Mayor Todd Gloria again claimed victory Wednesday as he maintained a nearly 10-point lead with thousands of ballots yet to be counted in his race for re-election.
Gloria declared victory over challenger Larry Turner on election night, but in an email expressed his gratitude to supporters.
“Please accept my heartfelt thank you for helping me win re-election as San Diego’s mayor,” he wrote. “With last night’s strong results, we have an incredible opportunity to move San Diego forward on all the critical issues we talked about in this campaign, and that’s in big part thanks to you.”
Gloria held a 54.6% share of the vote, compared to Turner, a San Diego police officer, with 45.4%. Though the challenger closed the gap slightly since the initial release of results, he still trails by more than 30,000 votes.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Turner refused to concede.
“It’s like being down a couple of touchdowns at halftime, but a new team of voters – independents – are coming in for the second half,” he said, claiming that independents will break for him with 590,000 ballots remaining to be tallied.
Turner, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, ran a well-financed campaign, but a significant cohort of undecided voters appeared to break for Gloria.
Gloria, a Democrat, faced off with the independent Turner who received financial support from Republicans throughout the past six months.
Gloria was initially elected in 2020, in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn. He earned the endorsement of one-time Sen. Kamala Harris in 2020.
Gloria has touted his administration’s efforts to build more housing, repair the city’s aging infrastructure and provide more shelters for the homeless. He also pivoted to take a tougher stance on crime and being less forgiving to homeless people unable or unwilling to stay in shelters.
Turner, self-described as a “lifelong independent” who said he is not “beholden” to the two major political parties, does not have experience an an elected official. As a result, he centered his campaign not on touting his own plans but blasting Gloria.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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