San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, Police Officer Larry Turner To Face Each Other In November

Current San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and San Diego police office Larry Turner officially moved on from the primary election for San Diego Mayor on Thursday, with the two now set to face each other this November in the General Election.

Since the latter half of 2023, the field for the San Diego Mayoral’s race has largely been set. Incumbent Mayor Gloria was joined by Turner, former San Diego County public defender Genevieve Jones-Wright quickly pulled to the top three. However, in polls going into 2024, Gloria was in front by a wide margin, always seeming to get above 50%, with the race quickly about being which other candidate was going to make it past the primary.

Jones-Wright, a Democrat like Gloria, received during a previous run for District Attorney in 2018 the support of the party, but also Vice president Kamala Harris, Governor Gavin Newsom and a variety of major Democratic groups. However, they all sided with Gloria this year instead because he is the incumbent and because of his overall popularity. Gloria has been a controversial mayor since being elected in 2020, as he has done little to relieve the high cost of housing in San Diego, and lost the city much prestige for losing the city multiple major conventions over a migrant shelter decision amongst other things. He did win many voters over some of his other policies, such as supporting a homeless tent ban on public property.

With Jones sapped of much support, Turner began surging. A police officer of 8 years and a former Marine intelligence officer for 23 years, Turner managed to win over many right-leaning voters in the city by incorporating his past experiences into how he would run the city.

“I got a chance to see a lot of developing countries, a lot of people who are suffering in these other countries,” said Turner last month. “To come home and see that happening here, and honestly at a bigger scale than some of the third world countries that I’ve worked in, it’s just very sad. I don’t believe the homeless encampment ban is working. I’d bring in all of the players, all of the nonprofits here in San Diego, and bring them into one table. We used to do this overseas all the time: the State Department and United States Agency for International Development would bring all of the nonprofits together, and we would sit around the table, put all our assets there and come up with a really good plan — a synergistic approach to solving the crisis.”

On election day, to little surprise, Gloria came out ahead with over 50% of the vote. Turner was second with around 23% of the vote, but with Jones-Wright close enough where Turner could not pass the threshold needed. At the end of the night, Gloria declared victory in the primary, saying on X that “Thank you San Diego! The preliminary primary election results exceeded my expectations and put us on a path to victory in November. I’m excited to continue to work hard for my beloved hometown with the vision of building a city that works.”

Thank you San Diego! The preliminary primary election results exceeded my expectations and put us on a path to victory in November. I’m excited to continue to work hard for my beloved hometown with the vision of building a city that works #ForAllofUs. pic.twitter.com/VJvdHfJsbl

— Todd Gloria (@ToddGloria) March 7, 2024

For over a week, the likelihood of Turner clinching second place grew and grew until Thursday when a large block of counted votes were recorded, pushing him over the threshold. As of Friday afternoon, Gloria has 126,697 votes, or 50.1%, with Turner at 58,709 with 23.2%. Jones-Wright finished in third place with 39,779, or 15.7% of the vote. She was also over 20,000 votes over the closest candidate in 4th place.

Rather than post a typical victory message, Turner instead tweeted out several messages showing Gloria and other Democrats tried to knock him out of the race early and printed fake Republican flyers, as well as him stating why he was opposed to the proposed 1% sales tax increase in San Diego.

When I say politics are dirty, that I am proudly NOT a politician, this is an example… Fake Republican mailers from Mayor Gloria’s camp. Games & tricks like this tend to backfire because people and voters can see right through them. https://t.co/BOPMAGj8zt pic.twitter.com/Ri8VisCP3x

— LT4SD (@LarryTurner4SD) March 14, 2024

With the race now set between Gloria and Turner, experts noted that Turner is facing an uphill, but not impossible, battle for Mayor this November.

“Gloria is popular, but he has also stumbled a lot. Every informed voter in San Diego knows at least some of his follies,” Rachel Lewis, a San Diego County pollster, told the Globe on Friday. “Turner would have to fight hard and get a few lucky breaks to beat Gloria, who has become a powerful incumbent. But if he can keep nailing him where he is weak on issues, we could see him begin to climb up. Just a lot of factors in the many months ahead.”

Final vote tallies are expected to be in by April 4th.