SAIPAN — The 2026 ballot is coming into focus. A candidate list the Commonwealth Election Commission provided to NMI News Service, which the commission said contains all candidacy petitions received, shows 75 petitions across the Commonwealth’s races, headlined by a 13-candidate scramble for House Precinct 1 and a three-way contest for the attorney general’s office that Edward E. Manibusan is leaving open.
The list reveals a previously unreported name in the attorney general race. Michael Norita Evangelista joins chief solicitor Jonathan Robert Glass and Joaquin Deleon Guerrero Torres in the nonpartisan contest, the first open AG race since Manibusan announced this week he will not seek reelection after 12 years. All candidacies remain subject to CEC certification.
Three tickets will contest the governor’s race: Blas Jonathan “BJ” Tenorio Attao with Edmund Joseph Sablan Villagomez, independent; Ralph Anthony Deleon Guerrero Torres with Benjamin Mendiola Jones Jr., Republican; and Lawrence Fejeran Camacho with Edith E. Deleon Guerrero, independent. In the delegate race, Republican incumbent Kimberlyn Kay King-Hinds faces independent challenger Galvin Sablan Deleon Guerrero. Chief Justice Alexandro Cruz Castro stands for retention.
Precinct 1 drew 13 candidates for its House seats, including independent incumbent Vincent Raymond Seman Aldan, Republicans Patrick Matagolai Cepeda and John Deleon Guerrero Demapan Jr. and ten more hopefuls: Janet Ulloa Maratita, Raymond Ulloa Palacios, Joseph Arriola Flores, Diego Vincent Fejeran Camacho, Roy Christopher Aldan Ada, Cecilia Remedio Taitano Fitial, Benusto Piteg, Alfredo Javier Cabael, Roman Cepeda Benavente and Ricardo Castro Cruz Jr. Six of the 13 filed as Republicans, setting up a crowded intraparty picture in the precinct now presided over at the party level by new GOP President James Ada.
Precinct 3 is nearly as busy with 12 candidates, including Tourism Chair Marissa Renee Flores seeking reelection. Across all seven precincts, 37 candidates filed for the House. Twelve filed for the Senate, seven of them in the Third Senatorial District, where Senator Corina Lorraine Magofna seeks reelection in a field that includes Celina Roberto Babauta, the district’s lone Democrat.
Saipan’s mayoral race is a three-way contest between incumbent Ramon “RB” Camacho, Joseph Muna Mendiola and Luis Masga Sablan, all independents. Rota Mayor Aubry Manglona Hocog and Tinian’s Antonio San Nicolas Borja filed unopposed for their mayoral seats, and the Northern Islands mayoral race pits Republican Keli Aiken Tenorio against independent Valentino “Nicky” Taisacan Jr. Representatives Joseph Romaldo Evangelista Santos in Precinct 6 and Julie Marie Atalig Ogo in Precinct 7 also filed unopposed.
Nine candidates filed for municipal council seats across the three senatorial districts, and Daniel Ogo Quitugua filed for the Board of Education seat from the Third Senatorial District.
Election day is November 3.
