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City of Mcfarland · Statewide General Election

Mayor of McFarland

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 presides over McFarland City Council meetings and represents the city publicly, but votes as one of five members (the Mayor plus four district councilmembers) on the budget and city ordinances -- day-to-day city government runs through an appointed city manager. Elected citywide, unlike the four district council seats. A 4-year term.

Only one candidate qualified for Mayor this cycle: Ricardo Cano, the city's sitting Vice Mayor and District 4 councilmember, appears unopposed for the open seat — so this contest is settled and your vote here does not change the outcome.

McFarland's Mayor presides over City Council meetings and represents the city publicly, but votes as one of five members (the Mayor plus four district councilmembers) on the budget and city ordinances — day-to-day city government runs through an appointed city manager. Unlike the four district council seats, the Mayor is elected citywide. A 4-year term.

Incumbent Mayor Saul Ayon did not file for reelection, leaving the seat open. Cano is running for Mayor while keeping his own District 4 council seat, which isn't up again until 2028 — so a Cano win would not itself create a second, District 4 vacancy this cycle. Beyond his current city title and filed ballot designation, McFarland's own site publishes no officeholder biographies, and no independent profile of Cano — Ballotpedia, local news, or his own campaign material — could be found this cycle despite a real search effort; this dataset does not speculate about his background or platform.

Ricardo Cano

The city's sitting Vice Mayor, elected to the District 4 council seat (term runs through November 2028), now running unopposed for the open, citywide Mayor's seat. His filed ballot designation is "Vice Mayor." No further biographical detail — occupation, background, or stated priorities — could be confirmed from any reachable source.

Strengths

Already serving on the council as Vice Mayor, with a District 4 term that continues on its own schedule regardless of this race's outcome.

Trade-offs

No documented citywide record yet as an at-large officeholder — the Mayor's seat answers to a different, citywide constituency than his council district.

Keep in mind

Running unopposed means his mayoral platform faces no public test this cycle, and this dataset could not confirm one from any reachable source — treat the absence of a documented platform as a research gap, not a comment on Cano himself.

Source review: Strong (88/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

  • media-002-us.cdn.govstack.com (opens in a new tab)City of McFarland, Office of the City Clerk -- "Certified List of Candidates," General Municipal Election, November 3, 2026, signed and sealed by City Clerk Erika De La Cruz, dated Aug. 13, 2026: certifies Ricardo Cano ("Vice Mayor") for Mayor; Maria T. Perez ("Appointed Incumbent") for Council District 1 (Full Term); Martin Gutierrez ("Appointed Incumbent") for Council District 2 (Short Term); and M. Anita Gonzalez ("Incumbent") for Council District 3 (Full Term) -- one certified candidate per seat, none submitting a Candidate Statement
  • mcfarlandcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of McFarland's own 2026 General Municipal Election page: confirms Mayor (4-year term), Council District 1 (4-year term), Council District 2 (2-year Short Term), and Council District 3 (4-year term) as the four offices up Nov. 3, 2026, with a July 13-Aug. 7, 2026 filing period and a link to the Certified List of Candidates; states no City Clerk or City Treasurer seat is up this cycle
  • mcfarlandcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of McFarland's own "District Election Process" page: the city adopted district-based Council elections (the "red" map) on March 14, 2024; the Mayor continues to be elected citywide every 4 years; Districts 2 and 4 were first elected under the new map in 2024, and Districts 1 and 3 follow in 2026, with elections thereafter every 4 years
  • mcfarlandcity.org (opens in a new tab)City of McFarland's own Council Members roster page: Mayor Saul Ayon (term expires Nov. 2026, not seeking reelection per the certified candidate list); Maria Perez, District 1 (term expires Nov. 2026); Martin Gutierrez, District 2 (term expires Nov. 2026); Anita Gonzalez, District 3 (term expires Nov. 2026); and Ricardo Cano, Vice Mayor, District 4 (term expires Nov. 2028, not up this cycle)
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's McFarland, California article: population 14,161 (2020 census); a San Joaquin Valley city in Kern County, about 25 miles northwest of Bakersfield and 6.5 miles south of Delano; founded 1909, incorporated 1957
  • kernvote.com (opens in a new tab)A negative-result attempt to independently cross-check McFarland's contests against Kern County's own "Contest/Candidate Proof List": kernvote.com returned HTTP 403 ("Access Denied," a WAF block) for both the county's Nov. 3, 2026 general-election landing page and a previously-cited kernvote.com document URL, including a retry with TLS verification disabled to rule out an unrelated expired-certificate error the site also threw intermittently -- the same WAF pattern already documented this session for Tehachapi; no browser tool was reachable this run
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)A negative-result campaign-finance check: California's Cal-Access filer database covers state-level contests only and this dataset's own cached statewide snapshot carries no filer under any of the four McFarland candidates' names; McFarland's own City Clerk page describes the office as the FPPC filing officer for Statements of Economic Interests only, with no online campaign Form 460/461 filing portal found

Last updated September 1, 2026.