The year 2026 is young, but the candidates for five San Francisco supervisorial seats are already well off to the races.
Two positions occupied by midterm appointees will be up for grabs in June and again in November, at which point three more will be on the ballot as well.
Because the incumbents in District 2 and District 4 were both appointed to fill vacancies, they must stand for election in June to finish out the terms of their successors. If they win, they must run again in November to win full terms in office.
Both June contests have featured classic San Francisco debates about growth and how much is too much.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have flowed to the leading candidates to represent District 2’s northern neighborhoods, with Supervisor Stephen Sherrill recently holding a roughly two-to-one edge in fundraising for the June race. Candidates in several other districts have raised significant early war chests for their contests.
Upheaval has also continued on The City’s west side over San Francisco voters’ 2024 decision to close part of Great Highway to vehicles in order to create Sunset Dunes park. In District 4, newly appointed Supervisor Alan Wong failed to meet a Tuesday deadline for getting the signatures he needed from three fellow supervisors to qualify a June initiative he had proposed just a week earlier to reopen Great Highway to vehicular traffic during weekdays.
The defeat came despite Wong making multiple public appeals for support, including at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. Only two of Wong’s colleagues supported his measure — Supervisor Connie Chan, whose constituents in District 1, just to the north of District 4, also strongly opposed closing Great Highway; and Chyanne Chen of District 11, where 58.4% of voters cast ballots against Prop. K.
“I have consistently supported a workable compromise for the Great Highway that allows public road access on weekdays and a recreation area on weekends,” Chan said in a prepared statement. “In signing this new ballot measure I put my signature where my mouth is.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie appointed Wong on Dec. 1 to fill the vacant seat previously occupied by former Supervisor Joel Engardio, who was recalled in September after sponsoring Proposition K — the ballot measure that closed the southern portion of Great Highway — in 2024.
Though voters citywide favored Prop. K, they opposed it in Wong’s district, as did Wong and some of his challengers. District 4 includes the Sunset and Parkside neighborhoods west of 19th Avenue.
Appointed District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong, left, is set to run against Natalie Gee, Jeremy Greco, David Lee and Albert Chow in June.
Craig Lee/The Examiner; Natalie Gee for Supervisor; Jeremy Greco for Supervisor; David Lee for Supervisor
Wong, who has political experience, said at a Jan. 8 press conference that he proposed the measure after meeting with varied constituents. He was accompanied by community members at the press conference, but none of his colleagues. Wong said he planned to seek their support, which was not forthcoming enough.
At the time Lurie chose him, Wong was a policy director at a children’s-services organization and an elected City College trustee. He had previously been a legislative aide to former District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar and a legislative aide at the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.
Wong is opposed by four candidates, including Natalie Gee, the longtime chief of staff and former campaign manager for District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, and Albert Chow, a hardware-store owner. Both Chow and Gee opposed Prop. K.
Gee also said repeatedly that she did not support the mayor’s recently approved Family Zoning plan — which aims to promote denser residential development, largely in northern and western neighborhoods, to meet state mandates — and would work to amend it. Wong voted for it, saying he would seek amendments as needed.
Gee is a member of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, which has endorsed her. Chow is the owner of Great Wall Hardware in the Parkside neighborhood and was an organizer of the Engardio recall campaign. He is president of the People of Parkside Sunset neighborhood group.
Also running are David Lee, a longtime teacher of political science at San Francisco State University and other public institutions, and Jeremy Greco, a local school-campus coordinator.
Wong reported raising $15,523 as of Jan. 2, Gee filed a public financing request on Jan. 13 showing contributions of $33,493, Chow on Jan. 12 reported raising $11,751, and Lee in a Dec. 15 filing reported raising $10,750. The fundraising totals listed in this story represent the most recent campaign-finance filings with The City’s Ethics Commission and some campaign statements.
Thus far, the flow of dollars has been larger into the race for District 2, which includes the Marina, Pacific Heights, Cow Hollow, and Presidio Heights.
Sherrill, the incumbent, had an early lead, having raised $225,362 for the June election as of Tuesday, not including public financing, according to a campaign official. Sherrill had raised another $106,800 for the November election.
