murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta City Clerk -- "Qualified Candidates Contact List for Member of the City Council Districts 1, 2, and 5": names every candidate who qualified for the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election by district (Jon Levell, District 1; Joshua Barton, Ron Holliday, and Keelan McCullough, District 2; Luiz Valdez Jr. and Cindy Warren, District 5), and states explicitly "No other qualified candidates for District 1."
murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta City Clerk -- "List of Nomination Papers Issued and Filed for Member of the City Council Districts 1, 2 and 5," updated Aug. 7, 2026 (the close of the nomination period): gives each candidate's full legal name (Joshua Morgan Barton, not just "Joshua Barton") and filing/qualification dates, corroborating the qualified-candidates list above with a second, later-dated city record.
murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta -- "Elections" / Election Central page: states the Nov. 3, 2026 General Municipal Election's nomination period (July 13 -- Aug. 7, 2026) and voter-registration deadline (Oct. 19, 2026), that Council members are "elected by-district," and cites Elections Code section 10227's district-residency requirement for candidates.
murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta -- "City Council" government page: lists the current 5-member, by-district Council -- Jon Levell (Mayor, District 1), Ron Holliday (Mayor Pro Tempore, District 2), Lisa DeForest (District 3), Lori Stone (District 4), Cindy Warren (District 5) -- corroborating each 2026 incumbent's district and office, and showing the Mayor/Mayor Pro Tem titles attached to district seats rather than a separately elected office.
voteinfo.net (opens in a new tab)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")
en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia -- "Murrieta, California": lists the current Mayor (Cindy Warren per this dataset's retrieval -- see note below), Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council, independently corroborating that Jon Levell, Ron Holliday, and Cindy Warren are sitting councilmembers; describes the city as a "Council-manager" government but does not explain Mayor selection or give council term lengths. (Wikipedia's own snapshot listed Cindy Warren, not Jon Levell, as Mayor -- an apparent lag behind the city's own current page, which this dataset follows as the more authoritative, more frequently updated source; Wikipedia is cited here only for roster corroboration, not for the Mayor title.)
murrietaca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta -- Cindy Warren council-member biography page: founded a design, print, and promotional-products business at 24, operating for 42 years; moved to Murrieta in fall 2013; stated priorities are public safety, economic development, infrastructure/traffic, government transparency, and parks; active with the Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber of Commerce since 2014 (2018 Ambassador of the Year, 2021 Citizen of the Year).
netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Murrieta NetFile — public campaign-disclosure search

Last updated September 3, 2026.

City of Murrieta

Murrieta City Council, District 5

This person holds your district's seat on Murrieta's City Council. The council has five members. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. The council picks one of its own members to serve as Mayor. It picks another to serve as Mayor Pro Tem. These titles rotate rather than being separately elected. An appointed city manager runs day to day operations.

Incumbent Cindy Warren is running for Murrieta's District 5 City Council seat. Her challenger is Luiz Valdez Jr.

The winner holds one of five district seats on Murrieta's City Council, a 4-year term. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem -- the titles rotate rather than being separately elected -- and day-to-day operations run through an appointed city manager. Whoever gets more votes wins; Murrieta elects its council directly, with no primary.

Warren filed and qualified July 30, 2026; Valdez qualified August 4, per the city's own nomination-papers record. No independent biography, occupation, or platform statement was found for Valdez beyond that record -- a documented gap: name searches across four search engines returned nothing relevant or were blocked by automated-traffic challenges this research could not clear, and a Facebook search returned no result.

Cindy Warren

Cindy Warren is the incumbent District 5 councilmember. She founded a design and print business at 24 that has run for 42 years. She moved to Murrieta in 2013 and was the Chamber's 2018 Ambassador of the Year.

Luiz Valdez Jr.

Luiz Valdez Jr. is a challenger who is not a sitting officeholder. They qualified for the ballot on August 4, 2026. No information about their background or platform was found beyond the city's filing record.

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A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot.

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