Dean Preston Concedes SF District 5 Race to Bilal Mahmood, Blasts 'Right-Wing Pressure Groups'

Supervisor Dean Preston, one of San Francisco’s most progressive politicians, has been pushed out of office, conceding the District 5 race to Bilal Mahmood.

The latest count in the ranked choice race from the San Francisco Department of Elections showed Mahmood with more than 5 percentage points ahead of Preston. Preston, a Democratic Socialist who was first elected supervisor in a special election in 2019 and then reelected in 2020, had had a slight lead in first-choice votes.

“I’m proud to stand up to the disinformation fueled by some of the wealthiest in our country, and I will continue to push back against the right-wing pressure groups that backed my opponents and spent seemingly unlimited funds in our district and throughout the city,” Preston wrote in his Sunday concession message on Instagram. “This city has been a beacon of hope for people, the bastion for progressive change, and we will continue to carry that torch.”

Big-money donors have played a big role in funding Preston’s opponents. Grow SF’s PAC raised nearly $300,000, which went into the “Dump Dean” campaign. It created a website listing 31 reasons to oppose Preston and commissioned billboards around the district blasting his housing record, saying he blocks development — although Preston has staunchly defended his pro-housing platform.

Some of the billboards expressed support for Mahmood, a tech entrepreneur who worked as a policy analyst in the Obama administration and is the director of climate action nonprofit, Electric Action. Former San Francisco Mayor London Breed and U.S. Rep.-elect Lateefah Simon endorsed him.

In a Monday interview with KQED, Mahmood said he was excited to serve District 5, which encompasses the Tenderloin, Western Addition, Fillmore and Hayes Valley.

“We campaigned on a message and a platform of leadership that not just says it’s progressive, but delivers results and progressive values,” he said.

Mahmood, who was supported by both the carpenters and building trades unions, said that in his first 100 days in office, he’ll be focused on streamlining housing development. He has suggested parallel permitting, which allows developers to pursue multiple permits at the same time instead of successively.

This is similar to a policy in San José that Mahmood said could cut down the average time it takes for permit approvals, which was about 450 days in 2022, according to a San Francisco Chronicle investigation.

As Trump returns to the White House with his eyes almost certainly set on San Francisco and California, Mahmood will be one of the relatively inexperienced legislators leading the city. Both he and Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie have never held office, and many veteran supervisors, like Aaron Peskin, Hillary Ronen and Preston, will no longer sit on the Board of Supervisors.

Mahmood has high hopes for the new leadership.

“The onus of responsibility will be on the new Board of Supervisors and the new mayor to show leadership,” he told KQED. “I think we have an opportunity now to present a new phase of pragmatic progressivism where we live up to our progressive values, where we ensure our neighbors are housed and our streets are safe and clean, but actually address those solutions.”