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City of Walnut · Statewide General Election

Walnut City Council

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 one of two at-large seats up this cycle on Walnut's 5-member City Council, elected to staggered 4-year terms: the city budget, zoning and land-use rules, and municipal ordinances. The council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and one as Mayor Pro Tem -- neither title is separately elected.

Walnut elects two of its five City Council seats on November 3, 2026, and it's a contested field: two sitting councilmembers, Mayor Allen Wu and Councilmember Ritchie Cajulis, face two challengers, repeat candidate Hong "Diana" Zhao and first-time candidate Stefanie Leilua, for the two open seats.

Each winner serves a 4-year term on Walnut's City Council, which sets the budget, zoning and development rules, and municipal ordinances for this San Gabriel Valley city of roughly 30,000 residents. All five seats are elected at-large rather than by district, and the council selects one of its own members to serve as Mayor and another as Mayor Pro Tem each year -- Wu and Nancy Tragarz currently hold those roles. The city contracts with the LA County Sheriff's Department for public safety rather than running its own police force.

Wu and Cajulis both already hold their seats -- Wu by election since 2018, Cajulis by a 2022 appointment, so this is his first time facing voters directly for it. Zhao, running for a third time after finishing fourth of six in 2024, and Leilua, a late-qualifying newcomer, are the challengers looking to unseat one or both incumbents; Zhao is the more established of the two, while Leilua's platform and priorities were not reachable as of this pass.

Ritchie Cajulis

Ritchie Cajulis is a sitting Walnut councilmember, appointed to the seat in 2022 after serving on the Parks and Recreation Commission, and is now seeking his first election to hold it. He says his priorities are expanding city services, preserving Walnut's natural environment, strengthening public and cyber security, and developing a downtown area. He works as an IT analyst at a major law firm and holds an electronics and communications engineering degree from Don Bosco Technical College in Manila.

Strengths

Appointed to the council in 2022, now seeking his first election to the seat, with a Parks and Recreation Commission background voters can weigh.

Trade-offs

No campaign platform statement for this cycle was reachable beyond his stated priorities, and his 2022 committee has not filed a 2026 disclosure.

Keep in mind

He was appointed rather than elected to his current seat in 2022; this is his first time facing Walnut voters directly for it, a different test than an incumbent's re-election bid.

Stefanie Leilua

Stefanie Leilua is the field's only newcomer, qualifying for the ballot on August 5, 2026 -- weeks after the other three candidates. Beyond building her campaign website and social-media presence, no platform statement for this cycle was reachable as of this pass. An independent local write-up covering all four candidates found only "limited public information" on her.

Strengths

The only true newcomer in the race, qualifying weeks after the others and still building her campaign website and social presence as of this writing.

Trade-offs

No campaign platform statement for this cycle was reachable, and she has no committee registered with the state at all, unlike the other three candidates.

Keep in mind

Local coverage of the race (hraus.com) found "limited public information" on her as of late August; whatever record exists is thinner than any of her three opponents' by a wide margin.

Allen Wu

Dr. Allen Wu is Walnut's sitting Mayor, first elected to the council in 2018 and chosen by his colleagues to hold the Mayor title in both 2022 and 2026. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from USC and previously served as a Walnut Valley Water District board president and Parks and Recreation Commissioner. He credits his tenure with a reported drop in 2025 theft cases and eight straight years of a balanced city budget -- his own account, not independently verified here.

Strengths

Two full terms on the council since 2018 and Mayor again this year, after also holding the title in 2022 -- the deepest record of the four.

Trade-offs

No campaign platform statement for this cycle was reachable beyond his own claimed crime and budget figures, and his 2018 committee has not filed a 2026 disclosure.

Keep in mind

He credits his tenure with a reported 35%+ drop in 2025 theft cases and eight straight balanced budgets -- his own account, not independently verified against city or Sheriff's Department data this pass.

Hong "Diana" Zhao

Hong "Diana" Zhao is a psychotherapist and business owner making at least her third run for a Walnut council seat, after finishing fourth of six candidates in the 2024 general election. She holds a Ph.D. from USC (2021) and spent 16 years at the LA County Department of Children and Family Services before her current work. No platform statement for this cycle was reachable as of this pass.

Strengths

A first-time officeholder but not a first-time candidate -- her third run at this council, after finishing fourth of six in 2024 and running again in 2022.

