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City of Tustin · Statewide General Election

Mayor of Tustin

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

This person presides over City Council meetings and represents Tustin publicly, elected directly by voters citywide rather than chosen by fellow councilmembers -- day-to-day city government runs through an appointed city manager. Tustin's Council is a Mayor plus four district Council Members; not all four districts are up the same year. A 4-year term.

Incumbent Mayor Austin Lumbard is running for a second term against challenger Letitia Clark, whose filed ballot designation is "Community College Director." Whichever candidate gets the most votes on November 3 wins outright; there's no runoff.

This person presides over City Council meetings and represents Tustin publicly, elected directly by voters citywide rather than chosen by fellow councilmembers -- day-to-day city government runs through an appointed city manager. Tustin's Council is a Mayor plus four district Council Members; not all four districts are up the same year. A 4-year term.

Beyond Lumbard's substantive city-published biography and Clark's own filed occupation, no campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source could be found for Clark despite a real search effort across multiple engines. Documented below as a gap, not filled in with speculation.

Austin Lumbard

Lumbard was elected to Tustin City Council in 2018 and elected Mayor in 2022. He is an attorney and contract specialist for a global engineering and construction firm, and previously served six years on Tustin's Planning Commission (twice as Chair) and as a reserve deputy with the Orange County Sheriff's Department. He holds a BA in Business Administration from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a JD from Indiana University's Maurer School of Law. He represents Tustin on the Orange County Fire Authority board and serves as an alternate to the Orange County Sanitation District and the Water Advisory Committee of Orange County. His stated priorities are public safety, balanced development, fiscal strength, and preserving Tustin's character.

Strengths

A decade of local governance experience -- Planning Commission, then Council, then Mayor -- plus regional fire, sanitation, and water-agency roles.

Trade-offs

The city's bio lists general priorities rather than specific 2026 commitments; his incumbency also means growth and development decisions during his tenure are partly a record he's already made.

Keep in mind

No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for his campaign in this pass -- see Financial info.

Letitia Clark

Filed her candidacy under the ballot designation "Community College Director." No campaign site, news coverage, or other independent source describing her specific background, current employer, 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

A community-college-director background suggests experience managing an institution and its budget, though the specific college or district isn't confirmed in this pass.

Trade-offs

No campaign statement or platform was found, so voters have no confirmed sense of her priorities beyond her listed designation.

Keep in mind

No CAL-ACCESS record was checked for her 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 Austin Lumbard official biography: BA Business Administration (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), JD (Indiana University Maurer School of Law); attorney/contract specialist for a global engineering and construction firm; six years on Tustin's Planning Commission (twice Chair); former OC Sheriff's Department reserve deputy; elected to Council 2018, Mayor 2022; stated priorities: public safety, balanced development, fiscal strength, preserving Tustin's character

Last updated August 31, 2026.