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City of Indio · Statewide General Election

Indio City Council, District 4

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 holds your district's seat on Indio's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. A 4-year term. The council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem each year -- the titles rotate rather than being separately elected.

District 4's seat is open: incumbent Oscar Ortiz is not seeking reelection after an unsuccessful run for a California State Assembly seat earlier in 2026. Felipe Ortiz, vice chair of the Indio Planning Commission, and Jonathan Becerra, founder and CEO of events company Palma City Productions, are running to succeed him.

This person holds your district's seat on Indio's 5-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. A 4-year term. The council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem each year — the titles rotate rather than being separately elected.

With no incumbent in the race, District 4 is guaranteed a new representative. Felipe Ortiz brings prior city-commission service; Becerra is making a second bid for a council seat after losing to now-Mayor Elaine Holmes in 2022. Neither candidate's detailed policy platform was independently reported beyond that background in the time researched for this profile.

Felipe Ortiz

Felipe Ortiz is vice chair of the Indio Planning Commission, running for the open District 4 council seat. (No relation to outgoing District 4 incumbent Oscar Ortiz is stated in the reporting reviewed for this profile.) No independent biography or platform statement beyond his commission role, as reported by the Desert Sun, was found in the time available for this profile.

Strengths

Prior appointed service on the city's Planning Commission gives him some familiarity with how city government and land-use decisions work.

Trade-offs

No prior elected office, and no independently reported policy platform beyond his commission role.

Keep in mind

He shares a surname with the outgoing District 4 incumbent, Oscar Ortiz, but no source reviewed for this profile states any relationship between them.

Jonathan Becerra

Jonathan Becerra is founder and CEO of Palma City Productions, an events company, running for the open District 4 council seat. He previously ran for an Indio council seat in 2022 and lost to Elaine Holmes, who now holds the council's rotating Mayor title as the District 3 incumbent. No independent biography or platform statement beyond his occupation, as reported by the Desert Sun, was found in the time available for this profile.

Strengths

A second campaign for a council seat suggests sustained interest in representing Indio, and running a business locally may bring familiarity with the city's permitting and events processes.

Trade-offs

No prior elected or appointed public service, and no independently reported policy platform beyond his occupation, was found in the time available for this profile.

Keep in mind

His prior council run in 2022 was against a different incumbent for a different seat than the one he's seeking now — voters have no direct prior District 4 campaign to compare against.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 3 cited sources

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

  • voteinfo.net (opens in a new tab)Riverside County Registrar of Voters — 2026 Annual Election Calendar (lists every November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election office by city, including "City of Cathedral City: City Council District 3 / District 4 / District 5 / City Treasurer")
  • desertsun.com (opens in a new tab)The Desert Sun — "See who's running for mayor and city council in Coachella Valley" (Tom Coulter and Sam Morgen, Aug. 13, 2026; names every qualified candidate in each Cathedral City council/treasurer race with a one-line occupation/background note)
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — "Indio, California" ("Government and politics" section: 5-member, district-elected City Council with a yearly rotating Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem; names the sitting council as of retrieval -- Mayor Elaine Holmes, Mayor Pro Tem Waymond Fermon, and Councilmembers Oscar Ortiz, Benjamin Guitron, Glenn Miller. Used in place of the city's own site, which returned HTTP 403 on every fetch attempt in this pass.)

Last updated August 31, 2026.