Preston and Mahmood's District 5 Race Is the Most High-Profile -- and Expensive -- SF Supervisor Race In 2024
More money is pouring into the high-profile District 5 supervisor race than any other supervisor race in town, and even Elon Musk and Bernie Sanders have weighed in on the showdown between Supervisor Dean Preston and challenger Bilal Mahmood.
In the leadup to the 2019 election, when Dean Preston was running against newly elected Mayor London Breed’s appointee Vallie Brown, we wrote that the race was “capturing little attention.” Oh, how things have changed.
Preston has now served nearly five years in office as the sole Democratic Socialist on the board, and has become a lightning rod for criticism from tech’s biggest bigwigs. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Preston “should go to prison” (though the above-promised $100,000 donation to beat Preston never came through), and Y Combinator president Garry Tan told Preston to “Die slow motherfucker” (a threat he also lodged at other progressive supervisors).
The tech and YIMBY sets have singled Preston out for taxes on landlords and claims that he’s stifled housing development, allege he’s curtailed law enforcement powers, and for his Gaza ceasefire resolution they say has little to do with the governance of San Francisco.
https://sfist.com/2024/10/29/preston-and-mahmoods-district-5-race-is-the-most-high-profile-and-expensive-sf-supervisor-race-in-2024/