This year’s race for an open seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors could be much more competitive for Democrats than it was eight years ago. But as Republicans try to hold the vast North County district, they face a key question: As a minority on the panel, how should they govern?
Two Republican North County mayors have split the party in their bids to succeed Supervisor Jim Desmond, who faces term limits. Vista Mayor John Franklin has pledged to govern like Desmond, who regularly rebukes Democrats. San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones says she doesn’t want to inject politics into the job at all.
On the Democratic side, most support has lined up behind Kyle Krahel, a former top aide to U.S. Rep. Mike Levin and a former leader of the county party.
Republicans need to hold the District 5 seat in order to maintain what influence they still have on the five-person Board of Supervisors, where they currently control two seats.
With two members, Republicans can block items like certain budget amendments and rezoning proposals. But even with three members, the panel’s Democrats have found ways to pass certain items, like spending reserves, without having to earn a fourth vote from a Republican.
Should a Democrat win District 5 in November, their party would solidify its control of the Board of Supervisors even more and secure their first-ever supermajority. With a fourth seat, they’d be able to pass important items like budget amendments without needing to earn Republican support.
Whoever might advance from the GOP side, come November they could face a tougher path to victory than in past elections. In the past decade, the district — which stretches from Oceanside to Borrego Springs — has seen its political colors change.
In 2018, Republicans had a registration advantage of 5 percentage points. Today, Democrats hold a 4-point advantage. They had a similar advantage in 2022 — but Desmond still cruised to re-election with 60% of the vote.
Krahel sees the race as a real opportunity for Democrats amid low public approval the Trump administration. In recent years, resignations and their aftermath have hobbled Democrats’ power to reshape the county, which for decades was controlled by Republicans, he points out.
“That kind of turnover does set you back from being able to make progress,” Krahel said. “The ship of state turns slowly.”
Fallbrook, CA_4_19_26_Superrvisor candidate Kyle Krahel, right a Democrat, greeted prospective voters like Jacque Corpora, left, of Vista, at the Fallbrook Avocado Festival. Photo by John Gastaldo for the Union-Tribune
Other candidates in the race are Norma Contreras, a Democrat and former chair of the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, and Sasha Miller, an independent endorsed by the Green Party.
The top two finishers in the June 2 primary will advance to the general election.
Two kinds of Republicans
Franklin and Jones come into the race with similar resumes: Both were elected mayor of their respective North County cities after multiple terms on their city council. But they differ in how they tout their records and from whom they’re drawing support.
Franklin has the backing of the region’s old guard of Republican leaders, including dozens of current and former officials. Jones has the backing of state Rep. Carl DeMaio and his organization Reform California, a powerful force in state Republican politics.
Franklin’s deep ties to the local GOP establishment helped give him a considerable early fundraising advantage. Last year, his campaign for supervisor raised $346,000 and had $591,000 of cash on hand; Jones raised $174,000 and had $172,000 on hand. Fundraising and spending totals from this year aren’t yet available.
But the San Diego County party remains split in the race. In a February vote, party officials couldn’t agree on whom to endorse. Franklin won support from 28 members of the central committee and Jones 20; Franklin would have needed another three votes to score the party’s formal endorsement.
Desmond, who was elected to the North County seat in 2018 and is now running for Congress, is staying out of it. In an interview, the supervisor said he has no plans to endorse or “put my finger on the scale.”
“They’re both friends of mine,” he said of Franklin and Jones. “I’m going to let the electorate decide in the primary.”
Supervisor Jim Desmond listens to people speak during the San Diego County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Corey Gustafson, the former chair of the county GOP, considers the race a proxy fight between DeMaio and the county party — two factions that have feuded for years.
“This is all a power play by Carl DeMaio,” he said.
Jones objects to that characterization of her candidacy and says DeMaio is backing her because of her record.