Trade-offs

No campaign platform statement for this cycle was reachable, and her newly-registered 2026 committee -- a fresh filing, not a renamed 2024 one -- has not filed a 2026 disclosure.

Keep in mind

She finished fourth of six candidates for three seats in 2024, drawing 12.64% -- not a win, but ahead of two other challengers that year, per LA County's certified results.

Source review: Strong (87/100) · 9 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context.

  • walnutca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Walnut — Elections page (My-Government/Elections): "The next General Municipal Election will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, for the election of two (2) City Councilmembers"; its own "Current Candidate List" names four qualified candidates -- Allen Wu, Richard "Ritchie" Cajulis, Hong "Diana" Zhao, Stefanie Leilua -- each marked Qualified: Yes, with pulled/filed-papers dates through 8/5/2026
  • walnutca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Walnut — Walnut City Council roster page: lists all five sitting members and titles -- Dr. Allen Wu (Mayor), Nancy Tragarz (Mayor Pro Tem), Ritchie Cajulis, Linda Freedman, Kaylee May Law (Council Members) -- confirming Wu and Cajulis, both on the 2026 candidate list, are the two sitting members up for election this cycle
  • walnutca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Walnut — Dr. Allen Wu's official council bio: "elected to serve on the Walnut City Council in 2018 and selected as Mayor in 2022 and 2026"; Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from USC, prior service as a Parks & Recreation Commissioner (2002-2004) and as Walnut Valley Water District Board President (2008, 2012, 2017)
  • walnutca.gov (opens in a new tab)City of Walnut — Ritchie Cajulis's official council bio: "Before his appointment to the City Council in 2022, he served on the Parks and Recreation Commission" -- confirming he holds his current seat by 2022 appointment rather than election, and that 2026 is his first bid to win it directly; an IT analyst at a law firm, degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Don Bosco Technical College, Manila
  • hraus.com (opens in a new tab)hraus.com (Huaren/Australian Chinese) — "Four Candidates for Two Walnut City Council Seats, Two Chinese Americans Running" (Aug. 23, 2026): independent profiles of all four candidates, corroborating Wu's and Cajulis's official bios and adding Zhao's professional background (psychotherapist, USC Ph.D. 2021, 16 years at LA County DCFS) and Wu's own claimed 2025 theft-rate and city-budget figures; found only "limited public information" on Leilua, a late qualifier still building her campaign website as of publication
  • results.lavote.gov (opens in a new tab)LA County RR/CC — certified results, November 5, 2024 General Election, Walnut City General Municipal Election, Member of the City Council (3 seats): Hong "Diana" Zhao finished fourth of six candidates with 3,271 votes (12.64%) -- a figure surfaced via a search-engine indexed excerpt of the county's text-results page after the full page could not be loaded within this pass's time budget, not a full read of the underlying document
  • ballotpedia.org (opens in a new tab)Ballotpedia — Hong Zhao (Walnut City Council At-large, California, candidate 2024): confirms she ran in the November 5, 2024 general election for one of three at-large seats against five other candidates, including the three incumbents who won (Freedman, Law, Tragarz)
  • theballotbook.com (opens in a new tab)The Ballot Book — Hong Diana Zhao person page: lists "Election History: 2 elections, 2024, 2022" for City of Walnut City Council, both marked lost -- surfaced via a search-engine snippet after the page itself returned no extractable text on direct retrieval this pass, so this is not a full read of the underlying page
  • cal-access.sos.ca.gov (opens in a new tab)California Secretary of State CAL-ACCESS — filer searches, checked by candidate name 2026-08-31: Allen Wu's committee (Filer 1409276, "WU WALNUT CITY COUNCIL (WCC) 2026; ALLEN", renamed from 2018/2022 committees) is ACTIVE; Ritchie Cajulis's (Filer 1451881, renamed from a 2022 committee) is ACTIVE; Hong Diana Zhao's (Filer 1490833, "ZHAO FOR WALNUT CITY COUNCIL 2026", a newly-registered filing distinct from her existing 2024 committee, Filer 1470294) is ACTIVE -- none of the three has electronically filed a Form 460/461/450 for the 2025-2026 cycle as of this retrieval; Stefanie Leilua has no filer record in CAL-ACCESS at all

Last updated August 31, 2026.