# Oakland City Council, District 6 Compare records and positions simply between Kevin E. Jenkins or Nancy S. Sidebotham for Oakland City Council, District 6 at VoteOrElse.com. On the November 3, 2026 California general election ballot. This person holds your district's seat on Oakland's 8-member City Council. They vote on city laws, the budget, and land use. - Jurisdiction: City of Oakland - 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/oakland-council-6 - 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 6, 2026 - Source-objectivity score: 91 out of 100 (Very strong), across 5 cited sources. This grades the mix of sources, not the candidates. Rubric: https://voteorelse.com/about#methodology ## On the ballot - **Kevin E. Jenkins** — City Council President · Incumbent - **Nancy S. Sidebotham** — Tax Preparer A nonpartisan office: candidates do not run as Democrats or Republicans, and no party appears on the ballot. Council President Kevin E. Jenkins, elected in 2022, faces Nancy S. Sidebotham on the ranked-choice ballot for District 6 — Eastmont, the Coliseum area, Millsmont, Merritt College and part of Skyline Boulevard. The winner holds one of eight district seats on the Oakland City Council. They vote on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. The term is four years. This race carries more institutional weight than most district seats: Jenkins currently presides over the council and served as interim mayor in early 2025, so his record is partly the council's own. Sidebotham is a persistent local candidate with a long advocacy history and no elected service. ## Kevin E. Jenkins The sitting councilmember and council president, elected in 2022. He served as interim mayor in early 2025 and helped introduce a budget that closed a shortfall without cutting jobs; his council site describes his aim as creating opportunity for all Oaklanders (per the Oaklandside). **Strengths:** A full term plus the council presidency and a stint as interim mayor, and a budget that closed a shortfall without job cuts. **Trade-offs:** As president he owns the council's collective record, so citywide frustrations attach to him more than to a rank-and-file member. **Keep in mind:** Presiding officers trade district attention for citywide influence; his record should be read against that trade. His platform comes from press coverage. ## Nancy S. Sidebotham A tax preparer and longtime advocate on Oakland issues including crime prevention and local businesses. She ran for the at-large council seat in 2024, for this District 6 seat in 2022, and for the at-large seat in 2016 (per the Oaklandside). In her Vote411 questionnaire she describes a history degree, work as a tax preparer, what she calls a forty-year track record, and deep knowledge of the city Charter, ordinances, personnel and budget. Her three stated priorities are public education on legal processes and limits under the Charter; essential-level staffing for effective service; and basic infrastructure and public safety on a sustainable budget, reached through outside fiscal and performance audits. On city finances she names a Charter change letting the auditor perform fiscal audits and an HR review of new hires. On Democracy Dollars she says qualification, oversight and spending rules would need settling first. Her answers are brief, and two of them end mid-sentence. **Strengths:** Decades of sustained civic engagement on crime prevention and small business, and deep Charter and budget knowledge by her own account. **Trade-offs:** Three prior campaigns without winning, and no elected or appointed city service to judge. **Keep in mind:** A challenger's function against the council president may be forcing a public accounting of the council's record. Some of her questionnaire answers are fragmentary, so her own stated case is thin. ## Financial info - **Kevin E. Jenkins** — $132,526 raised (Small donors: $851; Individuals: $81,075; PACs & committees: $18,700; Businesses & other orgs: $31,900) Nancy S. Sidebotham has no campaign committee with filings on record with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission for this race. Figures are CA Form 460 filings through 2026-06-30, per the Oakland Public Ethics Commission's e-filed transaction exports, retrieved 2026-09-21. ## Sources 1. [Oakland City Clerk — Nov 2026 Election Qualified Candidate List (final, in ballot order, with ballot designations)](https://www.oaklandca.gov/files/assets/city/v/20/city-clerk/documents/elections/nov-2026-election-qualified-candidate-list.pdf) 2. [Oakland City Clerk qualified-candidate list for November 3, 2026, as published by The Oaklandside (2026-08-10)](https://oaklandside.org/2026/08/10/election-2026-oakland-candidate-list-mayor-council-school-board/) 3. [Ballotpedia — City elections in Oakland, California (2026)](https://ballotpedia.org/City_elections_in_Oakland,_California_(2026)) 4. [League of Women Voters -- Vote411 voter guide, 'City of Oakland City Council Member, District 6' race (statewide All Races list): each candidate's self-submitted ballot designation and campaign contacts, plus answers to the League's four questions -- top three priorities; qualifying background; steps to stabilize city finances and grow revenue; priority for Democracy Dollars. Answers on file from Nancy S. Sidebotham, brief and partly cut off. Capture in data/nov-2026/sources/vote411/oakland-council-6.json.](https://www.vote411.org/plan-your-vote) 5. [Oakland Public Ethics Commission — e-filed campaign-finance transactions (NetFile)](https://netfile.com/public/coak/campaign) ## The rest of the ballot Oakland City Council, District 6 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, "Oakland City Council, District 6 — November 3, 2026 California general election," https://voteorelse.com/2026/oakland-council-6 (sources last retrieved October 6, 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.