San Francisco is poised to see a record number of LGBTQ people serving together on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. With an out candidate leading in the race for the open District 9 seat, there will be a bloc of four out supervisors come 2025.
Based on the current ranked-choice tally in the contest to succeed termed out Supervisor Hillary Ronen, progressive Jackie Fielder has taken the lead with 57% of the vote after six rounds. In second place with roughly 43% is Trevor Chandler, a gay moderate.
A victory by Fielder, who is queer, will make her the first Native American elected supervisor in the city. Her win will also mark the first time in 28 years that an out female has been elected to a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Over that time an out woman was appointed to fill a vacancy but went on to lose her election to keep the seat.
Coming in third is Roberto Hernandez, a straight moderate, while queer progressive Stephen Torres trails in fourth. Ronen had dual endorsed Fielder and Torres in the contest to represent the Mission district, Bernal Heights, and a slice of the Mission Dolores neighborhood adjacent to the Castro LGBTQ district.
It was a stunning defeat for Hernandez, known as the mayor of the Mission and expected to do much better in the race. But Chandler had secured the number one endorsement from the San Francisco Democratic Party, which gave Hernandez its number two nod, and won the backing of many fellow moderate leaders in the city.
For more than a year Chandler and Fielder had largely focused on each other, attacking one another on social media and in emailed missives to supporters. They each had also aired several different campaign ads over the final weeks of the campaign.
There are currently three gay supervisors, which itself marks a record for the number of out men serving together on the board. In the District 5 supervisor race gay political newcomer Scotty Jacobs had hoped to make it a quartet.
Alas, he landed in third after three rounds with close to 13% behind first place finisher Bilal Mahmood, a moderate who received 53% of the vote after four rounds of ranked-choice voting. In second place is the incumbent, progressive Supervisor Dean Preston, with almost 47%, while Autumn Looijen landed in fourth place with nearly 10%.
A second gay candidate, Black Republican Allen Jones, landed in fifth with 1.6%. The race to represent the Haight, Western Addition, and Tenderloin neighborhoods had largely been seen as a contest between Preston and Mahmood.
Two other incumbent supervisors were also seeking second terms Tuesday. In the hotly contested race for the District 1 seat covering the Richmond District, progressive Supervisor Connie Chan is also on the cusp of being defeated. After four rounds Chan is in second with 49.91% of the vote, while her main challenger, moderate Marjan Philhour, is in first place with 50.09%.
In the West Portal-centered District 7 race, Supervisor Myrna Melgar has taken first place after three rounds with 51.59% of the vote. In second with 48.41% is flower shop owner Matt Boschetto, while coming in third is Stephen Martin-Pinto, vice president of the city's Veterans Affairs Commission.
The other two contests were for open seats due to the incumbents being termed out. Leading the race to succeed District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, the current board president who ran for mayor Tuesday, is Danny Sauter with 56.07% of the vote after five rounds of ranked choice results. In second at 43.93% is Sharon Lai.
In the District 11 race in the city's Excelsior District to succeed Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who also vied to become mayor, Michael Lai is standing atop the pack with 50.92% of the vote after six rounds of ranked-choice tallies. In second is Chyanne Chen with 49.08%.
In addition to the winners of Tuesday's supervisor races joining the board in 2025 there will also be a new holder of the District 2 seat covering the Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods. Incumbent Supervisor Catherine Stefani will be stepping down due to her election Tuesday to the city's District 19 Assembly seat.
Stefani easily won the legislative seat with 63% of the vote. With new members of the state Legislature to be sworn in on December 2, it will be up to Mayor London Breed to appoint someone to fill the vacancy.
The person will serve through June 2026 when a special election will be held on the primary ballot that year to serve out the remainder of Stefani's term through January 2027. The winner will have a leg up in the race that fall for a full four-year term.
Should a special election need to be called prior to the primary ballot, then the race to serve out the rest of Stefani's term would be conjoined with it.
Editor's note: This story will be updated as new vote totals are released.
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