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County · Statewide General Election

Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, District 1

Draft candidate list — early preview until the state’s official list publishes on August 27, 2026.

This is one contest. Enter your address to see every race on your November ballot, and keep track of your picks.

On the ballot

This person is one of five supervisors governing Sacramento County: the budget, public health and social services, and land use in unincorporated areas.

No candidate won a majority in June's four-way primary for Sacramento County's 1st Supervisorial District, which covers most of the city of Sacramento's core. Flojaune Cofer, an epidemiologist and former mayoral candidate, led with 45.6% of the vote; Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra followed with 29.4%. The two advance to a November 3 runoff, having outpaced former state Senator Deborah Ortiz (15.3%) and computer programmer Tim Riley (9.7%).

The winner joins Sacramento County's five-member Board of Supervisors for a four-year term. The board sets the county budget, oversees public health and social services countywide, and controls land use in unincorporated areas outside the county's cities -- separate from, and alongside, the Sacramento City Council.

Neither candidate is the incumbent -- this is an open seat. The choice is generational and institutional as much as it is ideological: a 15-year sitting city councilmember with a City Hall governing record against a public-health epidemiologist and first-time county candidate who nearly won the Sacramento mayor's race two years ago. Both have run and lost countywide before -- Guerra for state Assembly in 2022, Cofer for mayor in 2024 -- and each is trying to convert a runner-up's coalition into a win.

Flojaune Cofer

Cofer holds a bachelor's degree from Spelman College and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, and works as an epidemiologist and senior policy director at Public Health Advocates. She ran for Sacramento mayor in 2024, narrowly losing to Kevin McCarty 50.5% to 49.5% after leading the March primary. Her platform centers on three planks: shielding residents from harmful federal policy changes, preventing housing displacement and homelessness, and pairing clean-energy investment with union jobs.

Strengths

Led the four-way June primary by 16 points, carries the Sacramento Bee's endorsement and a wide labor coalition, and has near-universal name recognition from her 2024 mayoral run.

Trade-offs

No experience yet in elected office -- her public-health and advocacy career has been outside of government, unlike Guerra's decade-plus on the city council.

Keep in mind

She has pledged not to take contributions from corporate PACs, law-enforcement unions, real-estate interests, or fossil-fuel companies, a self-imposed limit her opponent has not matched.

Eric Guerra

Guerra has represented District 6 on the Sacramento City Council since a 2015 special election, most recently winning re-election outright in 2024; his current council term runs through 2028; he would give it up if elected supervisor. A Sacramento State engineering graduate and the son of an immigrant farmworker family, he has also served as a governor's appointee to the California Air Resources Board and the CSU Board of Trustees, and previously ran unsuccessfully for state Assembly District 10 in 2022. His campaign centers on housing production, homelessness, and public safety.

Strengths

More than a decade of city governing experience, endorsements from Sheriff Jim Cooper and the Metro Chamber of Commerce, and institutional labor support from building trades and firefighters.

Trade-offs

Finished 16 points behind Cofer in June, and giving up a safe council seat with four years left on it is a real cost if this bid falls short.

Keep in mind

An independent-expenditure committee funded by IBEW Local 340 ('Working Families for a Better Sacramento') is separately active on his behalf -- money outside his own campaign's control, which state disclosure rules require to be reported and labeled as independent.

June 2 primary — how they advanced

Flojaune Cofer45.6% · 32,210 votes
Eric Guerra29.4% · 20,760 votes
Deborah Ortiz15.3% · 10,782 votes
Tim Riley9.7% · 6,852 votes
Source review: Very strong (92/100) · 10 cited sources

Official records anchor this contest, with several source types checked for context; advocacy or endorsement sources are treated as attributed perspective.

Review note: Eric Guerra for Sacramento County Supervisor and Flo Cofer for Sacramento County Supervisor may have more bias because they are advocacy voter guides compared to other formal government and nonprofit journalism sources.

Last updated August 31, 2026.