Larry Turner, the police officer and political novice whose long-shot challenge to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria drew unexpectedly big money and competition in the late stages of the campaign, conceded the race Wednesday, eight days after the election concluded.
“It was a privilege to run for Mayor of our amazing city, and it is a privilege to continue to serve San Diegans as your police officer working hard to keep you safe,” Turner said in a statement. “Cynthia and I extend our congratulations to Mayor Gloria on his hard-fought reelection.”
Throughout the ongoing counting of votes, Gloria had held a comfortable lead since election night. But Turner had previously expressed optimism that he could close the gap, following a campaign that focused relentlessly on what he called the mayor’s failures.
By Wednesday evening’s vote-tally release by county election officials, that chance had narrowed to nil.
With only about 77,000 ballots still outstanding throughout the entire county, Gloria was leading Turner by more than 58,000 votes, for a margin of more than 10 percentage points.
Gloria’s win made for a clean sweep of city races by incumbents, as San Diego voters endorsed the existing leadership team at City Hall. They also re-elected two City Council members by comfortable margins and chose the outgoing city attorney’s preferred successor for the only open job.
Gloria said last week that voters had spoken loudly that they wanted this team to continue its efforts.
“We have so much more work ahead of us,” he said. “The challenges our great city faces are very, very real. But I’m more confident than ever we have the ability to come together and tackle every single one of them.”
