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City of Hollister · Statewide General Election

Hollister City Council, District 2

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On the ballot

This person would represent Hollister's District 2 on the City Council for a 4-year term: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, under the same council-manager government as the rest of the Council. The seat is open: two-term incumbent Rolan Resendiz did not file for reelection this cycle.

Two-term District 2 Councilmember Rolan Resendiz did not file for reelection, leaving the seat open. Two candidates qualified: businessman Brian Chavez and Frida Benjamin, who filed during the nomination period's extension.

This person would represent Hollister's District 2 on the City Council for a 4-year term: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, under the city's council-manager government, where an appointed City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The seat's nomination period was extended to Aug. 12 -- the same extension that applied to Mayor -- specifically because incumbent Rolan Resendiz did not file nomination papers by the regular Aug. 7 deadline.

Resendiz's decision not to seek reelection came during the same period BenitoLink was covering a nearly two-year public-records fight over his own police records, sparked by a 2024 request from then-Councilmember (now Mayoral candidate) Tim Burns; a judge ordered redacted records released on Aug. 27, 2026. Resendiz was censured by the Council multiple times during his tenure (2020 and 2024) for his conduct toward fellow councilmembers. This dataset found no source directly stating that dispute as Resendiz's reason for not running again -- it's offered here as contemporaneous context, not a confirmed causal explanation.

Brian Chavez

Brian Chavez is a businessman running for Hollister's District 2 Council seat. No further independent record of his business, platform, or civic background beyond that one descriptor was found in this pass.

Strengths

None independently confirmed beyond his filed occupation.

Trade-offs

No platform, policy positions, or civic-involvement record was found in this pass.

Keep in mind

His 2026 campaign committee already carries an assigned state FPPC ID (1491503) rather than a "Pending" one, unlike every other 2026 Hollister candidate checked this pass -- a procedural fact about paperwork timing, not itself a signal about his campaign's substance.

Frida Benjamin

Frida Benjamin qualified for Hollister's District 2 Council race on Aug. 12, 2026, the last day of the extended filing period. No occupation, platform, or civic background for her was found on the City's own website, in local news, or in a general web search this pass.

Strengths

None independently confirmed for this candidacy.

Trade-offs

No occupation, platform, or news coverage was found for her; she qualified on the last day of the extension, after BenitoLink's initial preview called Chavez "unopposed."

Keep in mind

A late filing during an extension that exists specifically because the seat had no incumbent running is a routine way an open seat draws a second candidate -- not itself a red flag, just a gap in what's currently verifiable about her.

Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • sanbenitocounty-ca-cre.gov (opens in a new tab)San Benito County Department of Elections -- "Final Qualified Candidate List" for the November 3, 2026 General Election (all 75 qualified candidates countywide; retrieved via a real browser session since the county site 403s non-browser clients).
  • hollister.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Hollister -- City Clerk, "Elections" page: the November 3, 2026 election timeline, the four offices on the ballot, each candidate's nomination filing dates, the extended-filing notice for Mayor and District 2, and the city's own statement of its Council-City Manager structure and term lengths.
  • hollister.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Hollister -- "City Council" page: current Mayor, District 1-4 Councilmembers, and City Treasurer, with each one's election/reelection date and term-expiration date.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Hollister, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (41,678), the Aug. 6, 1872 incorporation date, and the city's 2012 shift to a directly elected Mayor (Ignacio Velazquez, its first).
  • benitolink.com (opens in a new tab)BenitoLink -- "Familiar faces seek to return to Hollister city council chambers in general election" (by Noe Magaña): a dedicated preview of Hollister's Nov. 2026 races naming and describing Tim Burns, Christina/Tina Garza, Scott McPhail, Bill Avera, and Dolores Morales, plus the countywide qualified-candidate roster as of Aug. 7-8, 2026.
  • benitolink.com (opens in a new tab)BenitoLink -- "Judge approves release of Hollister council member's police records" (by Noe Magaña): Tim Burns' Oct. 2024 public-records request for Councilmember Rolan Resendiz's police records, the resulting nearly-two-year court fight, the judge's Aug. 27, 2026 release order, and on-the-record quotes from both Burns and Resendiz.
  • public.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Hollister's public campaign-finance portal (NetFile, agency code HOL), queried directly via its public filer-list API: shows a 2026 campaign committee registered for Burns, Avera, Morales, Benjamin, Garza, McPhail, and Chavez (all "Pending" state FPPC IDs except Chavez's, already assigned), a long-standing local filer record for Machado, and no 2026 committee of any kind for Jonathan Casey.

Last updated September 2, 2026.