Appointed District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill (left) will square off against Jeremy Kirshner and Lori Brooke in June.
Craig Lee/The Examiner; Courtesy of Jeremy Kirshner for Supervisor
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The politically moderate group GrowSF had also formed a committee to support Sherrill and committed to raising $500,000 for him this year, a spokesperson for the group said.
Sherrill was previously director of the Mayor’s Office of Innovation. Former Mayor London Breed appointed him in December 2024 to take the place of Catherine Stefani, who was elected that November to the state Assembly.
Challenger Lori Brooke, meanwhile, issued a press release this month touting the fact that in the 10 weeks leading up to the end of the year, she raised $101,106, not including public financing.
Brooke called GrowSF a “YIMBY-aligned astroturf organization,” using the “yes-in-my-backyard” acronym for pro-housing-growth activists.
Brooke is the co-founder of a coalition of neighborhood groups called Neighborhoods United SF that is a one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed this month challenging the Family Zoning plan.
Sherrill voted for the zoning plan. He said it would satisfy state law, avoid a state takeover of local zoning rules, and create a more “welcoming, sustainable, family-friendly city.” Brooke said the plan is unbalanced, inadequately studied and does not respect neighborhood scale, small businesses or existing residents.
Also running is Jeremy Kirshner, an attorney and deputy city manager in Burlingame, who had not disclosed any fundraising numbers as of Tuesday.
Looking to November, District 10 Supervisor Walton will be termed out and not on the ballot.
J.R. Eppler, Dion-Jay “DJ” Brookter, and Theo Ellington are running to succeed District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton.
Courtesy photos
Candidate Theo Ellington, a policy director at a law-and-policy firm and the founder of the “social impact” group Black Citizen, announced this month that he had raised $130,000 for his campaign over a 2½ month period.
Ellington is also executive director of the historic Ruth Williams Bayview Opera House, a cultural center in the Bayview-Hunters Point area, and has been on three city commissions, including the Community Investment and Infrastructure Commission. He was previously an executive at a public-affairs and communications firm, a director of homelessness initiatives and community development for The Salvation Army San Francisco, and public-affairs director for the Golden State Warriors.
Among those challenging Ellington is Dion-Jay “D.J.” Brookter, a nonprofit executive and former member of San Francisco’s Committee on City Workforce Alignment, who reported on Oct. 21 having raised $10,585. J.R. Eppler, an attorney who until recently was a commissioner on The City’s Board of Appeals, said Tuesday he had raised more than $30,000. Eppler is the president of the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association and volunteers with several other local groups.
In District 8, an area currently represented by termed-out Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman that includes the Castro, Glen Park, Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, Mission Dolores and Cole Valley, candidate Manny Yekutiel jumped out to an early fundraising lead.
Gary McCoy, left, and Manny Yekutiel are running to succeed Rafael Mandelman in District 8.
Courtesy photos
Yekutiel, the owner of Manny’s, a civic-events space and cafe-restaurant in the Mission that hosts a regular stream of events, declared his candidacy in September and quickly announced that he had raised $120,000 in 24 hours. He has not yet filed any city disclosures beyond one from Sept. 23 showing nearly $110,000 raised.
Yekutiel was a co-founder with Lurie of the Civic Joy Fund, a nonprofit launched in 2023 that funds and organizes arts and community events in The City. He was Northern California deputy finance director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and was chief of staff at fwd.us, a nonprofit backed by tech heavyweights focused on immigration reform.
Challenging Yekutiel is Gary McCoy, a longtime aide to U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi. He reported that as of Oct. 8 he had raised $14,822, according to a campaign filing statement.
McCoy was previously the vice president of policy and public affairs at HealthRight 360, a provider of mental-health and substance-abuse treatment; a policy and community-affairs manager with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department; and a legislative aide to two supervisors and chief of staff to a third.
Also running is Michael Nguyen, an intellectual-property attorney, drag performer and LGBTQ advocate who was elected in March 2024 to the San Francisco Democratic Party Central Committee. Nguyen in a Dec. 21 city filing reported contributions of $15,517.
In District 6, incumbent Supervisor Matt Dorsey has said he is planning to run for reelection, but neither he nor anyone else was listed on San Francisco’s election website as a candidate as of Tuesday.