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The District 4 Supervisors race will go to a runoff election this November, after no candidate received more than 50% of the vote.

The runoff will be between the top two candidates, Monica Montgomery-Steppe (D) and Amy Reichert (R).

The successful candidate will fill the vacant seat for the remainder of the current term ending in January 2027.

The nearly 700,000 San Diego residents in District 4 have been without a Supervisor since Nathan Fletcher resigned after being accused of sexual assault by a San Diego Metropolitan Transit System employee.

Montgomery-Steppe, San Diego City Council President pro tem, received nearly 42% of the votes, while Reichert, State-licensed investigator and co-founder of ReOpen San Diego, received 29% of the votes.

The other two candidates, Janessa Goldbeck (D), Marine veteran and non-profit CEO, received 25%, while Paul McQuigg (R), Marine veteran received 5% of the votes.

Montgomery-Steppe, who held a commanding lead once the polls closed, noted, “our work is not done yet.”

Montgomery-Steppe serves as council president pro tem, representing over 160,000 San Diegans and serves as chair of the Budget & Government Efficiency Committee – overseeing the process for the City’s $5.2 billion dollar budget. She’s also on the San Diego City-County Reinvestment Task Force, the board of MTS, the San Diego Workforce Partnership, and the San Diego Housing Authority.

Montgomery-Steppe was born and raised in San Diego and spent most of her life in District Four. She began her education at Pacific View Leadership Elementary. After completing her undergraduate degree at Spelman College, she returned to San Diego to earn her Juris Doctor from California Western School of Law. Before entering elected office, she fought for families to stay in their homes during the foreclosure crisis in the Great Recession, worked at the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties as a Criminal Justice Advocate, and served as a Senior Policy Advisor at the City of San Diego with specific focus in the policy areas of criminal justice reform and public safety, neighborhood revitalization, workforce development, small business development, equal opportunity contracting, and youth services.

Reichert stated, “This is a momentous step forward, and I want to express my immense gratitude to every person who supported our campaign. Your belief in our vision has brought us to this point, and I’m excited to continue pushing for positive change as we move toward the November election. Onward to November – let’s keep pushing for the betterment of our District and County!”

Reichert was the Republican candidate who ran for the District 4 seat in the 2022 election against Fletcher, but lost by a wide-margin.

Reichert grew up in the San Diego area as the oldest of three children. She graduated from San Diego State while majoring in Political Science and began her career as an investigator and worked to seek justice for clients, including locating missing persons and uncovering fraud.

She co-founded ReOpen San Diego, a non-profit community organization to ensure the safe reopening of schools, bring relief to struggling small businesses, and support first responders, healthcare workers, and teachers.

Some of her priorities include lowering the cost of living, solving the homeless epidemic, increasing public safety in our communities, helping struggling small businesses, prioritizing mental health and making the government listen.

Under California law, the county has 30 days from Election Day to certify the election, but the Registrar said it doesn’t expect it will need the full certification period. Until certification happens, all results posted by the Registrar are considered unofficial.

The nonpartisan governing board is currently split 50-50, with District 1 and District 3 Supervisors, Nora Vargas and Terra Lawson-Remer, as the Democratic party, and District 2 and District 5, Joel Anderson and Jim Desmond, as the Republican party.