Sacramento County is getting its first new District 1 supervisor in 16 years — and after the first night of counting, the seat is leaning toward the public-health doctor who nearly became the city's mayor two years ago. Flojaune “Flo” Cofer held 52.17 percent of the vote to City Councilman Eric Guerra's 47.83 percent in the tally as of 10 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3 — a lead of 1,714 votes with 25.28 percent of votes recorded — according to Abridged by PBS KVIE, which covered both campaigns through election night. The race is not over: the figures are early and unofficial, most ballots were still uncounted when the night ended, and KCRA 3 likewise reported Cofer in the early lead.
A seat open for the first time in 16 years
District 1 has been held since 2010 by Phil Serna, who served four terms and chose not to seek another. When Serna announced he would step aside, he endorsed Guerra as his successor. Because no candidate won more than 50 percent in the June 2 primary — Cofer took 45.6 percent (32,210 votes), Guerra 29.4 percent (20,760) and Los Rios trustee and former state lawmaker Deborah Ortiz 15.3 percent (10,782) out of 70,604 votes cast — the top two advanced to the November 3 runoff that Tuesday's count is now deciding.
The district: Sacramento's core and Natomas
District 1 covers the city of Sacramento's central neighbourhoods — including Oak Park, East Sacramento and North Sacramento — and the Natomas area, along with some unincorporated county territory; it does not take in the city's southern neighbourhoods such as South Land Park, Greenhaven and Meadowview. It is one of five seats on the Board of Supervisors, the body that runs Sacramento County's services — from roads and homelessness programmes to public health — for the city core and its surrounding communities.
Cofer's night: “An opportunity to govern together”
Cofer, who holds a doctorate in epidemiology and has worked in public health for 20 years, spoke to more than 100 supporters at Calabash Caribbean on Del Paso Boulevard. She famously narrowly lost Sacramento's 2024 mayoral race to Kevin McCarty by fewer than 2,000 votes — and on Tuesday she turned that loss into her theme. “I am so grateful I lost that mayoral race,” Cofer told the crowd, saying the defeat gave her time to refine her message. “I'm glad we had an opportunity to grow together, because now we have an opportunity to govern together.” She rooted her campaign in personal loss — her father's early death, and the death of her best friend's mother, a “second mother” to her, on Election Day 2024: “Behind every policy failure is somebody's father, is somebody's mother.” As a supervisor she has pledged more accessible leadership, better roads, action to prevent pedestrian deaths and expanded capacity in services for homeless people.
Guerra's case: 11 years on the City Council
Guerra, a member of the Sacramento City Council since 2015, spent election night at The Mix Downtown, at a gathering organised by Rep. Ami Bera, where he was joined by Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper, Assemblymembers Maggie Krell and Stephanie Nguyen and Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen. Guerra campaigned on his own biography — he grew up in a family of immigrants who faced deportation — and on an aggressive stance on homelessness, including using judges' orders to compel people into treatment. He had the outgoing supervisor's endorsement and 11 years of council service behind him; on the first night of counting, it was not quite enough.
The mailers that became part of the race
Cofer also addressed the strangest episode of the campaign: reports that Guerra's campaign mailers had been thrown away. The U.S. Attorney's Office has charged a postal worker for allegedly withholding campaign mail; the incident occurred in the 95824 ZIP code, where Guerra's mother lives, he told Abridged. Cofer told her supporters the episode should not swallow the result: “The story of tonight will not become a story of Eric Guerra's mail. The incident deserves attention, but it also deserves proportion.”
Awaaz Punjab reported the mail case when the charge was filed: Sacramento postal worker charged over withheld campaign mail
Why the county seat matters locally
The Board of Supervisors is Sacramento County's government: it sets the county budget and oversees roads, public-health services, homelessness programmes and county law-enforcement oversight for District 1's neighbourhoods — Oak Park, East Sacramento, North Sacramento and Natomas among them. Cofer's pledges (roads, pedestrian deaths, homeless-services capacity) and Guerra's (court-ordered treatment for homelessness) are county powers, which is why a 1,714-vote early margin in a county race draws a crowd, a sheriff and members of Congress on election night. For the Punjabi families settled across north Sacramento and Natomas, the supervisor is the level of government that answers for the roads they drive and the services their neighbourhoods receive.
What happens next
Counting continues. Tuesday's 10 p.m. figures covered only 25.28 percent of recorded votes, and Sacramento County will post updated tallies in the coming days as remaining ballots are processed; results stay unofficial until the county certifies them. If Cofer's lead holds, she will succeed Serna as District 1's first new supervisor since 2010; if Guerra closes the 1,714-vote gap as later ballots are counted, the Serna-endorsed councilman takes the seat instead. Either way, the changing of the guard Serna set in motion is complete — only the name is still being counted.