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City of Ontario · Statewide General Election

Ontario Mayor

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

Ontario's Mayor is directly elected citywide and presides over City Council meetings, casting a full vote alongside four district Council Members on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Day-to-day city operations are run by an appointed City Manager, not the Mayor. A 4-year term.

Mayor Paul S. Leon, who has held the office continuously since a June 2005 special election, seeks another term against three challengers: sitting District 4 councilmember Daisy Macias and two first-time candidates, Kevin Kizzee and Nicolo Lalama. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright; there is no primary or runoff.

Ontario's Mayor is directly elected citywide and presides over City Council meetings, casting a full vote alongside four district Council Members on city ordinances, the budget, and land use. Day-to-day city operations are run by an appointed City Manager, not the Mayor. A 4-year term.

Leon was first appointed to the City Council in 1998, elected in his own right in 1999, re-elected in 2000 and 2004, then won the Mayor's office in a June 2005 special election and has been re-elected every four years since (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022). Macias, by contrast, has been on the council for less than two years: she was appointed to the District 4 seat in December 2024 and is now seeking a different, citywide office rather than re-election to her own district seat, which isn't up again until 2028. Kizzee and Lalama are both first-time candidates with no city or county public record found beyond their filed ballot designations.

Paul Leon

Paul S. Leon is Ontario's incumbent Mayor, in office continuously since a June 2005 special election and re-elected in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022. He also serves as Senior Pastor of "Hope Chapel" Church and represents Ontario on several regional bodies, including the Southern California Association of Governments and Omnitrans, per the city's own biography.

Strengths

Two decades as Mayor -- more executive experience in this office than any other candidate has anywhere in city government -- plus multiple regional-agency leadership roles.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage evaluating his mayoral record was found in this pass; financial info for this race could not be retrieved (see note below).

Keep in mind

Twenty-plus years in the same office is a long tenure -- worth weighing against the continuity and name recognition it has built for him among voters.

Daisy Macias

Daisy Macias is Ontario's District 4 Council Member, appointed to that seat in December 2024, now running for the citywide office of Mayor instead of seeking a full elected term of her own on the council. A lifelong Ontario resident, she holds an associate's degree in business management and works in community relations and outreach for the Hope through Housing Foundation; she previously served as President of the Library Board and as a Parks and Recreation Commissioner, per the city's own biography. Her own campaign site (macias4ontario.com) was a "Launching Soon" placeholder with no platform content as of this retrieval.

Strengths

Sitting council experience since 2024, plus prior appointed service on the Library Board and Parks and Recreation Commission.

Trade-offs

Under two years of elected experience against a 20-year incumbent Mayor; her own campaign site offers no platform detail yet; financial info could not be retrieved (see note below).

Keep in mind

She's running for a different office than the one she currently holds -- if she wins, her own District 4 seat (not up again until 2028) would need to be filled separately.

Kevin Kizzee

Kevin Kizzee is a challenger for Ontario Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Small Business Owner." No independent information about his background or platform was found in this research pass beyond his filed ballot designation.

Strengths

None could be documented in this research pass.

Trade-offs

No campaign site, news coverage, or independent profile was found beyond the filed ballot designation.

Keep in mind

A first-time candidate with no public record yet is not necessarily weaker -- only less documented; weigh the ballot designation on its own.

Nicolo Lalama

Nicolo Lalama is a challenger for Ontario Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "University Student." No independent information about his background or platform was found in this research pass beyond his filed ballot designation.

Strengths

None could be documented in this research pass.

Trade-offs

No campaign site, news coverage, or independent profile was found beyond the filed ballot designation.

Keep in mind

A first-time candidate with no public record yet is not necessarily weaker -- only less documented; weigh the ballot designation on its own.

Source review: Strong (84/100) · 8 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Daisy Macias for Ontario -- campaign site: as of this retrieval, a "Launching Soon" placeholder with an email sign-up form and no platform, biography, or endorsement content may have more bias because it is an advocacy voter guide compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

  • uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- "Offices Up for Election, November 3, 2026, General Election": lists County Board of Education Areas A, B, and D (under the School category) as the county's only expiring-term seats this cycle -- no Board of Supervisors, row office, or Superior Court seat appears anywhere in the 11-page document
  • uploads.rov.sbcounty.gov (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters -- statewide "Report_CandidateList.pdf" candidate-filing report (the same document as sb-candidate-list-2026, a different section): within its "City of Ontario" section (pp. 158-163 of 249), three contests appear, each "Number to be elected: 1" -- Mayor (4 candidates: Kevin Kizzee, Nicolo Lalama, Paul Leon [flagged Incumbent], Daisy Macias), Member of the City Council District 2 (2 candidates: Ruben Valencia, Stephanie Martinez, neither flagged Incumbent), and District 3 (4 candidates: D'Andre Lampkin, Michael Rios, Larry Trinidad, Alan Wapner, none flagged Incumbent).
  • ontarioca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Ontario -- City Clerk's municipal-elections page: states directly, "City Council Districts 2 and 3 will be up for election in November 2026, along with the office of Mayor... November 2028: Districts 1 and 4," and that "Residents vote for the City Council candidate representing the district in which they live. The Mayor is elected citywide."
  • ontarioca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Ontario -- "City Council" roster page: names the current 5 members -- Paul S. Leon (Mayor), Debra Porada (Mayor Pro Tem), Alan D. Wapner, Jim W. Bowman, and Daisy Macias -- with no Milhiser or Valencia remaining on the current roster; the page's own general intro paragraph still reads "All Council Members serve at large," stale boilerplate contradicted by this page's own district-specific bio pages for Porada and Macias and by the city's separate municipal-elections and districts-archive pages.
  • ontarioca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Ontario -- Mayor Paul S. Leon's own official bio page: appointed to the City Council in 1998, elected 1999 and re-elected 2000 and 2004, elected Mayor in a June 2005 special election and re-elected in November 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 (current term "December 2022 - December 2026"); also Senior Pastor of "Hope Chapel" Church; regional board service with SCAG, SANBAG, and Omnitrans.
  • ontarioca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Ontario -- Council Member Daisy Macias's own official bio page: "Current Term: December 2024 - December 2028," appointed to her first term representing the 4th District in December 2024; lifelong Ontario resident, an associate's degree in business management, community-relations work with the Hope through Housing Foundation, prior Library Board President and Parks and Recreation Commissioner.
  • macias4ontario.com (opens in a new tab)Daisy Macias for Ontario -- campaign site: as of this retrieval, a "Launching Soon" placeholder with an email sign-up form and no platform, biography, or endorsement content.
  • public.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County's public NetFile campaign-finance portal (public.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=SBD), queried directly by name via its own QuickNameSearch API for all ten 2026 Ontario candidates: nine names returned no filer (Kizzee, Lalama, Macias, Wapner, Valencia, Martinez, Lampkin, Rios, Trinidad); a "Leon, Paul" filer exists but its filing history (2013 Assembly and Senate runs, a 2016 OMSD school-board run) never includes an Ontario City Council or Mayor filing, treated as very likely a different, same-named person rather than Mayor Paul S. Leon; a decade-old "Valencia 4 City Council 2016" committee surfaced but names no candidate or city and isn't assumed connected to 2026 District 2 candidate Ruben Valencia.

Last updated August 31, 2026.