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City of West Sacramento · Statewide General Election

West Sacramento City Council, District 3

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On the ballot

This person would represent West Sacramento's District 3 on the City Council for a four-year term. West Sacramento, a Yolo County city of about 53,915 residents (2020 Census) incorporated in 1987, elects its four City Council members by district to 4-year terms and its Mayor separately, citywide, also to a 4-year term; the Mayor's seat is not up this cycle. The city runs under a council-manager government, with an appointed City Manager handling day-to-day operations; there is no separately elected City Clerk or City Treasurer.

West Sacramento City Council District 3 is an open seat: Parks Commissioner Dave Jans and Planning Commissioner Preston Jackson are running to succeed Dawnte Early, the city's first Black councilmember, who did not file for reelection.

District 3 elects one member to a full 4-year term on West Sacramento's City Council, which also has a directly elected, citywide Mayor not up this cycle. West Sacramento is a Yolo County city of about 53,915 residents (2020 Census), incorporated in 1987 as a consolidation of the communities of Broderick, Bryte, and West Sacramento, governed council-manager style with an appointed City Manager; the city has no separately elected City Clerk or City Treasurer.

Dawnte Early, first elected to this seat in October 2021 and later Mayor Pro Tem, did not file to run again -- the Sacramento Bee reported her decision under the headline "West Sacramento's first Black council member won't seek reelection. Her mission isn't over," matching the city's own bio page and a February 2026 KCRA profile that separately describes her the same way. Per Yolo County's own certified candidate filing, two candidates qualified for the open seat: Dave Jans, who serves on the city's Parks, Recreation and Intergenerational Services Commission, and Preston Jackson, a teacher who serves on the city's Planning Commission -- both civic roles independently confirmed on the city's own commission-roster pages.

Dave Jans

Dave Jans is a member of West Sacramento's Parks, Recreation and Intergenerational Services Commission, per both Yolo County's own candidate filing (which lists his occupation as "City of West Sacramento Parks Commissioner") and the city's own commission-roster page, which independently confirms his membership. He filed nomination papers for the District 3 seat on 7/29/2026 and qualified for the ballot. His campaign has an active FPPC-registered committee, "Dave Jans for City Council 2026," formed 7/1/2026, but no financial filing beyond that statement of organization was found this pass.

Strengths

Direct, current civic experience on the Parks, Recreation and Intergenerational Services Commission, whose work touches District 3 residents directly.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage, campaign website, or social-media presence was found for him this pass -- his public record is limited to his county filing and commission seat.

Keep in mind

His committee has an FPPC Form 410 on file but no Form 460, so no contributions or expenditures have been publicly reported yet -- not evidence he isn't fundraising, just that nothing has crossed the reporting threshold.

Preston Jackson

Preston Jackson is a teacher who serves on West Sacramento's Planning Commission, per both Yolo County's own candidate filing (which lists his occupation as "Teacher/Planning Commissioner") and the city's own commission-roster page, which independently confirms his membership. He filed nomination papers for the District 3 seat on 8/4/2026 and qualified for the ballot. His campaign has an active FPPC-registered committee, "Preston Jackson 4 West Sac City Council 2026," with a Candidate Intention Statement (Form 501) filed 7/13/2026 and a Statement of Organization (Form 410) filed 7/24/2026, but no financial filing beyond those two organizational documents was found this pass.

Strengths

Current service on the Planning Commission gives him direct exposure to the city's land-use decisions, paired with a teaching background.

Trade-offs

No independent news coverage, campaign website, or social-media presence was found for him this pass -- his public record is limited to his county filing and commission seat.

Keep in mind

His committee has filed a Candidate Intention Statement and a Statement of Organization but no Form 460, so nothing has been publicly reported yet. A 2020 article about a different Preston Jackson, a UC Davis athlete, was not used.

Source review: Strong (85/100) · 10 cited sources

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

  • ace.yolocounty.gov (opens in a new tab)Yolo County ACE Department -- "Municipal / City" candidate-filings page: the county's own official roster of every qualified municipal candidate for the November 3, 2026 election. For West Sacramento, lists District 3 (Dawnte Early, incumbent, did not file; Dave Jans, City of West Sacramento Parks Commissioner, qualified 7/29/2026; Preston Jackson, Teacher/Planning Commissioner, qualified 8/4/2026) and District 4 (Verna Sulpizio Hull, incumbent Mayor Pro Tem, qualified 8/5/2026; Kathy Bailey, Practice Group Director, qualified 7/30/2026), both marked "ON THE BALLOT."
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of West Sacramento -- own City Council page, via a Wayback Machine snapshot (captured 2026-08-14; the live domain 403s every direct fetch this session, including its root). States the city elects four council members by district and its Mayor separately, at-large; its own roster table gives every seat's term-end date, confirming Districts 3 and 4 are the only two seats up in November 2026.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)NetFile's own public agency directory (a JSON endpoint distinct from the client-rendered public search portal) -- confirms "WESTSAC" as the City of West Sacramento's campaign-finance agency code.
  • en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia, "West Sacramento, California": used narrowly for the 2020 Census population (53,915, up from 48,744 in 2010) and the city's Jan. 1, 1987 incorporation as a consolidation of Broderick, Bryte, and West Sacramento.
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of West Sacramento -- own official councilmember bio page for outgoing District 3 incumbent Dawnte Early, via a Wayback Machine snapshot (captured 2026-08-14): her October 2021 election to the council, service as Mayor Pro Tem March 2024-January 2025, professional background as a public-health researcher for the State of California, and current role as President/CEO of United Way California Capital Region.
  • news.google.com (opens in a new tab)Sacramento Bee, via Google News RSS (sacbee.com itself is unreachable by this session's tools -- WebFetch refuses the domain outright, and a raw curl TLS handshake hangs without completing) -- headline: "West Sacramento's first Black council member won't seek reelection. Her mission isn't over" (July 22, 2026). Only the headline and a short summary were reachable, not the article's full body text; independently corroborated by Early's own city bio page (October 2021 election) and a February 2026 KCRA segment separately describing her as the city's first Black councilmember.
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of West Sacramento -- own Planning Commission page, via a Wayback Machine snapshot (captured 2026-02-18): its own six-member roster lists "Preston Jackson, Member," independently corroborating the county filing's "Planning Commissioner" designation from a source (the city itself) independent of the county elections office.
  • web.archive.org (opens in a new tab)City of West Sacramento -- own Parks, Recreation and Intergenerational Services Commission page, via a Wayback Machine snapshot (captured 2026-02-02): its own seven-member roster lists "David Jans, Member," independently corroborating the county filing's "Parks Commissioner" designation from a source (the city itself) independent of the county elections office.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)NetFile's own public filings API, queried directly for Dave Jans's committee, "Dave Jans for City Council 2026": confirms the committee's existence and a single filing to date, an FPPC Form 410 (Statement of Organization) filed 7/1/2026 -- no Form 460 on file as of this pass, so no reportable contributions or expenditures.
  • netfile.com (opens in a new tab)NetFile's own public filings API, queried directly for Preston Jackson's committee, "Preston Jackson 4 West Sac City Council 2026": confirms the committee's existence and two filings to date, an FPPC Form 501 (Candidate Intention Statement, 7/13/2026) and Form 410 (Statement of Organization, 7/24/2026) -- no Form 460 on file as of this pass, so no reportable contributions or expenditures.

Last updated September 2, 2026.