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City of Morgan Hill · Statewide General Election

Morgan Hill City Council, District D

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 would hold one of four district seats on the Morgan Hill City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Santa Clara County city of about 45,000, alongside a separately elected, citywide Mayor (also on this ballot) and three other district Council members. A 4-year term. Districts A and C aren't up again until 2028.

Two candidates are running for Morgan Hill City Council District D: incumbent Marilyn Librers and challenger Dolores Alvarado. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright -- this is a plurality election, not ranked-choice.

This person would hold Morgan Hill's District D seat on the City Council -- covering the city's westernmost neighborhoods, west of Highway 101, per local reporting: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Santa Clara County city of about 45,000, alongside a separately elected, citywide Mayor (also on this ballot -- see that contest) and three other district Council members. A 4-year term.

District B is also contested this cycle (see that contest); Districts A and C aren't up again until 2028.

Dolores Alvarado

Dolores Alvarado has lived in Morgan Hill since 1994. She has been CEO of Community Health Partnership of Santa Clara County since 2011, capping a 46-year career in healthcare that included neighborhood-clinic, family-planning-center, and county-hospital emergency-room work and an extended career at the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, per her employer's own staff-bio page; she holds a Master's in Public Health from UC Berkeley. Her candidate statement says she's running to "give back" to the city and frames her approach around learning from the community before acting -- decisions "rooted in equity, common sense, city government, and the community's input." She names traffic and safety, housing and growth, and funding the services that keep the city livable as the big questions facing Morgan Hill, and argues health depends on more than clinics: safe streets, clean public spaces, affordable homes, and a sense of belonging.

Strengths

A deep, multi-decade public-health executive career including direct Santa Clara County government experience -- a different institutional background than Librers's.

Trade-offs

No prior Morgan Hill city-government or commission role is cited in her own statement, unlike Librers's two prior council terms and county-commissioner appointment.

Keep in mind

she frames her candidacy as still "learning more about current issues" rather than a fixed agenda -- worth weighing against Librers's specific positions.

Marilyn Librers

Marilyn Librers has lived in Morgan Hill 49 years. She served two prior Council terms from 2008-2016, was appointed a Santa Clara County Commissioner during a stretch off the Council (work she describes as partnering with the county's Asian communities), and is now finishing a third Council term (2022-2026); she currently holds the council-selected title of Mayor Pro Tem. She's retired from the Mt. Madonna YMCA in Morgan Hill, where she was the branch's first employee when it opened in 1987, and from the Pauchon Research Foundation, where she was Executive Director; she's currently president of the nonprofit China Silicon Valley Association. In her candidate statement, she centers her platform on infrastructure -- water, roads, education capacity, and traffic -- and says she'll continue pushing back on what she calls state-mandated (rather than locally controlled) housing growth, framing her position as support for "controlled growth, not mandated growth."

Strengths

The longest direct Morgan Hill city-government track record on this ballot -- two prior council terms plus a county-commissioner appointment -- and a stated housing position.

Trade-offs

As the incumbent finishing her third term, she owns her own record on the same infrastructure and growth questions her statement raises.

Keep in mind

her statement's account of exactly when she was on and off the Council is stated only in general terms ("a short time off") -- worth asking her for specifics.

Source review: Strong (89/100) · 11 cited sources

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

  • morganhill.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Morgan Hill -- "Qualified Candidates," November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election: the certified ballot roster, in Secretary of State randomized-alphabet-drawing order (drawn Aug. 13, 2026) -- Mayor (Kristopher Clayton, Deborah Africa, incumbent Mark Turner), City Council District B (Steven Hayes, incumbent Yvonne Martinez Beltran), and City Council District D (Dolores Alvarado, incumbent Marilyn Librers) -- each with a campaign-contact link and a link to that candidate's own filed Candidate Statement. Also notes that Jacob Montoya filed a Candidate Intention Statement (Form 501) for Mayor on Aug. 7, 2026 but does not appear in the qualified roster itself -- he did not complete qualification and is not on the printed ballot.
  • morganhill.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Morgan Hill -- "Elections" page: confirms the November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election, that the city partners with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters to conduct it, and links every other page this section cites (Qualified Candidates, Candidate Resources, Candidate Statements, City Council Districts).
  • morganhill.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Morgan Hill -- "City Council Districts" page: confirms the city has four lettered districts (A-D), that only Districts B and D are up for election in 2026 (A and C aren't up again until 2028), and that Council terms are staggered 4-year terms.
  • morganhill.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Morgan Hill -- "Candidate Resources" page: states Mayor is a 4-year, at-large term, City Council seats are 4-year, by-district terms, and the separately elected City Treasurer (also 4-year, at-large) -- confirming, by that Treasurer seat's own absence from the qualified-candidates roster, that no Treasurer race is on this cycle's ballot.
  • morganhill.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Morgan Hill -- "City Council" page: names the current five-member Council (Mayor Mark Turner; Miriam Vega, District A; Yvonne Martinez Beltran, District B; Soraida Iwanaga, District C; Marilyn Librers, District D / Mayor Pro Tem) and the separately elected City Treasurer, Cindy Murphy -- and links each incumbent's own official bio document.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- Morgan Hill, California: 2020 census population (45,483), incorporation in 1906, and its council-manager form of government.
  • morganhill.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)Dolores Alvarado's own filed Candidate Statement for the November 3, 2026 Morgan Hill City Council District D race -- her own words: a Morgan Hill resident since 1994, her executive-management background with the county's Public Health Department and Community Health Partnership, and a platform on traffic and safety, housing and growth, and treating health as inseparable from safe streets and affordable housing.
  • morganhill.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)Marilyn Librers's own filed Candidate Statement for the November 3, 2026 Morgan Hill City Council District D race -- her own words: a 49-year Morgan Hill resident, 8 years on the Council from 2008-2016 and now finishing a third term (2022-2026), and a platform centered on infrastructure (water, roads, traffic) and opposing what she calls state-mandated (as opposed to locally controlled) housing growth.
  • morganhill.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Morgan Hill -- Councilmember Marilyn Librers's own official biography document (2023), hosted on the city's live City Council page: a 46-year Morgan Hill resident, Parks and Recreation Commissioner 2002-2008, two prior Council terms (2008-2016), an appointed stint as a Santa Clara County Commissioner in between Council terms, and her career retiring from the Mt. Madonna YMCA and the Pauchon Research Foundation -- independent of her own 2026 campaign material.
  • chpscc.org (opens in a new tab)Community Health Partnership of Santa Clara County -- Dolores Alvarado's own staff-bio page on her employer's site: confirms she has been CEO since 2011, cites 46 years of healthcare experience including neighborhood-clinic, family-planning, and county-hospital ER roles and an "extended career" at the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, and an MPH from UC Berkeley -- independent of her own candidate statement's briefer self-description.
  • morganhilltimes.com (opens in a new tab)Morgan Hill Times -- "Candidate list is set for mayor, city council election in Morgan Hill" (Aug. 14, 2026), read in full: confirms the closed nomination period and the qualified field for Mayor and Council Districts B and D, and adds independently reported detail -- Clayton's occupation as a carpenter, Africa's as a retired registered nurse, Hayes's as a retired Gilroy fire captain and paramedic, and Alvarado's as CEO of the San Jose-based Community Health Partnership -- plus each district's rough geographic boundary.

Last updated August 31, 2026.