Skip to main content

City of Livingston · Statewide General Election

Livingston 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 would hold one of two open at-large City Council seats on Livingston's five-member Council -- the Mayor plus four Council Members, all elected citywide; Livingston has no council districts. Two of the four Council seats came up in 2024 and two are up again this cycle, suggesting staggered terms, though this dataset did not independently confirm the exact term length.

Four candidates are running for Livingston's two open at-large City Council seats: incumbent Gurpal S. Samra, Planning Commissioner Mohinder Kanda, nonprofit program manager Terika DeGraw, and Parwinder Singh Uppal. The two with the most votes win.

Livingston's City Council has five members -- a directly elected Mayor (a separate race) plus four Council Members, all elected citywide; the city has no council districts. Two of the four Council seats are up this November; the other two came up in 2024.

Samra is the only sitting Council member in the field; Kanda, DeGraw, and Parwinder Singh Uppal would each be newly elected to the Council if they win one of the two seats.

Gurpal S. Samra

Gurpal S. Samra is the incumbent Livingston City Council Member seeking re-election, and currently serves as the Council's Mayor Pro Tem. In October 2025, as Mayor Pro Tem, he read an anonymous letter into the public council record alleging that one or more council members had helped police officers complete online college coursework, and asked that it be referred to the city manager, city attorney, and interim police chief for review, according to The Merced FOCUS. The county's own candidate list prints his ballot designation as "Councilmember" and shows he did not file a candidate statement for this race.

Strengths

The only sitting incumbent in this field, and the Council's own Mayor Pro Tem -- he read a misconduct allegation against a colleague into the public record in 2025.

Trade-offs

No independent news profile of his platform or record beyond that Oct. 2025 meeting appearance was found this pass.

Keep in mind

Re-electing him is a vote for continuity on a Council currently led day-to-day in his role as Mayor Pro Tem.

Mohinder Kanda

Mohinder Kanda is a Livingston Planning Commissioner running for City Council. He previously ran for one of Livingston's two Council seats in the November 2024 election, as part of a six-candidate field, but was not among the two candidates elected. The county's own candidate list prints his ballot designation as "Planning Commissioner" and shows he did not file a candidate statement for this race.

Strengths

Already serves the city as a Planning Commissioner, and this is his second Council bid after placing outside the top two in a six-candidate field in 2024.

Trade-offs

No independent news profile, campaign website, or filed candidate statement describing his platform was found this pass.

Keep in mind

A repeat candidate: voters already passed him over once, in 2024, for the two seats then open.

Terika DeGraw

Terika DeGraw is a nonprofit program manager running for Livingston City Council. The county's own candidate list prints her ballot designation as "Nonprofit Program Manager" and shows she did not file a candidate statement for this race. This dataset found no independent news coverage or campaign website describing her platform beyond that occupational designation.

Strengths

A nonprofit program manager by profession -- the only candidate in this field whose current work centers on community services rather than city government.

Trade-offs

No independent news profile, campaign website, or filed candidate statement describing her platform was found this pass.

Keep in mind

The least documented candidate in this field beyond her name, occupation, and qualification for the ballot.

Parwinder Singh Uppal

Parwinder Singh Uppal is running for Livingston City Council, with the county's own candidate list printing his ballot designation as "Lab Scientist / Treasurer." He is the older brother of mayoral candidate Japjeet Singh Uppal, according to The Merced FOCUS. He did not file a candidate statement for this race, and this dataset found no independent news coverage or campaign website describing his platform beyond that family connection.

Strengths

A lab scientist by profession, also listing treasurer as a second occupation on his ballot filing -- one of two Uppal brothers on this November's Livingston ballot.

Trade-offs

No independent news profile, campaign website, or filed candidate statement describing his platform was found this pass.

Keep in mind

His campaign is a family affair: his younger brother Japjeet Singh Uppal is separately running for Mayor on the same ballot.

Source review: Strong (87/100) · 5 cited sources

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

  • countyofmerced.com (opens in a new tab)Merced County -- own "November 3, 2026 General Election -- All Contests -- Final Qualified Candidate List" (CFMR009 report, printed 8/25/2026): names Livingston's three city contests (Mayor, Councilmember Short Term, Councilmember) and every candidate's printed ballot designation and candidate-statement-filed status, read directly from the source PDF's Livingston section.
  • themercedfocus.org (opens in a new tab)The Merced FOCUS -- "Key city races take shape in Merced County. See who made the filing deadline" (Victor A. Patton, Aug. 9, 2026): independently confirms Mayor Jose Moran is not seeking re-election, that Japjeet Singh Uppal and Jason Roth (both sitting Councilmembers) are the two Mayor candidates, that Uppal ran unsuccessfully in the June 2026 27th Assembly District primary, that four candidates (incumbent Gurpal/"Gurpaul" Samra, Parwinder Singh Uppal, Mohinder Kanda, Terika DeGraw) are vying for two Council seats, and that Robert Wallis is the sole candidate for the short-term Council seat.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "Livingston, California": used narrowly for the fixed, dated 2020 Census population figure (14,172) and its own-worded confirmation of the council-manager government structure (a five-member Council including the Mayor) -- does not cover the 2026 election.
  • themercedfocus.org (opens in a new tab)The Merced FOCUS -- "Livingston councilman acknowledges helping police officer complete online degree, after letter sparks questions" (Elizabeth Wilson, Nov. 26, 2025): independently reports, corroborated by Uppal's own public Facebook statement quoted in the piece, that Japjeet Singh Uppal helped then-Livingston police Sgt. Wapinder Kang complete online-degree coursework for $1,000 as a 16-year-old, publicly took responsibility for it after Mayor Pro Tem Gurpal Samra read an anonymous letter alleging the same into the council record, and coaches football at Livingston High School outside of council duties.
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS -- filer searches attempted for all seven Livingston candidates: every query returned only Cal-Access's own Incapsula bot-detection challenge page, not usable results, the same block documented elsewhere in this dataset -- and Cal-Access's documented scope covers state-level filings only, which excludes local candidates in any case. No Livingston-specific local campaign-finance disclosure portal or posted FPPC filing was found on any reachable source either. Documents the absence of a reachable financial-disclosure source, not any candidate's actual finances.

Last updated September 1, 2026.