Top image: South San Francisco’s Sign Hill. Photo: Willis Lam / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

San Mateo County’s five-member Board of Supervisors is about to get a new member, and the two people competing for the job have known each other for most of their political lives.

Daly City Councilmember Juslyn Cabrera Manalo and South San Francisco Vice Mayor Mark Nagales are the only candidates in the Nov. 3 special election for the District 5 seat, which covers much of North County. The vacancy exists because Supervisor David Canepa won election in June as the county’s next Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder and filed a deferred resignation from the board, according to Vote or Else, a nonpartisan ballot guide that cites county elections records and local reporting. The county consolidated the special election with the November general, and the winner will serve a shortened term before facing voters again in 2028.

A first for the county

Both candidates are Filipino American, which means the county is poised to seat its first Filipino supervisor, Philippine News reported. The outlet noted that former Daly City Mayor Mike Guingona sought to become the first Asian and Filipino American on the board a decade ago.

Asked whether they could work together, Nagales said, “We have grown up together in the political world.” Manalo said there will “always be opportunities to work together.”

Two résumés

Manalo was first elected to the Daly City Council in 2016 and reelected in 2024; her colleagues chose her as mayor for a one-year term beginning in December 2023, according to Vote or Else. She represents the city on the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency. Nagales has represented District 2 on the South San Francisco council since 2018, served as mayor in 2022 and previously worked as constituent services director for then-Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who now holds the board’s District 1 seat.

At a forum hosted by the Philippine American Press Club USA, the candidates laid out overlapping but distinct priorities, Philippine News reported. Manalo emphasized affordability, more affordable housing for seniors on fixed incomes, keeping Seton Hospital in Daly City open, which she described as the only hospital in the area able to perform complex procedures such as heart surgery, Medi-Cal access and disaster preparedness. Nagales focused first on immigrant residents’ fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pointing to South San Francisco’s policy of not allowing ICE to operate at city facilities and its Know Your Rights workshops. He also highlighted what he called a “stark inequity” in state vehicle license fee payments that shortchanges San Mateo County, along with tenant protections and voter-approved public funding for affordable housing.

As of early September, neither candidate’s 2026 committee had filed a campaign finance disclosure with the state, Vote or Else reported. Manalo has also registered a committee for 2028.

The long view

The race is less an ideological contest than a choice between two North County political networks, and its importance lies in what the seat controls. Supervisors set the county budget, oversee county health and social services and decide land use in unincorporated areas. The current board is taking on questions that will shape the next decade, from a possible ban on data centers to how the county responds to federal immigration enforcement and El Niño flood risk, all on its Oct. 20 agenda.

For North County, the issues are concrete: whether Seton Hospital stays open, whether working families can afford to stay, and whether the county gets its fair share of state money. Because the winner must run again in 2028, the next two years will function as an extended audition. For a community that has waited decades for a seat at this table, the more lasting change may be that it will no longer be the exception.

Sources: Vote or Else (retrieved Sept. 7, 2026), citing San Mateo County ACRE, Redwood City Pulse, San Mateo Daily Journal and CAL-ACCESS; Philippine News (Oct. 1, 2026); San Mateo County Board of Supervisors agenda (Oct. 20, 2026).