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City of Twentynine Palms · Statewide General Election

Twentynine Palms City Council, District 4

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 holds District 4's seat on Twentynine Palms's 5-member, district-elected City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this high-desert city next to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. A 4-year term, staggered so only some districts are up in any given November -- Districts 3, 4, and 5 are up this cycle; Districts 1 and 2 next return in 2028. The Council elects one of its own members to serve as the rotating Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem each term; Twentynine Palms does not separately elect a citywide Mayor.

Three candidates -- incumbent Octavious Scott and challengers Carlos Blandon and Karmolette O'Gilvie -- are on the November 3, 2026 ballot for Twentynine Palms's City Council District 4 seat. Whoever gets the most votes wins outright; there is no primary or runoff.

This person would hold District 4's seat on Twentynine Palms's 5-member, district-elected City Council: city ordinances, the budget, and land use for this high-desert city next to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. A 4-year term, staggered so only some districts are up in any given November -- Districts 3, 4, and 5 are up this cycle; Districts 1 and 2 next return in 2028. The Council elects one of its own members to serve as the rotating Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem each term; Twentynine Palms does not separately elect a citywide Mayor.

Scott, the council's rotating Mayor Pro Tem, is seeking a second term; Blandon and O'Gilvie are both first-time candidates for this seat. Beyond each one's own filed ballot designation, this dataset found no independent civic-board record, campaign site, or news profile for either challenger.

Octavious Scott

Octavious Scott is Twentynine Palms's incumbent District 4 councilmember and the city's rotating Mayor Pro Tem, filing under the ballot designation "Incumbent." Born and raised in Palm Springs, he served eight years in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Ordnanceman, including deployments supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, before an honorable discharge in 2013. He holds an associate degree from Columbia College of Missouri, a bachelor's in management from Golden Gate University, a master's in leadership from Saint Mary's College of California, and a graduate certificate in public administration, and worked as a nonprofit workforce-development program manager before moving to Twentynine Palms in 2019 and joining the council in December 2022. On July 28, 2026, he was one of two councilmembers who voted against directing city staff to pursue a state disaster-resilience grant for a local nonprofit's homeless-shelter proposal, saying he supported the group's work but was not comfortable with the timeline.

Strengths

A service record spanning eight years in the Navy and a public-administration graduate education; a stated platform of "promoting prosperity, affordability, and quality of life for all residents."

Trade-offs

Under four years of city council experience since his December 2022 appointment; no independent news coverage of his tenure beyond the single July 2026 vote cited above was found in this pass.

Keep in mind

Financial info could not be retrieved for him -- see below.

Carlos Blandon

Carlos Blandon is a first-time candidate challenging incumbent Octavious Scott for the District 4 seat. His filed ballot designation is "Geographer." No independent news coverage, campaign site, or city civic-board record was found for him in this pass beyond that self-reported occupation.

Strengths

None independently confirmed in this pass beyond his own filed occupation.

Trade-offs

No platform statement, prior civic involvement, or independent news coverage was found anywhere in this pass.

Keep in mind

A thin public record is itself worth noting here, not evidence for or against him -- financial info could not be retrieved for him either; see below.

Karmolette O'Gilvie

Karmolette O'Gilvie is a first-time candidate challenging incumbent Octavious Scott for the District 4 seat. Her filed ballot designation is "Registered Nurse." No independent news coverage, campaign site, or city civic-board record was found for her in this pass beyond that self-reported occupation.

Strengths

None independently confirmed in this pass beyond her own filed occupation.

Trade-offs

No platform statement, prior civic involvement, or independent news coverage was found anywhere in this pass.

Keep in mind

A thin public record is itself worth noting here, not evidence for or against her -- financial info could not be retrieved for her either; see below.

Source review: Very strong (91/100) · 8 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
  • ci.twentynine-palms.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Twentynine Palms -- "Mayor & Council" page: names the sitting five-member council by district and term-expiration year -- Mayor Daniel L. Mintz Sr. (District 3, term expires 2026), Mayor Pro Tem Octavious Scott (District 4, term expires 2026), Steven Bilderain (District 1, term expires 2024), April Ramirez (District 2, term expires 2024), and McArthur Wright (District 5, term expires 2026) -- confirming which three districts are up this cycle
  • draw29palms.org (opens in a new tab)draw29palms.org -- the city's official 2022 redistricting site: confirms the city adopted its current five-district council map on March 8, 2022 via Resolution 22-04, and that "Districts 3, 4 and 5 are up for election in 2022, and Districts 1 and 2 are up for election in 2024" -- establishing the staggered 4-year term structure that puts Districts 3, 4, and 5 up again in 2026
  • hidesertstar.com (opens in a new tab)Hi-Desert Star / Desert Trail (byline Jene Estrada) -- "Candidates run for City Council, MUSD board": names all three Twentynine Palms 2026 council contests and every candidate -- "Mayor Daniel Mintz ran unopposed for District 3"; in District 4, "Carlos Blandon and Karmolette O'Gilvie are challenging incumbent Octavious Scott, currently mayor pro tem"; in District 5, "Shanese Risper is running against incumbent McArthur Wright"
  • hidesertstar.com (opens in a new tab)Hi-Desert Star / Desert Trail -- "Council opts not to pursue shelter grant": reports on a July 28, 2026 council meeting where members voted 2-2 (with one abstention) against pursuing a state disaster-resilience grant for a homeless-shelter proposal -- "Mayor Dan Mintz and Mayor Pro Tem Octavious Scott opposed. With council member McArthur Wright abstaining because of his church connections, the motion failed" -- and identifies Shanese Risper by her own title, "Hope Center Community Outreach Director," quoting her advocacy for the proposal directly
  • public.netfile.com (opens in a new tab)San Bernardino County -- NetFile public campaign-finance portal (aid=SBD), queried directly by name against the portal's own QuickNameSearch API for all six 2026 Twentynine Palms candidates (Mintz, Scott, Blandon, O'Gilvie, Wright, Risper): every query returned zero filers -- no candidate or committee record at all for any of the six
  • ci.twentynine-palms.ca.us (opens in a new tab)City of Twentynine Palms -- Mayor & Council's own bio page for Octavious Scott: born and raised in Palm Springs; eight years in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Ordnanceman, honorably discharged in 2013; an associate degree from Columbia College of Missouri, a bachelor's in management from Golden Gate University, a master's in leadership from Saint Mary's College of California, and a public-administration graduate certificate; moved to Twentynine Palms in 2019 and has served on the council since December 2022 as Mayor Pro Tem

Last updated August 31, 2026.