Preliminary results in the race to represent District 1 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors show longtime challenger Marjan Philhour narrowly ahead of incumbent Connie Chan on the fourth round of ranked choice voting.
The race remains too close to call but Philhour had a tally of 9,943 votes to Chan’s 9,908 votes after the transfer of votes from other candidates who were eliminated in the first three rounds, according to the initial returns in Tuesday’s election. District 1 includes the Richmond District north of Golden Gate Park.
Philhour lost her first bid for the seat in 2016 against Chan’s predecessor before narrowly losing to Chan in 2020.
Her campaign was boosted by the opposition to Chan by the political action committee Coalition to Grow San Francisco, known as GrowSF, which opposed multiple incumbents in this election cycle and raised over $82,000 in an effort to defeat her.
Philhour, a native of the district who founded a consulting business and is a liaison to the Parent Association at San Francisco University High School, focused her messaging on public safety and opposed Proposition K, which would close the Upper Great Highway seven days a week. She led the field in fundraising with over $507,000.
About 53% of voters had approved Proposition K as of the results released as of 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Philhour called for shutting down open-air drug markets, fully staffing the Police Department, and using more technology like license plate readers to address crime.
GrowSF in opposing her candidacy cited Chan’s opposition to recalls of former District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the 2022 recall of several school board members, as well as accusations she passed on certain police funding opportunities.
Chan had a long list of prominent backers, including House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu, the San Francisco Labor Council and California Nurses Association, among others.