{"id":344495,"date":"2026-06-03T09:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/344495\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T09:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:56:17","slug":"gurm-martinez-lott-appear-headed-for-runoff-in-fresno-city-council-district-7-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/344495\/","title":{"rendered":"Gurm, Martinez Lott appear headed for runoff in Fresno City Council District 7 race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Fresno City Council District 7 candidates appear headed to a November runoff as Nav Gurm maintained his lead, with Ariana Martinez Lott trailing close behind.<\/p>\n

Gurm had secured 38.53% of the vote as of 11:03 p.m. Tuesday; Martinez Lott had gained 36.44%, meaning a November runoff is likely.<\/p>\n

\u201cTruly humbled honored,\u201d Gurm said of late Tuesdays vote count. \u201cI was a 26 year old kid and a large plurality of my district decided to mark my name. That\u2019s truly a humbly feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

AJ Rassamni followed with 15.82% of the vote and Jason J. Keomanee with 8.76% in the race to replace termed-out Councilmember Nelson Esparza.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am incredibly proud that we made it to the runoff in November,\u201d Martinez Lott said. \u201cMy opponent had all the odds in his favor, the full weight of the Republican and Democratic establishment was against our campaign and they still could not beat us out of this race. Our communities are more ready than ever to win this in November, and to meet money with heart, community and strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

To secure a seat, a candidate must have received over 50% of the vote on primary election day. If no one gets a majority of the vote, the top two candidates will advance to the general.<\/p>\n

Gurm is an attorney and the owner of Five River Strategies, a Central Valley public affairs consultancy. He is also a former legislative assistant for Esparza. The Bee recently reported on Gurm, who has benefitted from the financial backing of a political action committee he cofounded,<\/a> Youth Save Democracy, which some political experts say stands out for its high overhead expenses and relatively sparse political spending.<\/p>\n

Martinez Lott is a community organizer and the owner of Coraz\u00f3n Consulting. She also worked for Fresno Councilmember Miguel Arias as director of community relations from 2021 to 2023.<\/p>\n

\"Fresno<\/p>\n

Fresno City Council District 7 candidate Ariana Martinez Lott, center, celebrates at a campaign gathering Tuesday night, June 2, 2026 in Fresno.<\/p>\n

Rassamni is the founder of the Blackstone Merchants Association. He\u2019s also the former owner of the Great American Car Wash and the author of a business book.<\/p>\n

Just a week before Election Day, Gurm and Rassamni traded barbs<\/a> via mailer and social media. Gurm questioned Rassamnis\u2019 slogan of \u201cPeople Before Politics,\u201d in relation to his proposed \u201csafe zones\u201d for the homeless. Rassamni countered by questioning Gurms\u2019 readiness for the job as a 26-year-old.<\/p>\n

Fresno\u2019s District 7 includes east-central Fresno and parts of southeast Fresno, including the Manchester, Radio Park, Romain Park, Lafayette Park\/Fresno High neighborhoods. The district also includes parts of the Blackstone Avenue corridor and neighborhoods near Shields and Temperance avenues.<\/p>\n

This is a developing story and will be updated as votes come in through Tuesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Fresno City Council District 7 candidates appear headed to a November runoff as Nav Gurm maintained his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[128527,3847,112,114,113,141548,141547,128530],"class_list":["post-344495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-ariana-martinez-lott","tag-councilmember-nelson-esparza","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-gurm","tag-martinez-lott","tag-nav-gurm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}