Jackie Fielder has an almost guaranteed win in District 9, with a 15-point lead ahead of her closest opponent, Trevor Chandler.
“I think voters resonated with our platform because it’s a direct reflection of my conversations with them,” said Fielder over the phone from Mexico, where she is currently vacationing after months of campaigning. “I took really seriously the requests from residents, and listened to their issues.”
Despite Fielder’s lead, Chandler told Mission Local on Wednesday afternoon he believes he can still win the race. He recognized this is not the place where he would like to be, but reminded his supporters there are still thousands of votes to be counted. He is putting his hopes in the No. 2 designations still to be tallied.
“I launched a significant effort in the final weeks of the campaign to secure number twos from Roberto’s expected supporters,” said Chandler, referencing the current third-place finisher, Roberto Hernandez. “I am hopeful that those efforts will show themselves in the upcoming vote batches that will be announced.”
Fielder sits comfortably at the top of the race with 57.47 percent, compared to Chandler’s 42.53 percent in the final round. She has received 7,406 first-place votes so far, while Chandler had 5,334. Another round of results will be announced Thursday at 4 p.m.
Fielder said the lead is a direct representation of what voters in the Mission, Bernal Heights, and Portola want: A progressive section of the city that wants to stay progressive, with an elected official who aligns with their values and does not accept billionaire funds.
“I think he would have done better running in District 2, where it seems like there will be an open seat,” said Fielder of Chandler and referring to Mark Farrell’s old district in the Marina. In fact, back in March, when Chandler won a seat in the Democratic County Central Committee, he finished fifth in District 2 and citywide. But in District 9, he finished sixteenth.
For political consultant David Ho, the key to success in District 9 lies in two neighborhoods: Bernal Heights and the Mission. As long as white progressives in Bernal and Latinxs in the Mission continue to vote in tandem, the district will have a winning formula for progressives.
Political consultant Jim Stearns agreed with Fielder and Ho, and said the likely win is not a surprise, given the district’s progressive values.
Stearns, who worked with Fielder in 2020 in her race against state Sen. Scott Wiener, said Fielder ran a successful campaign that connected with voters and made her progressive stances well-known early on. By contrast, he said Chandler ran on a platform that was clearly moderate but confused people: He described himself as a progressive, yet embraced tough-on-crime and encampment-sweep policies.
“I think he was out of step with the district, ideologically,” said Stearns.
Fielder’s past experience running for State Senate made her a strong candidate, said Ho. As a newcomer in politics then, she challenged Wiener, a veteran politico, and still got close to 200,000 votes — 15 points behind the senator.
“She already had one major and high-profile campaign under her belt,” said Ho. “I think that helped her in securing the progressive establishment and the labor unions’ support early on.”
Ho said Fielder also benefited from not having other district politicos, such as supervisor Hillary Ronen’s former aide Santiago Lerma, in the mix. He believes, however, that, even in such a scenario, she would have been a competitive candidate.
Chandler’s lack of name recognition in the district and lack of “institutional relationships” with district nonprofits or renters groups hurt him, Ho said. Plus, “He’s not Latino.”
Though Fielder’s victory is still not official, some local politicos are already celebrating the early results.
“I am very thrilled. District 9 continues to be this progressive soul of the city,” said District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “Now that Trump is president, it is an essential result because we need someone who is clear about where she stands on immigrant rights, the rights of the poor and the rights of homeless people.”
Lotta sore LOSERS commenting here. Congratulations to D9ers and Jackie Fielder for electing an intelligent, young and most promising leader.
“I launched a significant effort in the final weeks of the campaign to secure number twos from Roberto’s expected supporters,” said Chandler,
This guy is delulu. The smart money says Trevor leaves the neighborhood within six months, re-registers as a Republican and starts angling for an appointment with the Trump administration. Good luck in DC, Trevor. Don’t let the door hitcha where the Good Lord splitcha!
As a D9 moderate, I could agree with some of Chandler’s platform, but did not feel comfortable about his unapologetic tenure with AIPAC. This organization exhibits a blatant disregard for a portion of humanity and anyone who has helped further the cause of this organization seems like a poor fit for such a multicultural district of our city. That was the reason he lost my vote anyway.
I think the true reason she won – if indeed it turns out that way in the final tally – is that she told all of the working class people in the Mission District (who would have voted for clean streets and against defunding the police) that Chandler was a Trump supporter. (One of my neighbors said, “Yeah, I was going to vote for Chandler – but Jackie Fielder just told me – He’s a Trump supporter! I can’t vote for that…!”) Now, we all know that Trevor Chandler is not a Trump supporter, and we all know that she probably knows this too…but it plays well, even to people like myself, the most fervently anti-Trump person in the world, but someone who wants clean streets, where working-class people can have their children play without stepping in feces and being attacked by people who are out of their heads on drugs. (I can’t speak for Bernal Heights – they don’t have tents or drugs there, and they are all wealthy white liberals). But the Mission would have gone for Hernandez or Chandler – were it not for the lie that most people sadly believed. I do hope she will not open a drug consumption/drug dealing site right next door to the treatment clinic that is the last hope for poor black and Native American people – and one block away from a vulnerable elementary school, which was something she said she supported while running for statewide office! Time will tell. She backed away from her “Defund the Police” stance – or she definitely would have lost. Will she keep her promise to support public safety, especially in the working-class areas of the Mission? Let’s see!
