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City of Irvine · Statewide General Election

Irvine 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 holds your district's seat on Irvine's 7-member City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use, alongside the citywide-elected mayor and five other district councilmembers. A 4-year term.

Incumbent Kathleen Treseder faces challenger Scotty Hong for Irvine City Council District 6 -- the district's first-ever election, after a 2024 charter amendment carved it out of what had been an at-large seat. Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

This person holds District 6's seat on Irvine's 7-member City Council, alongside the citywide-elected mayor and five other district councilmembers: city ordinances, the budget, and land use. A 4-year term.

Treseder, a UC Irvine climate scientist first elected to the council's former at-large seat in 2022, is campaigning on a first-term record of budget and lobbying reforms. Hong, the city's Sustainability Commissioner and a policy advisor to Mayor Agran, is running on a direct policy contrast: he wants Irvine to leave the Orange County Power Authority, the regional public-power agency whose board Treseder herself sits on.

Kathleen Treseder

The incumbent, a UC Irvine professor of ecology studying climate change's effects on fungal ecosystems, elected to the council's former at-large seat in 2022 and sworn in that December; she also sits on the Orange County Power Authority board, having been sworn onto it in January 2023. She describes herself as "a scientist, not a politician," and says she has pushed to balance the city's budget and "banish corrupt lobbyists," stopped what she calls a sweetheart deal for Live Nation to use public space, and worked to expand access to parks and green space. She's running for reelection on continuing to fight for what she calls Irvine's "progressive values."

Strengths

A completed first term with specific, named actions -- blocking the Live Nation space deal, budget and lobbying-disclosure reforms -- plus a research career relevant to her platform.

Trade-offs

Her seat on the Orange County Power Authority board is also the specific target of her opponent's central campaign proposal -- see his profile.

Keep in mind

See Financial info -- Cal-Access could not be independently checked for this race in this pass.

Scotty Hong

Age 34. The city's Sustainability Commissioner and Chief Policy Advisor to Mayor Larry Agran, with an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a Master of Public Administration from Cornell. He's running in what he calls the district's first-ever election for its own councilmember, on a platform of expanding the Irvine Connect shuttle to UCI and District 6's residential communities, improving lighting, sidewalks, and trails, more neighborhood policing and fire/EMS funding, and affordable housing. His most specific proposal is withdrawing Irvine from the Orange County Power Authority, which he says "charges Irvine residents the county's highest rates and relies primarily on fossil fuels," in favor of expanded rooftop solar and battery storage and 100,000 more trees.

Strengths

A specific policy contrast with the incumbent -- leaving the Orange County Power Authority, a board Treseder sits on -- plus a City Hall policy role suggesting familiarity with the office he seeks.

Trade-offs

No prior elected office; his post as the mayor's own policy advisor also means his candidacy sits inside the same city administration whose incumbent councilmember he's challenging.

Keep in mind

See Financial info -- Cal-Access could not be independently checked for this race in this pass.

Source review: Very strong (92/100) · 7 cited sources

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

  • ocvote.gov (opens in a new tab)OC Registrar of Voters — Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 (169 contests, 430 candidates filed)
  • cityofirvine.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Irvine -- November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election Information page: confirms a Mayor (2-year term) and one Councilmember each for Districts 1, 5, and 6 (4-year terms) as Irvine's four November 2026 races; nomination period closed Aug. 7, 2026, write-in period Sept. 7-Oct. 20, 2026
  • cityofirvine.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Irvine -- Qualified Candidates for Mayor and City Council (Ballot Order), updated 8/13/2026 (the day of the Secretary of State's randomized-alphabet drawing): the certified nine-candidate roster across Mayor and Districts 1, 5, and 6, with each candidate's filed ballot designation
  • cityofirvine.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Irvine -- the same Ballot Order document's full first-person candidate statements for all nine qualified candidates, filed with and published by the City Clerk
  • ocregister.com (opens in a new tab)Orange County Register (Laylan Connelly, with Anita Gosch contributing) -- "Candidate fields take shape for City Council elections in Orange County": staffed, bylined roundup independently naming Irvine's full nine-candidate field across Mayor and Districts 1, 5, and 6, and every incumbency call -- corrects the county candlog's District 5 count from 6 to 5
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- Kathleen Treseder: a UC Irvine ecology professor elected to the City Council in 2022 (assumed office Dec. 13, 2022) as an at-large member; sworn onto the Orange County Power Authority board Jan. 17, 2023
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- Irvine, California: city-government section confirms voters passed Measure D in the March 2024 primary, expanding the council to a mayor plus six district councilmembers and electing Irvine's first Council members by district in 2024; Districts 2, 3, and 4 elect in presidential years and Districts 1, 5, and 6 in midterm years, with District 1 running an abbreviated two-year term in 2024 to land its regular cycle on 2026

Last updated August 31, 2026.