A progressive Black woman leads in the race for Sacramento mayor, haters be damned | Opinion

This one goes out to all the haters.

It must truly hurt certain people in Sacramento to see Flojaune Cofer comfortably leading the race to be the next mayor. She’s the only candidate we can be sure of moving on to the November general election, while the other three trade candidates trade places, less than 600 votes separating the lot of them while Cofer has a 6,000 vote cushion between her and her next closest competitor.

It must be a punch to the leather wallets of some to know they spent big on independent expenditures, just to see the field trailing behind a progressive Black woman without a lick of traditional political experience.

Meanwhile, I’m freeze-frame punching the air like Judd Nelson at the end of The Breakfast Club. (Don’t You... Forget About Flo, anyone?)

Those numbers show just how tired Sacramentans are of the same old political games that keep dragging us down. Cofer is at more than 26,000 votes and continues to climb further into the lead with every poll update.

And there’s little doubt that a goodly number of votes went to Kevin McCarty, Richard Pan and Steve Hansen simply because they had name recognition that Cofer didn’t — but now she’s got another seven months and change to line her name with lights just as bright. Despite all the money spent and the reams of ugly flyers mailed — here we are.

I grew up in Sacramento and this is by far, the most stunning upset I’ve ever seen in city politics. I’m beside myself with glee knowing it’s got to be chafing the pants off of the horde of trolls who seemingly made it their mission to harass anyone who publicly supported Cofer.

Cofer herself told me she’s been feeling good since March 5 at 8 p.m.

“Even though at the end of the night, we were about 800 votes behind,” she said, “as I said to the crowd that night, there’s nothing less important in life than the score at halftime.”

Cofer said she anticipated a big push in the days to come in her favor because she’s “always voted on Election Day.” And honestly — so do I.

I love turning in my ballot by hand and getting my “I voted” sticker. Seems to me like a lot of people in my generation feel the same way, and they feel the same way about Cofer as I do. She may not be a traditional politician, but look where traditional politics have gotten us.

“I think we really do have to wait and see what the next several thousand votes bring in. Who am I running against (and) how do we strategize to reach a larger group? …Clearly, our message is resonating.”

Cofer said she has no plans to change that messaging now.

“I’m sticking to the values-based approach that we brought in the first part of this election and talking about the challenges in clear and in no uncertain terms,” she said. “We can be fiscally responsible and socially responsible. I’m really excited for this next phase.

I’m excited, too.

This story was originally published March 16, 2024 at 4:00 AM.