Charleston posts 2026 municipal-election field ahead of August 25 ballot-order drawing

The City of Charleston has published candidate updates for the city’s Nov. 3, 2026, municipal general election, identifying contests for mayor, city treasurer, municipal judge, at-large City Council seats and ward offices.

The next scheduled election-administration step is a ballot-order drawing at 9 a.m. Aug. 25 in the City Clerk’s Office at City Hall. The city’s election information page lists the drawing as part of the process before the November general election.

The drawing is scheduled to set ballot placement for the candidates appearing in the city’s posted updates. It is a procedural event, not a vote, election result or determination of the winners of any municipal contest.

Citywide offices on the posted list

For mayor, the city lists Amy Goodwin and Brian Hunt as candidates. Ben Adams is listed for city treasurer, and Matt Smith is listed for municipal judge.

The page also identifies five at-large City Council contests. Its ward listings extend through Ward 20, covering the ward offices included in the city’s published candidate updates.

Those listings establish the offices and candidates currently displayed by the city for the fall municipal election. The city page does not state whether its candidate list is final beyond the updates it posts.

What the August drawing means

Charleston’s City Clerk’s Office is the location identified for the Aug. 25 drawing. With the general election scheduled for Nov. 3, the drawing is the next dated municipal-election milestone listed on the city’s page.

Voters will select candidates for the citywide and council offices on the November ballot. The City of Charleston directs residents seeking additional election information to resources from Kanawha County and the West Virginia Secretary of State.

Kanawha County also published an official May 12 primary-election results document that includes Charleston City Council contests. The approved material does not provide vote totals from that document for this report, and the city’s candidate-update page does not provide campaign-finance totals or polling.

As a result, the posted information documents the municipal field and the upcoming ballot-order procedure, but it does not support conclusions about the competitiveness or likely outcome of any race.