Incumbent Pareira has huge lead in Merced County District 4 Supervisor’s race

This story has been updated to reflect the current numbers as of 11:18 p.m. Tuesday:

Merced County District 4 Supervisor Lloyd Pareira has taken an early lead in the Merced County District 4 Supervisor race.

The latest election results show Pareira with 2,248 votes, which accounts for 62.60% of the total 3,591 votes counted, while challengers Jim Soria and Dennis Brazil received 662, votes and 671 votes, respectively, or just over 18% of the vote as of late Tuesday evening.

“I feel great,” said Pareira. “Feel so supported by my district, and I work hard for the constituents, and so for them to overwhelmingly vote for me just feels good.”

Pareira said people have seemed very supportive of him and their vote tonight confirmed that. “It’s nice to get over fifty percent so far, so hopefully we won’t have a runoff. It would be nice by the end of the week to have enough votes to consider it a win.”

Pareira, 61, was born in Merced and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and has also served on the Merced River School District Board.

Soria, 55, is a safety officer born in Merced. He currently lives in Hilmar and previously served on the Livingston City Council, as well as mayor of the City of Livingston. Soria told the Sun-Star Wednesday that he is thankful for the support he received and he will wait and see if he decides to run again in four years.

“I feel good,” said Soria. “We did our part and Dennis was cordial and Lloyd was cordial, no mudslinging we all kept if professional.”

Soria said it’s tough to defeat an incumbent and that he wishes Paeiera good luck as he feels all three candidates have the same goal of improving Merced County District 4

“Thanks to everyone that supported me and voted for me. Hopefully there’s some good positive changes for the county,” said Soria.

Los Banos native Brazil, 65, is a retired Ag Operations Manager who previously served as Mayor of the City of Gustine.

This story was originally published March 5, 2024 at 11:51 PM.