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City of Livingston · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Livingston

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 is Livingston's directly elected Mayor -- one seat on a five-member City Council (the Mayor plus four Council Members, all elected at large citywide) that sets the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Merced County city of 14,172 residents (2020 Census), home to Foster Farms' headquarters and the annual Sweet Potato Festival. The Mayor serves a two-year term.

Two current Livingston City Council members, Japjeet Singh Uppal and Jason Roth, are running for the open Mayor's seat -- incumbent Mayor Jose Moran is not seeking re-election.

Livingston's Mayor is directly elected citywide to a two-year term, separate from the city's four Council seats. The winner sits on a five-member City Council -- the Mayor plus four Council Members, all elected at large; Livingston has no council districts -- that sets the budget, land use, and city ordinances for this Merced County city of 14,172 residents (2020 Census), home to Foster Farms' headquarters and the annual Sweet Potato Festival.

Both candidates are giving up safe Council seats to run: Roth already ran for Mayor once before, losing to Moran by just nine votes in 2024, while Uppal is coming off an unsuccessful June 2026 primary bid for the 27th Assembly District seat.

Jason E. Roth

Jason E. Roth is a sitting Livingston City Council Member running for Mayor. He previously ran for Mayor in the November 2024 election, losing to incumbent Jose Moran by a mere nine votes -- 1,475 to 1,466, out of nearly 4,000 ballots cast, according to The Merced FOCUS. The county's own candidate list prints his ballot designation as "City Council Member" and shows he did not file a candidate statement for this race. This dataset found no independent news coverage or campaign website describing his current platform.

Strengths

Two elections' worth of experience courting Livingston voters citywide, and a near-miss in 2024 that suggests real support beyond his own base.

Trade-offs

No campaign website, candidate statement, or independent news profile of his 2026 platform was found beyond his repeat candidacy and current Council seat.

Keep in mind

A vote for him repeats a matchup dynamic from 2024, when he came within nine votes of winning the seat outright, though against a different opponent.

Japjeet Singh Uppal

Japjeet Singh Uppal is a sitting Livingston City Council Member running for Mayor. He was elected to the Council in November 2024; Merced County Times described him in April 2026 as 23 years old and "one of California's youngest elected officials." A registered Democrat, he ran for the 27th Assembly District seat in the June 2026 primary on a platform centered on campaign-finance and political-system reform, but was outpaced by Fresno County Supervisor Brian Pacheco and former Merced mayor Mike Murphy, who advanced to that seat's November runoff instead. Outside the Council, he coaches football at Livingston High School. In November 2025, he publicly acknowledged, in a statement to his own social media page, that as a 16-year-old high school student he was paid $1,000 to help then-Livingston police Sgt. Wapinder Kang complete online-degree coursework -- after an anonymous letter alleging the same was read into the city council record by Mayor Pro Tem Gurpal Samra -- and called it "misconduct" he takes "full responsibility" for. The county's own candidate list shows he did not file a candidate statement for this race.

Strengths

Current Council experience since 2024, a stated reform platform from his recent Assembly run, and public transparency when a past incident came to light.

Trade-offs

In 2025 he publicly acknowledged and apologized for being paid $1,000 as a teenager to help a police officer complete online-degree coursework.

Keep in mind

He already sought higher office once this cycle (state Assembly) and lost in the primary; this mayoral bid is his second campaign of 2026.

Source review: Strong (86/100) · 7 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 Mayor Jose Moran on winning his race by just nine votes and plans for the city in 2025" (Dec. 22, 2024): independently confirms Livingston's Mayor serves a two-year term, that Moran defeated Councilmember Jason Roth in the Nov. 2024 mayoral race 1,475 votes to 1,466, and describes Livingston as home to Foster Farms' headquarters and the Sweet Potato Festival.
  • mercedcountytimes.com (opens in a new tab)Merced County Times -- "Livingston's Uppal says he's fighting to put power back in people's hands" (Jonathan Whitaker, Apr. 23, 2026; written during his 27th Assembly District primary campaign): independently reports Japjeet Singh Uppal is 23 years old, "one of California's youngest elected officials," was elected to the Livingston City Council in November 2024, is a Democrat, and frames his platform around campaign-finance and system-level political reform.
  • 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.