# Modesto City Council, District 2 Compare records and positions simply between Eric E. Alvarez, Jon Rodriguez, or Juan Telles for Modesto City Council, District 2 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person would represent one of Modesto's six City Council districts. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. Modesto is Stanislaus County's largest city and county seat. It has 218,464 residents. A professional city manager runs day-to-day operations. The elected council sets city policy. The Mayor is elected citywide to a 4-year term. The Mayor's seat is not on this ballot. The six council seats are elected by district for staggered 4-year terms. Districts 2, 4, and 5 are up this November. - Jurisdiction: City of Modesto - Election: November 3, 2026 California general election - Publisher: Vote or Else (https://voteorelse.com) — a free, nonpartisan ballot guide for California voters. No endorsements. - Canonical page: https://voteorelse.com/2026/modesto-council-2 - Full ballot: this page covers one race. Every contest on a voter's own ballot, by address, with the same breakdown for each: https://voteorelse.com/ - Sources last retrieved: October 7, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 86 out of 100 (Strong), across 9 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Eric E. Alvarez** — Modesto City Councilmember · Incumbent - **Jon Rodriguez** — Merchant Mariner - **Juan Telles** — Non-Profit Project Coordinator A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Eric Alvarez, seeking a second term on Modesto's City Council, faces two challengers for District 2: Jon Rodriguez, a merchant mariner, and Juan Telles, a nonprofit project coordinator running a grassroots-funded campaign. Modesto is Stanislaus County's largest city and county seat. About 218,464 people live there, per the 2020 Census. It operates under a council-manager government. An elected City Council sets policy. A professional City Manager runs day-to-day operations. The Mayor is elected at-large citywide and isn't up this cycle. The six Council seats are elected by district to staggered 4-year terms. Districts 2, 4, and 5 are on this November's ballot. District 2 is a genuinely contested three-way race. It is the only one of Modesto's three council seats this cycle to draw more than two candidates. Both challengers filed on August 6, 2026. That was the day before the filing deadline closed. Alvarez had already filed for re-election in late July. The two challengers' campaigns look very different on paper. Telles built a small, itemized, individually-funded operation. Rodriguez has no campaign committee of any kind on file with the city. ## Eric E. Alvarez The incumbent, whose ballot designation is simply "Modesto City Councilmember." Alvarez filed for re-election on July 29, 2026, three days before the six-day window that followed (an incumbent's early filing doesn't extend the deadline the way a non-filing incumbent's absence can). Their campaign has raised the most of any District 2 candidate this cycle. **Strengths:** A sitting councilmember with an active fundraising operation: $10,833 raised in the first half of 2026 from a mix of PACs, public-safety unions and a fellow councilmember. **Trade-offs:** Several campaign payments went to CJ & Associates, Inc., a firm their own paperwork ties to them through a shared Lakeport address and email domain, a pattern worth weighing. **Keep in mind:** Their donors include both of Modesto's public-safety employee associations and two political action committees, a broader institutional base than either challenger has. ## Jon Rodriguez A first-time candidate for elected office, with the ballot designation "Merchant Mariner." He filed on August 6, 2026, the day before the filing deadline closed. No campaign committee or financial filing of any kind was found for him with the City of Modesto, and no independent news coverage of his candidacy has been found. **Strengths:** An occupational background as a merchant mariner that differs from either opponent's, though no further detail about it could be independently verified. **Trade-offs:** No prior public office and no public record of campaign activity: no committee, no filed statements and no coverage found despite a genuine search. **Keep in mind:** The absence of a committee does not mean no campaign activity, since California candidates can raise or spend up to $2,000 before a committee is required. ## Juan Telles His campaign-finance filings identify his employer as Valley Improvement Projects (VIP), matching his ballot designation "Non-Profit Project Coordinator." He filed on August 6, 2026, the day before the deadline closed, and has run a small, grassroots-funded campaign, including a Cinco de Mayo parade appearance and a community launch event. In his Vote411 questionnaire he describes years of work and volunteering across the district's neighborhoods, grant-winning and program-management experience, and board seats at the Bay Valley Tech, the West Modesto Community Collaborative and the Latino Community Roundtable. He also describes himself as a father raising his children in West Modesto. His priorities answer is a one-line list of three broad themes, not a detailed platform: housing and jobs; community safety and infrastructure; and public inclusion and responsiveness. He describes his values as people-centered and focused on affordability. **Strengths:** A grassroots campaign with $4,039.04 raised almost entirely in $100-300 contributions, plus, by his own account, years of neighborhood work and three local board seats. **Trade-offs:** No prior public office, and his priorities answer names three broad themes without specifics, so his positions are less clear. A $550 loan from his own treasurer helped start the campaign. **Keep in mind:** His background and priorities are his own account in a questionnaire, and no independent news coverage of his campaign has been found. ## Sources 1. [Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters -- official "Unofficial Candidate List," General Election Nov. 3, 2026 (document timestamped by the county 7:57 AM 