San Diego County Board Of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas To Leave Office Next Month Despite Winning Reelection

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas announced on Friday that she will leave the Board next month when her term ends, planning to leave office despite winning reelection last month.

Born in Mexico, Vargas had been on the Southwestern College Governing Board for seven years prior to being elected to the Board. Vargas became the first Latina and first immigrant to be on the board following the 2020 election. In 2023, she moved up to being chair of the board following Nathan Fletcher. During her time on the Board, Vargas proved to be a pivotal vote on several different issues, such as being the deciding vote in an ordinance halting most evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While initially popular upon entering the position in 2021, Vargas gradually became more and more unpopular for her deviating from putting in improvements she had promised on, most notably public health, housing, homelessness and racial equity. Earlier this year, Vargas even had to take on a security detail following growing safety threats against her. According to County records, her detail has cost the County $41,000 a month. In the last few months, the number of threats against her have grown even more because of her taking strong stances in “Trump-Proofing” the County. This included her leading a county policy that is aimed to limit cooperation with ICE.

With security issues climbing, Vargas said on Friday that she would be forgoing a second term on the Board of Supervisors despite winning reelection last month. Currently she plans to leave next month before her second term would begin.

“Due to personal safety and security reasons, I will not take the oath of office for a second term,” said Vargas on Friday in a statement. It has been my honor to serve in public office during unprecedented times, including the past four years on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

“Whether serving as an elected board member on the Southwestern College Governing Board for seven years or as your first Latina County Supervisor, I’ve had the privilege of leading transformative initiatives in the County of San Diego and beyond for nearly 30 years, alongside many of you. My priority has always been our community, ensuring that everyone can be seen, heard and have a chance to thrive.”

With Vargas out, the San Diego Board of Supervisors now loses their often deciding vote, as the Board had been 3-2 in favor of Democrats since the 2020 election. Had Vargas stayed, the Board would have remained 3-2. However, with Vargas now out, the Board is split, meaning that new policies can be more difficult to pass. For Vargas, who had been attempting to instill more laws limiting County cooperation with ICE, this means that the Board will likely have a harder time “Trump-Proofing” the County, especially if her replacement is Republican.

“It’s not known for sure all the reasons behind Vargas leaving, but more and more people had been growing in discontentment with her,” explained Cynthia Wallace, a Southern California pollster, to the Globe on Friday. “She won in 2020 pretty handedly, but this year she had a lot less support. Vargas was getting a lot of people against her, and yes, that resulted in her needing security. But that made people like her even less. I mean, $41,000 a month. Many of her constituents made less than that a year. And now, with her not taking the next term, wow, it’s just a mess.”

Vargas’ last day in office will be January 6th.