City of Union City · Statewide General Election

Union 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

Jeff Wang — Incumbent
Cheris Crocker-Root — Financial Asset Manager

This person would hold one of three Union City Council seats up this cycle: city ordinances, the budget, and land use in this Alameda County city of about 70,000, under a council-manager government with an appointed City Manager. A 4-year term, Dec. 8, 2026-Dec. 10, 2030. Union City switched from at-large to district-based Council elections in November 2020; city ordinance limits the Mayor and Councilmembers to three consecutive terms in the same office.

Incumbent Jeff Wang is seeking reelection against one challenger, Cheris Crocker-Root. Two other prospective candidates, Allan Samson and Kashif Wasim, were issued nomination papers but did not file them.

Union City switched from at-large to district-based Council elections in November 2020. City ordinance limits the Mayor and Councilmembers to three consecutive terms in the same office; partial terms don't count toward the limit, and a former officeholder may run again after sitting out two years.

Jeff Wang

District 3's sitting Councilmember, per the city's own roster page; his filed ballot designation is literally "Incumbent," independently corroborating that roster entry. The city's own candidate-statements page describes him as an educator and business owner, highlighting increased police staffing and balanced budgets and emphasizing collaboration and community engagement, but this dataset found no dedicated city bio page or independent profile beyond that statement. His campaign committee, Jeff Wang for Union City City Councilor District 3 2026, has filed continuously since 2021; for the Jan. 1-June 30, 2026 period it reported $30,819 in monetary contributions and $3,331.10 in expenditures, ending with $27,487.90 cash on hand.

Strengths

Sitting incumbent with a multi-cycle campaign-finance record (filings since 2021) and the largest H1 2026 fundraising total of any Union City Council candidate this cycle.

Trade-offs

This dataset found no independent (non-official, non-campaign-finance) reporting evaluating his record on the Council.

Keep in mind

his own candidate statement, not independent reporting, is the source for his record on police staffing and budgets -- a real, sourced claim, but a self-description rather than third-party verification.

Cheris Crocker-Root

A first-time candidate; her filed ballot designation is "Financial Asset Manager." The city's own candidate-statements page describes her as a 17-year District 3 resident with Park Commission and Parks & Trails Commission leadership experience, prioritizing fiscal accountability and infrastructure improvements, and links a campaign site (Root4UnionCity.org) not independently verified by this dataset. Her campaign committee, Cheris Crocker-Root For Union City Council District 3 2026, reported $5,520 in monetary contributions for the first half of 2026 (on top of an $11,283.16 balance carried over from the second half of 2025) against $3,295.78 in expenditures, ending the period with $13,507.38 cash on hand.

Strengths

Named local commission experience (Park Commission, Parks & Trails Commission) and the largest H1 2026 ending cash balance of any Union City Council candidate this cycle.

Trade-offs

No independent (non-official, non-campaign-finance) reporting on her candidacy was found in this pass; she is challenging a multi-cycle incumbent who outraised her roughly 5.6-to-1 this period.

Keep in mind

her $13,507.38 cash-on-hand figure reflects fundraising carried over from mid-2025 as well as this period's total -- worth distinguishing from the $5,520 raised in this specific six-month window when comparing to Wang's same-period total.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 7 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with multiple sources checked.

