Early returns in Tuesday’s election showed voters in northern Solano County appeared to favor Vacaville City Councilmember Michael Silva for the Solano County Board of Supervisors seat representing District 4, which includes Dixon and Vacaville.
Around 55% of voters favored Silva, with 45% turning out for Silva’s opponent, Vacaville Mayor John Carli. The two had a close race in the June primary election, with Silva ahead by only a few percentage points.
District 4 has around 96,000 residents, according to county data, and encompasses Dixon and parts of Vacaville.
Solano County faces a projected deficit of $36.6 million in the 2026-27 fiscal year, compounded by the closure of several major employers, including the Anheuser-Busch brewery and the Valero Benicia Refinery. In the aftermath, jobs and economic development are priorities for county supervisors.
Silva, elected to the City Council in 2020, grew up in Vacaville in a working-class agriculture family. He is a professor of biotechnology at Solano Community College.
Silva was endorsed by a long list of local organizations, including the Solano County Democratic Central Committee, the Solano County Farm Bureau, labor groups, environmental groups, U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Fairfield, and state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, a Democrat from Napa.
Carli is a retired Vacaville police officer and police chief and was elected mayor in 2022. He boasted endorsements from Vasquez, Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams and several law enforcement groups. Carli’s campaign was focused on public safety and economic growth for the county.
Carli has pledged support for a plan to rezone hundreds of acres of land in southern Solano County to accommodate a massive shipbuilding project. The plan was pitched by the people behind billionaire-backed real estate venture California Forever, which seeks to develop a utopian new city neighboring Vacaville.
Last year, Carli and Silva went toe to toe over a proclamation to declare the month of June LGBTQ+ Pride Month during a June 10, 2025, City Council meeting. Silva voted in favor of the proclamation while Carli dissented. The proclamation passed narrowly.