It's official. State Assemblyman Todd Gloria and San Diego City Councilwoman Barbara Bry are headed for the November runoff to decide who will replace Kevin Faulconer in the seat for San Diego mayor.
The County Registrar of Voters' official election results show Bry ahead of Sherman for second place by 1,189 votes. Gloria, the front runner from the moment polling places opened, outpaced both by some 66,000 votes and garnered just under 48.5% of the vote.
Bry had to play catch up to surpass Sherman, who had the early lead on Super Tuesday.
By midnight Sherman, the only Republican in the race, stood ahead of Bry by less than 2,000 votes, and the remaining three candidates -- Tasha Williamson, Gita Appelbaum Singh, and Rich Riel -- were behind the pair by 25,000 votes or more.
Bry told NBC 7 she wasn't discouraged by the early results. In fact, she said she expected to start in third place.
“These are very early returns, and this is where we expected I would be with the early returns, which are predominantly Republican," Bry said.
She was confident she would make up the deficit when mail-in and early voters' ballots were counted after the Super Tuesday ballots, and she was right.
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Bry first won a City Council seat in 2016 backed by the Democratic establishment. Since then, she said she's been a voice for accountability and transparency in City Hall.
Gloria, a Democrat, spent eight years on the San Diego City Council and served as interim mayor when Bob Filner stepped down in controversy. He is a self-proclaimed progressive when it comes to dealing with homelessness and social issues.
He credited his early lead, in part, to turnout from Latino voters.
"I know the Latino community turned up because they want to see someone like them in the Mayor’s office," he said. "We’re going to have a seat at the table.”
Gloria told NBC 7 the numbers were encouraging but insisted the next leg of the campaign won't be easy.
