Fletcher holds strong lead in re-election bid

San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher held the lead in his race for re-election to the District 4 seat, according to early returns, which showed the Democratic incumbent with 43,392 votes, or 63.67 percent of the total counted as of 8 p.m. Tuesday, more than double that of his closest opponent.

He was followed by Republican challenger Amy Reichert, with 18,564 votes, or 27.24 percent. A third candidate, Sidiqa Hooker, trailed with 6,195, or 9.09 percent of votes counted.

The first round of election returns Tuesday included mail ballots received before Election Day and vote center ballots from early voting between May 28 and June 6, according to the registrar of voters.

It consisted of 380,049 ballots, including 7,466 cast at regional vote centers and 372,583 mail ballots returned. That’s about 19 percent of the county’s 1.9 million voters; the registrar projected turnout of 30 percent to 40 percent for the primary election.

Although the race is officially nonpartisan, the candidates’ platforms split along party lines. The 4th District, which encompasses much of central San Diego, La Mesa and Lemon Grove, is heavily blue.

Fletcher, 45, a former Marine intelligence officer, is running for his second term on the Board of Supervisors, and currently serves in his second year as chair of the board. He has led the county’s pandemic response and advocated for a more expansive county role on matters including mental health and substance abuse treatment, homelessness and housing.

Fletcher began his career in the state Assembly as a Republican in 2008, where he passed legislation including Chelsea’s Law. He later left the party and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of San Diego as an independent in 2012. Fletcher, who lives in City Heights, won county office as a Democrat in 2018.

Reichert, 54, is a licensed private investigator and marketing specialist who co-founded ReOpen San Diego, a nonprofit that has opposed the county’s COVID-19 response. She organized protests against pandemic closures and mask and vaccine mandates at county meetings, and launched a campaign for supervisor after redistricting changes placed her home in La Mesa within Fletcher’s district.