alamedacountyca.gov (opens in a new tab)Alameda County Registrar of Voters -- official Candidate List system (electionId 260, "General Election - 11/03/2026 (Official)"), queried directly via its own JSON/HTML API (POST /rov_app/candidatelist/) for all three Union City races (categoryId 600, raceIds 134-136): For Member Of City Council #2, Union City (Jaime Patino, Victor Lopez Pulido); #3 (Jeff Wang, Cheris Crocker-Root); #4 (Vipan S. Bajwa, Sarabjit Kaur Cheema, Qasim Lodhi, Ann Yap-Jequinto). Names ballot designations verbatim as filed: "Councilmember/Finance Manager" (Patino), "Legal Advocate/Translator" (Lopez Pulido), "Incumbent" (Wang), "Financial Asset Manager" (Crocker-Root), "City Commissioner/Accountant" (Bajwa), "High School Teacher" (Cheema), "Software Engineer/Father" (Lodhi), "Planning Commissioner/Caregiver" (Yap-Jequinto). The system's own "Incumbent" field reads "N" for every Union City candidate here too, including Patino and Wang -- this dataset does not treat that field as reliable and instead confirms incumbency independently against the City of Union City's own roster page (see union-city-clerk-roster-2026).
unioncityca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Union City -- "November 3, 2026 General Municipal Election" overview page: states in its own words that three City Council seats are up (District 2, District 3, District 4), each seat's term running Dec. 8, 2026-Dec. 10, 2030, and quotes the city's term-limit ordinance (Municipal Code Chapter 2.07): three consecutive terms in the same office, partial terms don't count, and a former officeholder may run again after sitting out two years. Links the city's candidates/filing-status page, candidate-statements page, and its NetFile campaign-finance portal, all used as separate sources below.
unioncityca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Union City -- "Candidates and Filing Status" page: lists each district's qualified candidates by filing and qualifying date (District 2: Patino filed 8/3, qualified 8/4; Lopez Pulido filed 8/7, qualified 8/9. District 3: Wang filed and qualified 7/27; Crocker-Root filed and qualified 8/4. District 4: Cheema filed 8/10, qualified 8/11; Lodhi filed and qualified 8/5; Bajwa filed and qualified 8/7; Yap-Jequinto filed 8/6, qualified 8/7) and states all are "listed in ballot order per the randomized alphabet drawing conducted August 13, 2026" -- the option order used throughout this dataset. Also names two people issued District 3 nomination papers who did not file them: Allan Samson (issued 7/22/2026) and Kashif Wasim (issued 7/24/2026); neither is a candidate here.
unioncityca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Union City -- "Candidate Statements" page: real, candidate-submitted biographical statements for all eight 2026 Council candidates, several linking a personal campaign website (not independently verified by this dataset). Notable detail beyond bare ballot designations: Sarabjit Kaur Cheema is a former New Haven Unified School District Board member (2010-2022); Vipan S. Bajwa is a local Chamber of Commerce Vice President and nonprofit board chair; Ann Yap-Jequinto founded the nonprofit Rodhi's Hope and has lived in the city since 1977; Cheris Crocker-Root has 17 years of district residency plus Park Commission and Parks & Trails Commission leadership experience.
unioncityca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Union City -- "Mayor & City Council" page: names Jaime Patino as District 2's sitting Councilmember and Vice Mayor, and Jeff Wang as District 3's sitting Councilmember; District 4's sitting Councilmember, Scott Sakakihara, is not on the county's certified candidate list for District 4 -- the basis for treating that seat as open. Also names Mayor Gary Singh (not up this cycle -- Union City's eight-race City category on the county's own candidate list has no Union City Mayor race at all) and District 1's Lance Nishihira (not up this cycle either).
en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia's Union City, California article -- 2020 census population (70,143); incorporated Jan. 26, 1959 (combining the communities of Alvarado and Decoto); council-manager government; states the city "switched from citywide elections to districts" on November 3, 2020; states the mayor and council members serve 4-year terms with a 3-consecutive-term limit, cross-checked against the city's own election page's identical term-limit language.
netfile.com (opens in a new tab)City of Union City's own NetFile-hosted public campaign-finance portal (agency code UNION, linked directly from the city's own election page), queried directly via its own QuickNameSearch and filings/byCandidate JSON API for all eight 2026 candidates, with each available candidate's most recent H1 2026 FPPC Form 460 downloaded directly via the portal's own CampaignDocuments/download endpoint and read for its actual reported totals. Real H1 2026 totals (monetary contributions raised / total expenditures, this period): Jaime Patino $19,678 plus a $1,000 loan from Patino himself (dated 4/10/2026, still outstanding in full) / $14,839.54, ending with $6,059.65 cash on hand; Victor Lopez Pulido $11,780 / $1,944.79, ending with $9,883.21 cash on hand; Jeff Wang $30,819 / $3,331.10, ending with $27,487.90 cash on hand; Cheris Crocker-Root $5,520 raised this period (plus an $11,283.16 beginning balance carried from H2 2025) / $3,295.78, ending with $13,507.38 cash on hand; Sarabjit Kaur Cheema no Form 460 on file yet, only a Form 410/501; Qasim Lodhi no committee yet, only a Form 501; Vipan S. Bajwa $0 monetary plus a $2,000 loan from Bajwa himself (dated 5/27/2026, still outstanding in full) / $0, ending with $2,000 cash on hand; Ann Yap-Jequinto $800 (from her treasurer, Martin Jequinto) plus a $3,000 loan from Yap-Jequinto herself (her own Schedule A lists her occupation as Classroom Assistant IV, New Haven Unified School District) / $3,464.99, ending with $385.01 cash on hand and $3,050 in outstanding loan debt.

Last updated September 1, 2026.