“He’s supporting me because he believes in what I do,” Jones said. “He sees the change that I’ve been able to create. The fact that I’m attacked for that is ridiculous. It takes away from what I’ve actually done.”
Jones, who succeeded Desmond as San Marcos mayor in 2018, points to the city’s continued emergence as a key economic hub in North County. Two new hospitals have opened in the city under her mayoralty, and there has been continued housing development downtown.
“This isn’t by happenstance,” Jones said. “It’s because we have a well-functioning city that provides housing options.”
San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony at Cal State San Marcos on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in San Marcos. (Michael Ho / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Franklin touts his handling of Vista’s budget and expansion of its homelessness services. But on housing, he’s a critic of high-density housing development, explicitly in San Marcos, arguing it does little to temper rent growth and instead pushes to prioritize single-family homes.
“Where did high-rise rental housing make it cheaper to live?” Franklin said. “Everyone agrees we need more housing, but the question is, what kind of housing?”
On the campaign trail, one of the biggest contrasts Franklin draws between himself and Jones is in how they’d approach the job of supervisor. At a meeting of Valley Center Republicans last month, he said he’d promote himself as an alternative to Democratic supervisors, not work with them.
“If we’re going to roll over and we’re going to capitulate and cut deals, then we’re not even going to be heard,” he told the crowd.
But the approach Franklin derides is a tack often taken by the Board of Supervisors’ other Republican member, Joel Anderson.
Being in the minority, Anderson has long argued he needs to work with Democrats to secure resources for his East County district. He sides with the majority more often than Desmond, voting with Democrats on plans to create a consumer protection office, reform indigent medical care and have philanthropists pay some county bills.
Anderson, who has not endorsed anyone in the race, did not return a request for comment.
Jones says she’d be “apolitical” as a supervisor.
“Ideology is not helping anyone, when you look at the quality of life of everyone together in a community,” she said.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio speaks at a press conference outside the Riverside County Registrar of Voters on Monday, March 2, 2026. (Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
Even DeMaio, a staunch conservative and fierce critic of Democrats, touts what he says is her bipartisan appeal.
“She actually can work with Democratic elected officials to get them to change their points of view,” he said in an interview.
The tax question
This year, the rising cost of living — and in particular taxes — could help define the race for supervisor in North County.
Whichever two candidates advance past the June primary could appear on the November ballot alongside a measure that would raise the countywide sales tax by half a cent.
Krahel declined to say whether he would support a sales tax ballot measure but added that he doesn’t “like going for revenue first” without first trying to curb spending. But he noted that Republican-backed federal cuts and reforms to social safety net programs have left the county needing to fill in the gap.
“It really needs to be an all-of-the-above strategy, because we’re being so jackhammered by the federal government,” Krahel said.
At a meeting of the Valley Center Republicans at the Country Trader event venue in Valley Center on March 31, 2026, Vista Mayor John Franklin, middle, listens to Republican candidate for state controller Herb Morgan speak. Franklin is running for County Supervisor District 5. (Charlie Neuman / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Neither Jones nor Franklin supports a countywide sales tax hike. Still, Franklin has tried to make sales taxes the key issue distinguishing him from Jones, pointing to her vote to place on the 2024 ballot a 1-cent sales-tax increase. The measure passed with the support of 60% of San Marcos voters.
“Where do we draw the line?” Franklin told the crowd in Valley Center. “For me, what it means to be a Republican is standing fast to spending within our means, to controlling the growth of government.”
Jones dismisses the attack and says she was “not out there endorsing” the sales tax hike. “I put it on the ballot to let San Marcos residents decide,” Jones said.
It’s not yet clear whether a countywide sales tax hike will appear on the November ballot.
A coalition of labor unions and nonprofit leaders are gathering signatures to get it on the ballot as a citizens’ initiative; if they succeed, it would need a simple majority to pass.
Meanwhile, Democratic county supervisors are exploring pursuing a sales tax hike of their own, and polling whether voters might support it.