monteiro: bachelor's degree, University of Rhode Island; graduate degree, CSU Dominguez Hills; profession "Nonprofit executive"; board affiliations including the Hawthorne Economic Development Committee, South Bay Cities Council of Governments, and LA County Sanitation Board; ran unsuccessfully for California State Senate District 35 as a Democrat in the March 2024 primary, losing to Laura Richardson
  • hawthornesd.org (opens in a new tab)Hawthorne School District's own Board Members page: Sergio R. Mortara listed as Vice President -- independent confirmation of his current service on a different elected city body
  • lavote.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result check of LA County RR/CC's own live Candidate List app (id=4348), filtered on Office Title = "Hawthorne": zero city council/clerk/treasurer rows as of the app's own 9/1/2026 last-updated timestamp, only Hawthorne School District rows; a second jurisdiction, West Covina, checked the same way shows the identical empty pattern despite its city council races being independently confirmed and built elsewhere in this dataset -- this county app simply doesn't carry general-law-city races these cities' own City Clerks administer directly
  • lavote.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result attempt to reach a Hawthorne-specific NetFile campaign-disclosure portal: netfile.com/public/HAW/campaign redirects to NetFile's own generic corporate homepage rather than a live agency portal, and LA County RR/CC's own Campaign Disclosure Information page describes its system as mid-transition without a working direct link

Last updated September 3, 2026.