The city of Turlock has elected two council members- newcomer Gil Esquer (District 4) and incumbent Steven Nascimento (District 2) on election night.
These candidates ran an intensive race against Jaime Franco for District 2 and Amy Bublak and Donald Babadalir for District 4.
The City Council race was Turlock’s first bi-district race. 
Esquer had 62.5 percent of the votes compared to 37 percent for Franco. Nascimento had 48 percent of the votes to 47 percent for Bublak and five percent for Babadalir. 
Esquer awaited the results at his election party that was held in downtown Turlock at Crust & Crumb on election night.
Warm and pleasant supporters surrounded him.Family and friends joked, laughed and conversed as they shared a slice of pizza and awaited the results of this first ever by-district race.
“I told them (my volunteers and supporters) win, lose or draw to have a good time,” Esquer said.
Rosa Esquer stood by her husband’s side since he first announced to her about his interest to run for council members for District 2.
“Win or lose either way, we’ll be happy,” Rosa Esquer said. “We’ve had a lot of support.”
Timm Lavelle, a local businessman, expressed his support for Esquer.
“We are excited that we’ve gone to district elections because it allows a good man like Gil to run for his neighborhood and on a low budget,” Lavelle said.
Even though Franco did not obtain the votes that he needed; he received his enthusiastic support from his followers.
Franco had his election party at downtown Mexican restaurant Mariscos Guayabito where he delivered heartwarming speeches thanking everyone for their help as well as sharing his challenges.
After 40 percent of the precincts were counted, Franco continued to be optimistic about the future of Turlock, especially the Hispanic community.
“Only to congratulate the winner. And appreciate that we have done a transparent, clean, honest, decently,” Franco said. “Those are the qualities that a leader has to have and only that way that politics have to be.”
Franco has work experience as an instructional assistant, farming, bilingual aid, auto sales and welding. Franco volunteers at Catholic Charities, Friends of the Border as well as being a coordinator for Federacion Jalisco and a member of the Latino Community Roundtable.
Nascimento held his election party at Pizza Factory which included some of his closest friends and family.
Gathered around the television that was screening live coverage of the presidential election, attendees were also glued to their laptops and phones updating themselves on the District 4 race.
“It’s hard not to be worried about the presidential election but I feel good. We’re ahead,” Nascimento said.
Among the midst of constant updates from an intense presidential election, Nascimento kept his cool by maintaining high levels of energy while circulating the room creating conversation over pizza and beer.
“We need to focus on the future of our community and take a proactive approach,” the District 4 candidate said in regards to what he would do if he was elected.
The Nascimento supporters left the night at 9:00 p.m. with high hopes that he would be officially elected as the new District 4 council member as he had been leading the race by 100 votes so far.
Amy Bublak held her election pary at Hauck’s Grill in downtown Turlock.  The dinning location also shared the patio area with students from California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State) sharing in the watch party.
The supporting crowd that showed up was just as eager to see the results searching on all their mobile devices.
Bublak had a calm facial expression, but wouldn’t allow any of her thoughts to escape when asked to comment on the race when 50% of polls reporting putting her at 45% and therefore 4% behind at the moment.
She commented that she did not want to speculate about the race until it was over because “…speculation gets your nowhere.”
What she did comment on was her supporters and her feelings of the race saying “I enjoyed meeting so many wonderful people here in Turlock. I never had so much support as I did this time, I really enjoyed it”.
As the Bublak party began to close down the night shifted to the big focus on everyone’s mind. As the numbers poured in from new polls the chatter began to get louder as patrons realize Trump is pulling ahead.
“This is proof; racisim, sexism, homophobia… everything bad is alive in America and we aren’t as great as we think we are” Peter Racco said.
Grim faces of Hillary supporters grew dark as her numbers were seen on the television screen.
“It’s simply astonishing. If Trump gets elected it’ll set us back. All the feminism, civil rights, minority rights… if Trump gets elected that’ll be the day America truly needs to be great again.” Christian Pinedo said.
Clouds of anger could be seen in their eyes as they watched closely.
“Trump will be the “Great” shit-stain of America’s wardrobe” William Holtsman said.