Sacramento Mayoral Race Remains Too Close To Call Between McCarty, Cofer

The Sacramento Mayoral election between Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) and epidemiologist and former chair of Sacramento’s Measure U Community Advisory Committee Flojaune Cofer remained at a virtual deadlock on Friday, with McCarty only ahead in voting by just over 3,000 votes.

In May 2023, current Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced that he wouldn’t be running for a third term in 2024, opening up the race for Mayor without an incumbent. Earlier this year, the race had widely been expected to be between McCarty and one of two other candidates – former Senator Richard Pan or former City Councilman Steve Hansen. However, the March primary turned surprising when Cofer managed to win the primary with 26,287 votes, or 28.3% of the vote. McCarty, meanwhile, barely got second place, beating Pan for the spot 20,269 votes to 20,107 votes, or, 21.8% to 21.6%.

Public safety, city finances, homelessness, and police funding were amongst the top hot button issues in the race. Debates also showed that both candidates were not exactly using facts to back up what they were saying, making many voters remain undecided up to election day. By the time election day came, Sacramento voters seemed largely split on who to vote for.

However, on election day, McCarty had a 9,000 vote lead, with many expecting him to be declared the winner within days. Both candidates still remained optimistic, with McCarty saying in a statement “I want to thank my supporters, volunteers, and all Sacramentans. I’m pleased so far with the results. But with tens of thousands of ballots left to count, there is still a long way to go. I look forward to the next batch of results next week.”

Cofer campaign manager Jeff Rousset added that “We’re still feeling good about the direction that this race is heading right now. We feel good that, you know, things are trending in the right direction. We’re closing the gap and we hope that soon we’ll come in first.”

The race then began narrowing more and more. By the next week, McCarty had gone down from a 54% lead to a 52.8% lead to a 51.2% lead and only being around 4,000 votes ahead. Finally, this week brought the newest totals to the closest yet – 93,526 votes to 90,367 votes, with McCarty having a narrow 1% lead. According to the County, 26,050 ballots are left to count, making the Mayoral race still anyone’s game. Many outlets have even began predicting a recount being possible.

“We received over 650,000 ballots. That’s a lot of ballots to go through. Every ballot has a human touching it,” said the Sacramento County Department of Voter Registration and Elections on Thursday. “Every ballot is printed on paper, so the vast majority of those we have to verify signatures on because they were either mailed or dropped off in a ballot dropbox, so we have to make sure that the signature on it matches the voter’s file. It just takes time to get all of that verified and ready to go and get processed and tabulated, but we are moving just as quickly as we have in past elections.”

While more votes are expected to be reported in soon, both candidates remain on edge as the Mayoral vote remains one of the few open elections left in the state.

“Both candidates were controversial for different reasons and McCarty had been expected to win,” explained Northern California pollster Felicia Gibson to the Globe on Friday. “But Cofer has surprised many. McCarty nearly had the race called for him after election day, but she has been steadily narrowing the gap. McCarty put a lot into this election, and he’ll be kicking himself forever if he loses to an epidemiologist of all people.”

More results from the race are expected in soon.