Why Dr. Flo Cofer is not conceding the Sacramento mayoral race

Update, 5:05 p.m.:

Sacramento County released its final round of election results late Monday afternoon and Kevin McCarty won the race for Sacramento mayor. McCarty had 50.51% of the 190,923 ballots counted. Epidemiologist Dr. Flojaune Cofer followed with 49.49%, just 1,941 votes behind McCarty.

As of Monday at 5 p.m., Cofer had not conceded the race.

Original story, published at 3:30 p.m.:

The final ballots in the Sacramento mayoral race are expected to be processed and certified this week. 

The latest results show Assembly member Kevin McCarty holding a lead with 50.7% of the 187,988 ballots counted so far. Epidemiologist Dr. Flojaune Cofer follows with 49.3%, just 2,632 votes behind McCarty.

Last week, McCarty declared victory. However, Cofer is not conceding the race. 

Kevin McCarty wins 2024 Sacramento mayoral race

Instead, she urged Sacramento residents to check to see if their vote has been counted by visiting the county's voter portal. The most recent county data shows 8,624 ballots remain to be counted county wide. It is unknown how many outstanding ballots are left within city limits. 

Sacramento County will certify election results on Tuesday. Sacramento’s next mayor will be sworn in on Dec. 10. 

Dr. Cofer spoke with CapRadio’s Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez to discuss the race and why she has not yet conceded. 

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Interview highlights

Assembly member Kevin McCarty has declared victory in the mayoral race. You have not conceded, what is your message to voters?

My message to voters is that we are out ballot curing right now, which is making sure that every ballot counts. As you know, when people vote they are also asked to sign the outside of the envelope and date it. And sometimes the signatures don't match. 

I spoke to someone actually at the door when we were out and about curing, letting them know their ballot hadn't been counted. And he said, “I registered to vote when I was 16 — I pre-registered. My signature has changed a little bit since when I first registered.” We have a lot of ballots that are in that position. So with an election as close as ours, we want to make sure that every vote is counted, that is important as part of our democratic process. 

It's not even just about the outcome of the election. Of course I'd love to win, but we want to make sure that the process is honored. And so similar to what I did in the primary, you know, I never declared victory, I waited until all of the ballots were processed and that's what I'm doing.

In the General Election McCarty has been in the lead, but that gap has narrowed with each ballot drop. The difference is now just over 1 percent. Did you expect the trajectory of returns to go this way? 

Yes, we saw that in the primary. There's this sort of conventional wisdom about it — and I don't know how true that is — that older voters tend to vote first, more conservative voters vote early. And younger voters, the newer voters, maybe progressive voters, tend to vote later. So that has been a trajectory that we've seen not just in Sacramento races, but just generally even across the state. So that's something that we knew. 

You did well with voters in the city center, South Sacramento, Oak Park, and Curtis Park. It’s a mixed bag in Natomas and North Sacramento. And you struggled in neighborhoods like East Sacramento, Land Park, and the Pocket. What message do you take away? 

People in Sacramento thought a lot about this race. Some of the things that people were saying that they wanted was a new message. That they wanted to be represented and have somebody who was really focusing on making sure that their voices were heard during the campaign. 

In governance, I think that there were also people for whom having run for office before was a really important qualification — even if you've never held the position that you're running for now. I think that's probably a lot of people who know the name McCarty and were looking for someone whose name has appeared on the ballot before. 

My argument to voters throughout the campaign was that I actually have the requisite experience to do this job. And we have seen people with a similar resume to Assembly member McCarty struggle in this role. Our mayor has talked about how much more difficult being mayor was than being a state senator. 

There was an argument that I was making that is an unconventional one which is, look, I have not run for office before. But I also have done a lot of this work and I'm not new to the city. I've been on three different city commissions and county commissions and I've been working in policy. And I have experience actually managing the thing that is the number one issue in Sacramento, which is homelessness. And so I think that resonated with people.

Have you done reflection on what you could have done differently to maybe get more votes?

I want to start with the fact that by everybody's calculation on April 19 I'm not supposed to be here. The win was the shock and awe on everyone's faces when we came in first in the primary. The win is that this was not a decisive victory. Everybody's biting their nails wondering how this race is going to turn out.

A reminder that this is the first citywide campaign that has accepted no corporate money. And I know that makes the corporate interests that are used to money being their main source of power terrified. And that makes me happy, not because they’re enemies. But it makes me happy because that's the way it should be. I look at the amount of dollars that were spent sending out attack ads against me. And I want to be really clear, pretty racist and sexist attack ads against me. As I've said throughout the campaign, it was really disappointing to be attacked in that way. 

So the win is [that] a lot of people said “that’s nonsense and I don’t like it. I want to live in a city that actually allows everyone, including our corporate interests, to have a seat at the table – but not the only seat at the table.” And so that's the exciting part for me. We've done good work.

A key piece in McCarty's criticism of you hinged on a comment that you made about underutilized parks as a solution for homelessness. You did clarify that you meant the city's vacant parcels. But there were mailers about this sent to voters. What damage do you think that did to your campaign?

I clarified that night, so he was not unaware of what I said the day it was said. But his team decided to hone in on that. They also sent out mailers saying that I threatened violence against the police, which is a bold faced lie. 

I get that it’s a campaign and I was not naive going into this thinking that everybody would behave with integrity. I was disappointed though because I have a relationship with Assembly member McCarty. I have worked on bills with him. He is a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus. As a Black man, I expected a certain level of basic human respect from my opponent. And that part was disappointing. 

For me, when I started this race I was very clear that my values came first. I was not going to do anything in this race to try to win that will compromise who I am as a person and make it hard for me to sleep at night. I wasn't going to do some of the things that are traditional in a campaign. Because I want to be the change I want to see in the world. I do not believe that the master's tools will dismantle the master's house.

Do you think it was effective?

Oh absolutely. I mean lies spread faster than truth. And so absolutely, it has an impact. I mean you spend millions of dollars to say untrue things about someone, there's a non-zero number of people who are going to see that and believe that. But again what I go back to is who I am as a person and how I show up is going to be consistent with my morals and values. And that's not who I am.

The difference between you and your opponent could be even closer once all the ballots are processed. Are you considering asking for a recount?

It's something certainly that we should consider exploring, especially given how close the race is. But for now, we're focusing on the ballot curing and making sure that the votes that we already have are counted. And then we can explore, if it's necessary, for us to do a recount. The votes have already been cast, right? So there is an outcome, we're just waiting to find out what it is. I don't want people to say “oh the race is over. There's no reason for me to cure my ballot.” Yes there is. This is a close race and regardless of who wins it is important that every vote is counted. That is just a matter of personal integrity to me — that every single person who casts a ballot has the opportunity for that ballot to be counted. I'm happy to respect whatever the outcome is, but I want to wait for that outcome.