8/31/2026): under "MUNICIPAL OFFICES / CITY OF MODESTO," lists exactly three contests -- Council Member, District 2 (Vote for 1: *Eric E. Alvarez, Jon Rodriguez, Juan Telles), Council Member, District 4 (Vote for 1: *Nick Bavaro), and Council Member, District 5 (Vote for 1: *Jeremiah Williams, Jared Sylvia) -- with no Modesto Mayor contest and no county-level Stanislaus office anywhere in the document.](https://www.stanvote.gov/pdf/candidate-list.pdf) 2. [City of Modesto -- own "2026 General Municipal Election" page: confirms "Council Districts 2, 4, and 5" are up in November 2026, that the Mayor is "elected at-large on a nonpartisan basis for four-year terms" and not on this ballot, and gives the candidate nomination period (July 13 - Aug. 7, 2026).](https://www.modestogov.com/399/City-Election-Information) 3. [City of Modesto -- own "Election Candidate List - Sign Up List" page (the City Clerk's real-time filing record): District 2 -- Eric E. Alvarez (incumbent, filed 7/29/2026), Juan Telles (filed 8/6/2026), Jon Rodriguez (filed 8/6/2026); District 4 -- Nick Bavaro (incumbent, filed 7/20/2026), plus Matthew Gonzalez and Tyler Anthony Slacks, both marked "DID NOT RETURN" their nomination papers; District 5 -- Jeremiah Williams (incumbent, filed 7/24/2026), Jared Sylvia (filed 8/6/2026) -- independently corroborates the county's roster and supplies exact filing dates.](https://www.modestogov.com/411/Election-Candidate-List---Sign-Up-List) 4. [City of Modesto -- own "Council Members" page (live roster): Mayor Sue Zwahlen (at-large), District 1 Rosa Escutia-Braaton, District 2 Eric E. Alvarez, District 3 Chris Ricci, District 4 Nick Bavaro, District 5 Vice Mayor Jeremiah Williams, District 6 David Wright -- confirms the 6-district-plus-at-large-Mayor structure and that each incumbent listed above is the sitting officeholder for their district.](https://www.modestogov.com/706/Council-Members) 5. [Wikipedia -- "Modesto, California": used narrowly for its 2020 Census population figure (218,464) and for confirming the council-manager government type and the at-large-Mayor/by-district-council structure; its named current officials were not used where the city's own live pages (see modesto-cityclerk-councilmembers-2026) could confirm the same facts more directly.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modesto,_California) 6. [Eric Alvarez's committee ("Eric Alvarez for City Council 2026") FPPC Form 460, semi-annual statement for 1/1-6/30/2026, filed 7/31/2026, downloaded via the City of Modesto's NetFile public API and read directly: $10,833 raised and $10,110.11 spent this period, $8,878.99 cash on hand. Itemized contributors include Stronger Valley PAC ($2,500), Latino PAC of Stanislaus County ($2,000), the Modesto Police Officers Association ($2,000), the Modesto City Fire Fighters Association Local 1289 PAC ($1,289), IBEW Local 684 ($684), fellow councilmembers Jeremiah Williams ($200) and Rosa Escutia-Braaton ($100), and consultant Kristin Olsen of California Strategies ($125). Expenditures include $2,507.95 to Austin Sign Works for campaign signage and roughly $3,000 across several payments to Natalie Padilla dba CV Marketing Group, plus smaller payments to CJ & Associates, Inc. -- Alvarez's own consulting firm, per its Lakeport address and "cjandassociatesinc.com" domain matching the committee's own filed contact email.](https://netfile.com/api/public/sites/api/CampaignDocuments/download/217120948?aid=MOD&name=Alvarez&date=2026-07-31&form=460) 7. [Juan Telles's committee ("Community for Juan Telles 2026 Modesto City Council District 2") FPPC Form 460, semi-annual statement for 1/1-6/30/2026, filed 7/31/2026, downloaded via the City of Modesto's NetFile public API and read directly: $4,039.04 raised (including a $550 loan from treasurer Analisa Freitas) and $2,839.44 spent this period, $1,199.60 cash on hand. Contributions are mostly $100-300 from individual Modesto residents, several identifying Valley Improvement Projects (VIP) as their employer -- the nonprofit matching Telles's own "Non-Profit Project Coordinator" ballot designation. Expenditures include $350 for Cinco de Mayo parade participation (paid to Stanislaus Multicultural Businesses United) and roughly $1,480 for a campaign launch event (catering, desserts, a DJ).](https://netfile.com/api/public/sites/api/CampaignDocuments/download/217134161?aid=MOD&name=Telles&date=2026-07-31&form=460) 8. [A negative-result campaign-finance check: the City of Modesto's own NetFile public API (QuickNameSearch, aid=MOD) returned zero candidates, committees, or filings of any kind under the name "Rodriguez" as of this session's retrieval. Documents the absence of any campaign committee for Jon Rodriguez, not a claim about his actual finances -- California candidates may raise or spend up to $2,000 without triggering the state's committee-formation threshold.](https://netfile.com/api/public/sites/api/QuickNameSearch?aid=MOD&query=Rodriguez) 9. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Modesto City Council Member, District 2' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's questions -- If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?; What background, experience and/or education qualify you for this elected office? Answers on file from Juan Telles. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/modesto-council-2.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) ## The rest of the ballot Modesto City Council, District 2 is one contest among the many a California voter decides on November 3, 2026 — Congress, the Legislature, county, city, and school board races differ by address. Vote or Else builds the full list for any California address and breaks down each contest the way this page does, with no account and without storing the address: https://voteorelse.com/ ## How to cite this page Vote or Else, "Modesto City Council, District 2 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/modesto-council-2 (sources last retrieved October 7, 2026). Link the canonical page above rather than this Markdown file. Coverage is updated as the race develops, so quote it with its retrieval date.