Rene Campos is running for Fresno City Council District 7 in the 2026 primary election.
PROVIDED: RENE CAMPOS
Some members of the Fresno City Council said they plan to introduce legislation to block registered sex offenders from serving on the council in an effort to disqualify a candidate in the crowded race for the District 7 seat.
The City Council primary race gained national attention this month after The Bee reported on Rene Campos, a registered sex offender who plans to run for the council seat representing Old Fig Garden and other neighborhoods.
In 2021, Campos pleaded no contest to a 2018 charge of possession of child pornography and served two years of formal probation.
Registration for a sexual offense does not generally disqualify a person from running for office, but it does come with restrictions, including prohibitions on entering schools and unsupervised contact with minors under California’s Megan’s Law.
“While I respect anybody’s ability to serve our community, I find this quite disturbing that we could possibly have somebody of this nature within our government buildings,” Councilmember Annalisa Perea said at a Thursday meeting. “I think if you want to be an effective councilmember, you need to at the very least be able to go onto school campuses.”
Rene Campos is running for Fresno City Council District 7 in the 2026 primary election. PROVIDED: RENE CAMPOS
Perea, as well as Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza and Nick Richardson, said they plan to work on future legislation at the city and state level that would limit a registered sex offender’s ability to be a councilmember.
“These are public chambers,” Arias said. “Any given Thursday, we have kids in this room. We have families, and the last thing I want to be concerned about is whether there is a registered sex offender in these chambers.”
Campos did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but told The Bee in early February that he is not hiding from his former conviction and has grown from it.
He is running for the District 7 seat, which includes east-central and parts of southeast Fresno.
Campos said his main motivation for running comes from his personal experiences of dealing with homelessness as a teenager and facing biases as a gay man. Campos says this background equips him to better understand and serve the community
“I’ll be blunt. I’ve had a very hard life, and it’s these life experiences that have pushed me towards helping people,” he said this month in an interview.
Nav Gurm, who is running for the same District 7 seat and was endorsed by Mayor Dyer, called for Campos to drop out of the race.
“If Rene is elected, his sex offender status would significantly prevent him from effectively performing the job’s duties,” he said in a statement.
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