A recent The Fresno Bee article focused heavily on campaign finance totals, highlighting District 1 candidate Naindeep Singh and District 7 candidate Navkaran Gurm as the top fundraisers in their respective races. While the numbers are notable, students and community members say that framing only tells part of the story.
“I was left with more questions than answers,” Diljot Rai, a freshman double majoring in political science and law said. “If the goal was to highlight top fundraising campaigns, it’s unclear why the focus was limited to just two candidates, and why it seemed to single out the Punjabi Sikh individuals.”
Rai said the article overlooked what many in the community are actually paying attention to.
“A lot of people are focused on representation, values and long term impact, not just fundraising totals,” Rai said. “That larger story, especially around the candidates’ platforms and what they stand for, is what this article completely missed.”
Singh has built his campaign around working families and what he describes as a failure of local government to serve them. His background includes teaching, nonprofit leadership through the Jakara Movement and serving on the Central Unified School Board. He frames his campaign as a response to systemic issues within City Hall.
“City Hall doesn’t serve Fresno’s working families,” Singh said. “The systems that were supposed to help people were being shaped by insiders for insiders.”
His platform focuses on affordability, youth engagement and government transparency, including proposals like a local hiring initiative and a youth workforce program aimed at keeping young people in Fresno. Singh also connects his approach to his upbringing.
“In the Sikh tradition, we call it seva, selfless service without expectation of reward,” he said. “That is how I was raised. And that is exactly what I am bringing to City Hall.”
Gurm, on the other hand, presents a more policy driven and institutional approach. With a background in law and experience in local government, he emphasizes efficiency, infrastructure and long term planning.
“I’m running for City Council because I believe Fresno can be so much more, and it’s time we have leadership that is honest, transparent and focused on getting things done,” Gurm said.
His priorities include improving roads and public spaces, lowering utility costs and expanding economic development opportunities. He also stresses the importance of understanding how the government operates.
“As an attorney, I’ve developed strong skills in advocacy, negotiation and problem solving,” Gurm said. “I want to be someone who will fight for District 7 with integrity and a deep understanding of how local government actually works.”
While both candidates acknowledge the historic possibility of becoming among the first Punjabi Sikh members of the Fresno City Council, neither frames their campaign as representing a single community.
“It means Fresno is finally starting to look like Fresno,” Singh said, while emphasizing that his campaign is focused on all residents, not just one group.
Gurm echoed a similar sentiment.
“I’m not running to represent just one community,” he said. “I’m running to be a strong, effective voice for all the nearly 80,000 residents of District 7.”
Still, for many students, identity is part of the story, just not in the way it was initially presented.
Ganeev Virk, a senior political science major, said the focus on both candidates being Punjabi Sikh oversimplifies what is actually happening in these races.
“We’re definitely not a monolith, and the two candidates are extremely different,” she said.
“Honestly, I think it’s just a coincidence that they’re the two who have raised the most money.”
Virk pointed to differences in where their support comes from and how their campaigns are structured.
“When you look at it, their funding comes from very different places, and their support bases don’t overlap much,” she said. “To frame it as just Punjabi candidates raising the most money kind of misses what’s actually going on.”
She added that this kind of framing can reinforce broader misconceptions.
“It perpetuates harmful stereotypes and takes away from the real work both of these very different candidates are putting into their campaigns,” Virk said.
For both candidates, Sikh identity plays a role, but primarily as a set of values rather than a political label. Both referenced seva, or selfless service, as a guiding principle in their lives and campaigns. At the same time, their interpretations of leadership, policy and community impact differ in meaningful ways.