City of Tustin · Statewide General Election
Tustin City Council, District 3
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
- Ray Schnell — Councilmember/Business Executive · Incumbent
- Thomas James "TJ" Reed — Assistant Professor
This person holds District 3's seat on Tustin's 5-member City Council -- a Mayor plus four district Council Members -- voting on city ordinances, the budget, and land use alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Not all four districts are up the same year. A 4-year term.
Incumbent Ray Schnell, Tustin's Mayor Pro Tem, is running for a second term representing District 3 against challenger Thomas James "TJ" Reed, whose filed ballot designation is "Assistant Professor." Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.
This person holds District 3's seat on Tustin's 5-member City Council -- a Mayor plus four district Council Members -- voting on city ordinances, the budget, and land use alongside an appointed city manager who runs day-to-day operations. Not all four districts are up the same year. A 4-year term.
Beyond Schnell's substantive city-published biography and Reed's own filed occupation, no campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source could be found for Reed despite a real search effort across multiple engines. Documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation.
Ray Schnell
Schnell was elected to Tustin City Council in November 2022 and currently serves as Mayor Pro Tem. He works in financial services, specializing in mergers-and-acquisitions transactional risk management and capital-intermediary services for private equity and venture capital firms. He holds a BA in English from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Chapman University (Beta Gamma Sigma). Before his election he served on the Tustin Public Schools Foundation board and various school advisory councils. He represents Tustin on the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agencies and serves as an alternate for the Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency and the Senior Fund Board of Directors. His stated priorities are public, fire, and school safety and government accountability, and keeping Tustin "Affordable & Prosperous" through economic strength and expanded housing options.
Strengths
A finance and risk-management background paired with prior school-foundation service and multiple regional transportation and flood-agency roles.
Trade-offs
The city's bio lists general priorities rather than specific 2026 commitments; his incumbency also means his voting record from the current term is part of what's being judged.
Keep in mind
No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- see Financial info.
Thomas James "TJ" Reed
Filed his candidacy under the ballot designation "Assistant Professor." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing his specific background, institution, or platform could be found in this pass despite a real search effort across multiple search engines, Voice of OC's own site search, and an attempted OC Register fetch.
Strengths
An academic background suggests research or teaching experience, though the specific institution or field isn't confirmed in this pass.
Trade-offs
No campaign statement or platform was found, so voters have no confirmed sense of his priorities beyond his listed designation.
Keep in mind
No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- see Financial info.
Source review: Strong (89/100) · 3 cited sources
Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.
- ocvote.gov (opens in a new tab)OC Registrar of Voters -- Contest/Candidate Proof List, General Election 11/3/2026 -- City of Tustin section (pages 159-161 of 188, downloaded directly and parsed locally with pypdf since a plain fetch returns undecodable PDF stream data): confirms Mayor (2 qualified candidates) and Member, City Council District 3 (2) as the city's two November 2026 races, each Vote for 1, with incumbent flags and every candidate's filed ballot designation
- tustinca.org (opens in a new tab)City of Tustin -- City Council page: confirms the Council is "composed of a Mayor and four Council Members," lists the current five (Mayor Austin Lumbard, Mayor Pro Tem Ray Schnell, and Council Members Ryan Gallagher, Lee K. Fink, John Nielsen), and links each member's individual biography page
- tustinca.org (opens in a new tab)City of Tustin -- Mayor Pro Tem Ray Schnell official biography: BA English (University of Rochester), MBA (Chapman University, Beta Gamma Sigma); works in financial services (M&A transactional risk management); elected to Council November 2022; prior service on the Tustin Public Schools Foundation board; stated priorities: public/fire/school safety and government accountability, housing and cost-of-living affordability
Last updated August 31, 2026.