In-depth look at local election races
News Channel 3's Peter Daut took a look at some of the valley's key races.
One of the biggest races is the 36th Congressional District. The winner will represent a district that encompasses most of Riverside County, including the Coachella Valley.
Democratic incumbent Raul Ruiz is running against Republican Erin Cruz.
Ruiz is a former emergency-room doctor who has represented the district in Congress for four terms.
Cruz is an author and conservative activist, who previously ran for the U.S. Senate in 2018.
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Another race to keep an eye on is the 42nd State Assembly district.
Incumbent Chad Mayes from Rancho Mirage is running against San Jacinto mayor Andrew Kotyuk. This race is interesting since Mayes was once the Republican assembly leader. He dropped a political bomb last year when he changed his party designation to independent just days before the filing deadline.
Kotyuk is a staunch conservative who Mayes has beaten before in the 2018 primary, the 2018 general election and again in the 2020 primary.
It's worth mentioning, the 42nd race is one of only five of the assembly's 80 seats where no democrat advanced to the general election.
There's also the race for the 56th State Assembly District.
Current democratic Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia is hoping to be re-elected for a third term. He's the former mayor of Coachella and spent 10 years in local government.
He's running against republican America Figueroa from Indio. She is a teacher and mother of five who's never held public office.
In Desert Hot Springs, incumbent mayor Scott Matas and former mayor Adam Sanchez are facing off again, five years after they ran against each other.
Matas has served on the city council since 2007 and won the previous two mayoral elections. Sanchez served as mayor from 2013 to 2015.
Both men have lived in Desert Hot Springs for decades.
In La Quinta, incumbent mayor Linda Evans is running against Robert Sylk. Evans is a hospital administrator who has been mayor for the past six years. Sylk is a businessman who founded the group 'Concerned citizens of La Quinta.'
In the city of Coachella, three-term mayor Steven Hernandez is running against community organizer Lesly Figueroa. Both candidates have very different goals for the city of 45,000 people, which is 98-percent Latino.
Other cities across the valley, including Palm Springs and Indio, do not elect the mayor directly. Instead they rotate the position among elected council members on a yearly basis.
You can find more information on each candidate running on your ballot at KESQ.com/VoterGuide.
