Sacramento County District 1 Supervisor Race Heads to Nov. 3 Runoff: Progressive-Backed Cofer Faces Establishment Favorite Guerra
The runoff for District 1 of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in California will be held on November 3, between Flojaune Cofer and Eric Guerra. Incumbent Supervisor Phil Serna, first elected in 2010, is stepping down in January, making this the first open race for the seat in nearly 16 years. District 1 covers about half of the city of Sacramento, including Natomas, Del Paso Heights, Central Sacramento, East Sacramento, Oak Park and parts of South Sacramento. Both candidates are Democrats, but the county race is nonpartisan and no party label appears on the ballot.
Cofer, 43, is an epidemiologist with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and women's studies from Spelman College and a master's in public health and a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of Michigan. She has worked for the California Department of Public Health and chaired Sacramento's Measure U citizen oversight committee. She is backed by the Sacramento County Democratic Party, the Working Families Party, the Sierra Club, the Los Rios Community College District teachers' union and the California Democratic Renter's Council, among others. She came within about a percentage point of winning the mayor's race in 2024.
This spring, Cofer was sued over her ballot designation. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jennifer K. Rockwell ruled that her planned designation of doctor was misleading because she is not a medical doctor, and her designation was changed to epidemiologist, public health. The California Fair Political Practices Commission is also investigating a complaint that she failed to report income on her financial disclosure form for guest lectures at Sacramento State, expert witness testimony and policy work for the California Department of Social Services.
Guerra, 47, is Sacramento's mayor pro tem and has represented City Council District 6 since 2015. He is backed by outgoing Supervisor Phil Serna, former state Senator Deborah Ortiz, U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui, the Sacramento Police Officers Association, building trades unions and the Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association, among others. He previously served as a governor's appointee on the CSU Board of Trustees and the California Air Resources Board, and is campaigning on 11 years of council experience and work across city and county jurisdictions. According to IVN, the race is seen as a test of which wing of California's Democratic Party can deliver votes when voters cannot fall back on a party label.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加州州议会大厦（Sacramento），图片来源：Wikimedia Commons
