City of Rancho Cucamonga · Statewide General Election
Rancho Cucamonga 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
- Marjorie Hamada — Business Owner / Attorney
- Oliver King — Business Owner / Attorney
- Lynne B. Kennedy — Mayor Pro Tem
- Michael R. Perez — Retired
- Jaskirat Sondh — Businessman
Rancho Cucamonga directly elects its Mayor citywide, separate from the City Council: presides at Council meetings and votes as a full member of the 5-person body (Mayor plus four district councilmembers), which sets city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this general-law, council-manager city. A 4-year term with no term limits; day-to-day operations run through an appointed City Manager.
Five candidates are running for Rancho Cucamonga's open Mayor seat on the November 3, 2026 ballot: Mayor Pro Tem Lynne B. Kennedy, businessman Jaskirat Sondh, attorneys Marjorie Hamada and Oliver King, and retiree Michael R. Perez. Four-term incumbent L. Dennis Michael, Mayor since 2010, did not file for another term -- campaign-finance records show his own 2026 committee wound down by funding Kennedy's campaign instead. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright; there is no primary or runoff.
Rancho Cucamonga directly elects its Mayor citywide, separate from the City Council: presides at Council meetings and votes as a full member of the 5-person body (Mayor plus four district councilmembers), which sets city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this general-law, council-manager city. A 4-year term with no term limits; day-to-day operations run through an appointed City Manager.
Kennedy, the sitting Mayor Pro Tem and a District 4 councilmember since 2014, is the only candidate who currently holds elected office. Campaign-finance filings from outgoing Mayor Michael's own committee -- which transferred funds to Kennedy's campaign and paid for a fundraiser hosted at a local Rancho Cucamonga venue, reported as an in-kind contribution to her -- point to her as his preferred successor, though neither he nor Kennedy has said so directly in any source found in this pass. King, a business owner and attorney, has raised a comparable war chest built substantially from a personal loan and family contributions. Sondh, Hamada, and Perez have no campaign-finance committee on file with the city's own NetFile portal and no independent profile found beyond their filed ballot designations.
Lynne B. Kennedy
Lynne B. Kennedy is Rancho Cucamonga's Mayor Pro Tem, representing District 4 since her first election in 2014 (re-elected 2024; that seat is not up this cycle). A Rancho Cucamonga resident since 1980, she spent four decades in education, including as a Rialto Unified School District math teacher, assistant principal, principal, and eventually Superintendent (retired 2012), followed by a second career as Executive Director of the Alliance for Education for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (retired 2019). She holds a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University, whose Urban Leadership Achievement Award and a Phi Delta Kappa dissertation award she received for her doctoral work on algebra education, per the city's own biography.
Strengths
Twelve years on the council, including as Mayor Pro Tem, plus a four-decade career culminating in a superintendency; this race's largest, most itemized donor base.
Trade-offs
No independent news coverage of her council record was found in this pass; her financial edge (detailed below) raises a continuity question worth weighing.
Keep in mind
Her campaign has drawn a broad mix of local business, real estate, and public-safety-adjacent donors (detailed below) -- a snapshot of who backs her, not an evaluation of her positions.
Jaskirat Sondh
Jaskirat Sondh is a candidate for Rancho Cucamonga Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Businessman." No independent information about his background or platform, and no campaign-finance committee, 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, campaign-finance committee, 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.
Marjorie Hamada
Marjorie Hamada is a candidate for Rancho Cucamonga Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Business Owner / Attorney" -- the identical designation filed by fellow Mayor candidate Oliver King, though no source found in this pass establishes any professional or personal connection between the two. No independent information about her background or platform, and no campaign-finance committee, was found in this research pass beyond her filed ballot designation.
Strengths
None could be documented in this research pass.
Trade-offs
No campaign site, news coverage, campaign-finance committee, 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.