Oh you’re right. Let’s support quality palestinian organizations instead like hamas and hezbollah.
AIPAC is a legitimate organization that advocates for Jewish causes, exactly because of hysterical people LIKE YOU who choose to denigrate Jewish rights to their homeland. You probably think that Zionism is “racism”, right? It’s the exact opposite- anti Zionism is antisemitism. Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish homeland. It was overwhelmingly voted on and approved in 1947 by the UN (then called League of Nations.) Deal with it.
Definitely not my first choice. Definitely not my 10th choice. I have major concerns about a lot of her proposals and past positions.
Nevertheless, she won fair and square. So I wish her as much success as possible as D9 Supervisor. I truly hope she sets her own path and does not follow in the steps of Hillary Ronen. Someone who I feel has been a
complete disgrace to the district, and should have been impeached for how she openly abandoned it.
Congratulations Supervisor Fielder. Wishing for your success in improving the district.
Observation: the above photo included with the article is apt in that Trevor Chandler is cropped out.
Disappointing.
She’s such a terrible supervisor, looking at middle east conflicts while her district is full of garbage and the homeless, as well as prostitutions.
I did not vote for Jackie. I found her condescending and rude with both me and my wife. She won despite never centering D9. Next time let’s go with someone who actually shows love for the district and city, not someone who wants to get to Sacramento. I do not wish Jackie ill because I want the district to do well. Thank God, neither whiny AIPAC baby Trevor or Roberto the Thug won though.
Now that Preston is toast, aside from Shamann Walton, Fielder will be the last true buffoon on the Board of Supervisors. She won’t be ably to do anything city wide, but she will happily import a good deal of drugs, crime and homeless from the Tenderloin into the Mission.
As for her own career, she’s got basically two choices. She can stick with her 2020 identarian / defund-the-police nonsense and go the way of Pamela Price and Chesa Boudin. Or she can embrace do-nothing social media posting, pretend to be working class, and take the AOC route. I don’t really care which.
This result almost exactly mirrors the D9 Boudin recall vote (58% keep Boudin, 42% recall).
D9 might be a progressive bastion but it is certainly not a progressive monolith, despite the characterization of people like Fielder and Ronen.
Fair districting would consider the character of the Portola (more Asian American, working class, more suburban) as distinct from Bernal Heights and the Mission. One only has to look at Mission Local’s excellent election maps to see how differently the Portola votes. Yet, the moderate-voting neighborhood is lumped in with two progressive-voting neighborhoods, diluting the voice of Portola residents. The Portola should be with Bayview, Vis Valley, Excelsior; some of the other significantly Asian American, working class neighborhoods in the southeast of the city which vote for moderate Democrats.
Hopefully Fielder can reflect the values of the Portola as well, and the next redistricting process can correct the dilution of the neighborhood’s voice.
D9 is doubling-down on the failed approach that got it into the mess it’s currently in.
The Mission is on the path to becoming “Tenderloin 2.0” and Fielder’s “leadership” will solidify it as SF’s next “containment zone”!
Brillant!
Well at least we’re likely to get rid of that moron pean dreston in D5. I don’t know why not enough D9 residents didn’t have the sense to reject 3rd rate identity politics player jackie foolder. Guess it’s a downhill slide to shitdom from david compost, hilary rolame…and now this. Too many D9 residents are reactionary bird brains and too conservative with their tired old world lefty views. Wake up fools!
You’re nowhere near as good at stupid, insulting nicknames as Mr. Trump is.
Don’t quit your day job!
move to florida
Oh well. Somebody convince me she’s not going to shuffle as much money as she can into various non-profits, in return for political favors and perhaps even hard cash kickbacks. Then turn around and blame Wall Street or Trump how there are no resources to help the ills in her district.
“Oh well” – my candidate lost so I guess the winning candidate will waste no time commiting Federal wire fraud with “hard cash kickbacks.”
LOL. Your brand of cope is both wildly imaginitive and pathetic. Well done!
This is an example of why we need to go back to at-large elections. The Mission’s “progressives” might enjoy Fielder’s socialist politics but those of us who live on the Mission’s border don’t have a say. I have stopped doing any business in the Mission – it is in worse shape than ever.
I didn’t realize that Ronen still was in town.
Beware of those who want to take your voice away and consolidate power with the mayor.
Funny.
Bottom line – Hillary didn’t live in The Mission.
She just visited there once and awhile.
We’ll have to endure the second coming of Jane Kim for a while.
But …
Jackie is gunning for The Wiener’s senate seat when Scott slides into Nancy’s congressional seat.
Which is a blessing.
It’ll be like getting rid of a tumor.
He’ll be in Washington.
Less able to sow his vengeful path of developer destruction of our fair town.
How much Jackie will be able to affect SF from Sacramento remains to be seen but it can’t be any worse than the present situation.