Your guide to the Sacramento County Supervisors 1st District race
The race to replace Phil Serna, who has served four terms representing the 1st District on the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, includes longtime Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra, 2024 Sacramento mayor hopeful Flojaune Cofer and former Sacramento Councilmember and former legislator Deborah Ortiz.
The race also includes software programmer Tim Riley, a political newcomer with a focus on relocating to the Aftershock music festival from Discovery Park to Cal Expo.
The five-member Board of Supervisors can make decisions that significantly affect lives for the county’s roughly 1.6 million residents, including about 600,000 people who live in unincorporated areas.
In as little as one meeting, a county supervisor might be asked to vote on homelessness, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department and the county’s budget, which hit $9.2 billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year, as well as routine land use decisions for developments outside of city boundaries.
Phil Serna, son of late Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr., has served since December 2010 as the board’s representative for District 1, covering much of the city. He announced last year that he will not seek a fifth term, which launched a crowded race to replace him.
Where is the district?
District 1 covers of northwestern Sacramento County and a significant portion of the city of Sacramento. Parts of the district within Sacramento city limits include the central city, Natomas, North Sacramento, East Sacramento, Curtis Park and Oak Park.
Who are the candidates?
Two people running for this seat have held elected office and one was nearly elected to a prominent local position in 2024.
Guerra, 47, lives in Tahoe Park and has served on the Sacramento City Council since 2015. He cited homelessness, housing, public safety and transportation as top issues in his current race. Guerra also noted that he had a history of working with the current supervisors.
“The work of this supervisor has to be able to count to three,” Guerra said.
Cofer, a 43-year-old Tallac Village resident and epidemiologist, lost a close 2024 race for Sacramento mayor to Kevin McCarty. Some of her key issues in this race include housing, public health and possibly creating a public bank. She ran as a progressive candidate in the mayoral race and adopted a similar approach for her supervisorial campaign.
“I come in with a different lens, with a different set of experiences and also with a courage to be able to ask questions and help us meet the moment right now,” Cofer said.
Ortiz, who is 69 and lives in East Sacramento, said she was motivated to run partly by the large portion of the county’s work that relates to health and human services. She said her passion is public health and health policy. Since leaving the state Legislature, she done consulting work for public health organizations such as the California Wellness Foundation. Her term as a trustee for the Los Rios Community College Distict ends this year.
“Everything I built my career around – to serve poor, access to health care, public health, reproductive health – is being eviscerated,” Ortiz said. “It’s all being destroyed by Trump.”
Riley, a 65-year-old Natomas resident, has worked programming software and is self-funding his race. He’s running in part because he would like the Aftershock Festival to be moved from Discovery Park, near his home, to Cal Expo.
“I’m campaigning with the intention to win, but I’m a realistic person,” Riley said. “I’m sure if there were polling, I would not be the top candidate.”
Who is funding the races?
Guerra had received the most campaign contributions through April 6, according to publicly available records filed with the county.
Guerra had raised $81,827, including money that he transferred from his 2024 City Council campaign. His donors include former Sacramento City Councilman Steve Hansen, 2006 Democratic California gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides and Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen.
He has also received money from political action committees supporting the California Apartment Association and Teamsters within the state. Guerra said that he wouldn’t accept money from oil or tobacco companies.
Cofer had raised just $7,510 according to her filings. She raised more than $500,000 in her 2024 run for mayor, per city records. She said she favored individual contributions in her race for supervisor and that she wanted to be on the record about her desire for publicly funded elections.
Ortiz had raised $16,575, saying that her contributors would be family and friends.
Riley’s campaign is self-funded.