Oliver King
Oliver King is a candidate for Rancho Cucamonga Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Business Owner / Attorney." His own 2026 campaign committee reports a $12,000 personal loan to his campaign, a $5,900 contribution from Pamela P. King (Rancho Cucamonga, retired) and a further $5,900 late contribution from Emily King, M.D. of Claremont -- both apparent family contributions -- alongside a $5,000 late contribution from a San Bernardino attorney and a $2,500 late contribution from a retired Oceanside donor.
Strengths
A substantial, largely self- and family-funded campaign (detailed below) that doesn't depend on institutional or PAC money.
Trade-offs
No independent news coverage, campaign site, or biographical detail beyond his ballot designation and finances (detailed below) was found in this pass.
Keep in mind
A campaign this heavily self- and family-funded is a specific, verifiable fact pattern -- worth weighing on its own, not as inherently positive or negative.
Michael R. Perez
Michael R. Perez is a candidate for Rancho Cucamonga Mayor, filing under the ballot designation "Retired." No independent information about his background or platform, and no campaign-finance committee, 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, campaign-finance committee, 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: Very strong (90/100) · 7 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.
- 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 linked from the county's own November 3, 2026 candidates page: within the San Bernardino County section, only Area B carries any candidates (Rita Fernandez-Loof, Miki R. Inbody, Kimberly L. Watson); Areas A and D, both confirmed expiring this cycle by the county's own Offices Up for Election document, have no candidates anywhere in the report and will not appear on the November ballot
- cityofrc.us (opens in a new tab)City of Rancho Cucamonga -- "Elections" page (cityofrc.us/elections): states the three November 3, 2026 offices (Mayor at-large, City Council District 2, City Council District 3, all 4-year terms, no term limits) and lists all ten candidates verbatim by office with their filed ballot designations, plus the October 19, 2026 voter-registration deadline and December 17, 2026 installation date.
- cityofrc.us (opens in a new tab)City of Rancho Cucamonga -- "Mayor & City Council" page: names all five sitting council members (Mayor L. Dennis Michael; Mayor Pro Tem Lynne B. Kennedy, District 4; Ashley N. Stickler, District 1; Kristine D. Scott, District 2; Ryan A. Hutchison, District 3) with each one's district, first-elected/re-elected year, and term-expiration date -- confirming Districts 1 and 4 are not up until 2028, and that Districts 2 and 3 (plus the separately elected Mayor) expire in 2026.
- cityofrc.us (opens in a new tab)City of Rancho Cucamonga -- outgoing Mayor L. Dennis Michael's own official bio page: a lifelong Rancho Cucamonga resident who served on the City Council 2004-2010 before four Mayoral terms (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022); a 27-year career with the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Protection District, rising to Fire Chief in 1984 and serving in that role until his 2003 retirement; regional seats including the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority and SCAG's Regional Council.
- cityofrc.us (opens in a new tab)City of Rancho Cucamonga -- Mayor Pro Tem Lynne B. Kennedy's own official bio page (District 4 seat, not up this cycle): a Rancho Cucamonga resident since 1980, first elected to the council in 2014 and re-elected in 2024; a four-decade education career in Rialto Unified culminating in Superintendent (retired 2012), then Executive Director of the Alliance for Education for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (retired 2019); a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University and degrees from the University of Redlands and Cal State San Bernardino.
- netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Rancho Cucamonga -- public NetFile campaign-finance disclosure portal (netfile.com/public/CRC; legacy search interface ssl.netfile.com/pub2/?aid=CRC), queried directly by candidate name and cross-checked against the portal's own live filing-log RSS feed: confirms active, itemized 2026 committees for Lynne Kennedy, Kristine Scott, Oliver King, David VanGorden, and DeJonae Marie Shaw (the last four with Form 497 24-hour late-contribution reports filed in the final two weeks of August 2026), a prior 2022 committee for VanGorden, three separate personal contributions from Stacy Henry to Kennedy's committees (2016, 2020, 2026), and the wind-down transfers from outgoing Mayor L. Dennis Michael's and outgoing Councilmember Ryan Hutchison's own 2026 committees; returns no committee at all for Jaskirat Sondh, Marjorie Hamada, Michael R. Perez, or Connie Velazquez.
Last updated August 31, 2026.