Supervisor candidate ‘absolutely sad' with third-place finish, but 'no regrets'
The people have voted — and K. Patrice Williams is unequivocally disappointed in the results.
Undeniably confident as the polls closed Tuesday night, Williams finished behind incumbent Monica Brown and Rochelle Sherlock for the Solano County Supervisors
District 2 seat. With all 39 precincts tabulated, Brown gathered 51.04 percent (8,798 votes), with Sherlock getting 25.43 percent (4,384) and Williams 23.53 percent (4,056).
“I’m absolutely sad,” Williams said Wednesday morning, though refusing to second-guess a run that began when she filed March, 2018.
“Just looking at the campaign overall, I feel really good about it,” Williams said. “I feel like we left everything out there.”
Williams was also disappointed in the overall turnout — 38 percent of the county’s 52,500 registered voters cast their ballot.
“Just the low turnout … it’s devastating that our community doesn’t realize that the potential power that we have. We don’t know how to galvanize it. That makes me feel really sad. We didn’t vote. The turnout was dismal.”
The mailed in ballots doubled the day-of voting — 11,288 to 5,950 — and the percentages were consistent for Brown, though Williams out-gained Sherlock in the day-of voting 1,529 to 1,276. Williams said placing second wouldn’t have made a difference.
“The results would be the same,” she said.
Williams was proud that almost 500 donors contributed to her run, averaging $34 a donation.
“I see this campaign as touching so many and inspiring so many, especially a lot of youth groups and a
lot of low-income people,” Williams said. “It’s the most amazing thing to get those few dollars — some $3 and $4 — because you know it’s what they had.”
Williams believes she ran a strong campaign, seeking advice from previous candidates or officials including Vallejo City Councilmember Pippen Dew, who was among those joining Williams early Tuesday night.
“They were in my ear the whole time,” Williams said. “They’re the ones that guided me.”
Williams said she ran because “I knew I could make a difference. I knew that being an elected official, I could be a person who is a community-driven, caring person. I remember someone saying, ‘You’re too nice for this’ and I knew that wasn’t right. You can be
nice with no ulterior motives; that you just really care about the community.”
Vallejo Councilmember Pippin Dew supported Williams from the start, stopping by the gathering of Williams’ supporters Tuesday night at the home of Jackie Arnold.
“She’s worked really hard. I’ve gotten to know her though Leadership Vallejo and through the Chamber
and just her passion for people, her support for women and youth is near and dear to my heart,” Dew said. “It’s rare when you come across someone who has that passion for people.”
Though it appeared to be a mud-slinging free campaign, Williams said “there were some things going on in the background. I think I’m too gracious to talk about it. What I am glad about is that it wasn’t overt. Insiders saw it. It wasn’t put out in the universe. That I’m grateful for.”
Williams said she did learn that running for office “is so much bigger than yourself. The thing that kept me going were the people I was meeting and seeing the true problems in the community. We have to have a shift change.”
Williams is undecided on her political future.
“I don’t know. but I’m not going away,” she said. “I’ll be here fighting for my community.”
The D2 Supervisor’s territory includes Benicia, Vallejo (South of Georgia Street, Mare Island, south Vallejo, Glen Cove, Sommerset) and Fairfield (Cordelia, Green Valley).