# Moreno Valley City Council, District 4 Compare records and positions simply between Nikita Wilson, Steven Granda Alvarado, and 1 more for Moreno Valley City Council, District 4 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Moreno Valley's four-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. Only two of the four districts are up in any given November. Moreno Valley's Mayor is elected separately, citywide, to a two-year term. - Jurisdiction: City of Moreno Valley - 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/moreno-valley-council-4 - 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: 90 out of 100 (Very strong), across 8 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Nikita Wilson** — Caregiver - **Steven Granda Alvarado** — Businessowner / Nonprofit Cofounder - **Cheylynda Barnard** — Moreno Valley City Councilmember District 4 · Incumbent A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Incumbent Cheylynda Barnard faces two challengers, Nikita Wilson and Steven Granda Alvarado, for Moreno Valley's District 4 City Council seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot. Whoever gets the most votes wins a four-year term; there is no primary or runoff. This person holds your district's seat on Moreno Valley's 4-member City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Terms are four years, staggered so only two of the four districts are up in any given November. Moreno Valley's Mayor is directly elected citywide to a separate 2-year term -- unlike most nearby cities, where the mayor's title rotates among sitting councilmembers -- and day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. Barnard's incumbency is confirmed against the city's own current council roster. No independent news coverage, campaign site, or biographical detail beyond each candidate's own ballot designation was found for any of the three despite targeted searches for each by name. ## Nikita Wilson Nikita Wilson is a challenger running on the ballot designation "Caregiver." No independent biography, occupation detail, or platform statement was found for them beyond the city's own certified candidate record. **Strengths:** None could be independently confirmed beyond the ballot designation "Caregiver." **Trade-offs:** No independent biography, professional background, or stated platform was found beyond that designation. **Keep in mind:** No public record of their priorities was found beyond the ballot designation, so a vote rests on that designation alone, not a documented record. ## Cheylynda Barnard Cheylynda Barnard is the incumbent District 4 councilmember, seeking another term. The city's own current council roster confirms they hold the seat. No independent biography, occupation detail, or platform statement beyond their ballot designation was found for them. **Strengths:** Already serving in the seat, which gives them institutional continuity and name recognition if reelected. **Trade-offs:** No independent biography, professional background, or stated platform was found for them beyond their incumbency and ballot designation. **Keep in mind:** With no public record of their priorities beyond continuing in office, this is in part a vote on continuity itself. ## Steven Granda Alvarado Steven Granda Alvarado is a challenger running on the ballot designation "Businessowner / Nonprofit Cofounder." No independent biography, occupation detail, or platform statement was found for them beyond the city's own certified candidate record. In their Vote411 questionnaire they describe a family that settled in Moreno Valley when they were a child, a Rancho Verde High School diploma, and a political science degree from Cal State San Marcos. They also describe co-founding a food-assistance nonprofit, We Are MoVal, working at the Moreno Valley Business & Employment Resource Center, and running a small business as a licensed notary. Their three stated priorities are housing affordability, by cutting red tape and speeding permits for affordable projects; requiring community workforce agreements on any development in the city, with local hiring, strong wages and benefits; and environmental health, by speeding the logistics and warehouse sector's move to sustainable energy, since they say the sector's pollution harms residents. **Strengths:** Names three specific priorities and describes nonprofit, small-business and employment-center experience, by their own account. **Trade-offs:** Requiring workforce agreements on every development adds a condition for builders, a cost if you want fewer mandates on new projects. **Keep in mind:** Their background and results are self-reported in a candidate questionnaire and were not independently confirmed. ## Sources 1. [City of Moreno Valley -- "City Council" government page: "In 2014, voters approved the direct election of a City Mayor"; describes a directly elected, at-large Mayor plus a 4-member City Council elected by district, and lists the current roster (Mayor Ulises Cabrera; District 1, Elena Baca-Santa Cruz; District 2, Ed A. Delgado; District 3, Erlan Gonzalez, Mayor Pro Tem; District 4, Cheylynda Barnard). Fetched directly, with no bot-blocking.](https://www.moval.org/city_council/index.html) 2. [City of Moreno Valley -- City Clerk "General Election Info" page: the Mayor serves a 2-year term elected at large; Councilmembers serve staggered 4-year terms by district; general municipal elections are held in even-numbered years; for November 3, 2026 the offices up are the Mayor and the District 2 and District 4 Council seats.](https://www.moval.org/departments/city-clerk/general-election-info.html) 3. [City of Moreno Valley -- City Clerk "2026 Election" page: November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election overview naming all 6 Mayoral candidates (Jaime Hurtado, Ulises Cabrera, Rylee Joseph Peak, Christopher Baca, Patsy Brown, Vanessa Moore) and all 3 candidates each for District 2 (David Zeitz, Liza Arellano, JoAnn Martinez Stephan) and District 4 (Nikita Wilson, Cheylynda Barnard, Steven Granda Alvarado), with links to each candidate's FPPC campaign-finance disclosure forms.](https://www.moval.org/departments/city-clerk/2026-election.html) 4. [City of Moreno Valley -- City Clerk-certified "Candidate List, November 3 2026 General Election" (signed and dated August 27, 2026): the qualified-candidates-only roster for Mayor, City Council District 2 and City Council District 4, with each candidate's ballot designation and randomized ballot-order number.](https://www.moval.org/departments/city-clerk/pdfs/c-forms/2026-election/2026-qualified-candidate-packet.pdf) 5. [City of Moreno Valley -- City Clerk "2026 Candidate Information" tracker, "List of Nomination Papers Issued and Filed for Members of the City Council: Mayor, District 2 and District 4" (updated August 7, 2026): the same 12 candidates as the certified candidate list, with each one's nomination-paper pull, filing, and Registrar-of-Voters qualification dates.](https://www.moval.org/departments/city-clerk/pdfs/2026_Council_Candidate_Information_ElectionTracker.pdf) 6. [Riverside County Registrar of Voters — 2026 Annual Election Calendar (lists every November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election office by city, including "City of Cathedral City: City Council District 3 / District 4 / District 5 / City Treasurer")](https://voteinfo.net/sites/g/files/aldnop371/files/2026-02/Annual%20Election%20Calendar%202026.pdf) 7. [City of Moreno Valley NetFile — public campaign-disclosure search](https://netfile.com/public/CMV/campaign/search-entities) 8. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Moreno Valley City Council Member, District 4' 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 Steven Granda Alvarado. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/moreno-valley-council-4.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) ## The rest of the ballot Moreno Valley City Council, District 4 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, "Moreno Valley City Council, District 4 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/moreno-valley-council-4 (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.