Silveira appears poised for victory in Merced County District Attorney’s race

Candidates for Merced County District Attorney — the most anticipated local election — gathered with their supporters Tuesday evening in downtown Merced to watch the returns come in.

Kimberly Helms Lewis, 51, the incumbent DA, is competing to win another four-year term as the county’s top prosecutor. Her competitor is an attorney in her own office, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Nicole Silveira, 40.

Early results as of about 8:30 p.m. showed Silveira taking a big lead at 65.52% over Helms Lewis at 34.27% As of about 10 p.m. Silveira’s lead was holding at 65.55% to Helms Lewis’ 34.22%. As of the latest count before midnight, Silveira’s lead grew slightly to 66.56% to Helms Lewis’ 33.16%.

“I feel very grateful for all the help I received and all the support and for the good campaign and it’s bearing itself out. I don’t know if (the numbers) will climb but they usually say early releases are a good indicator of how things will go. And I am happy with how they have gone so far,” Silveira said Tuesday evening.

“I think it’s been a good campaign,” said Helms Lewis, during the beginning of her election night event at the El Capitan Hotel in downtown Merced. “I look forward to seeing the results.”

Meanwhile, Silveira held her election gathering about a quarter mile away at The Branding Iron.

One of Silveira’s top endorsements during the campaign came from Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke. Warnke was among those gathered at the Branding Iron on Tuesday.

“I am very proud of her. She’s an absolute trooper. She loves the fight of a good fight. She ran an extremely clean campaign and that shows her integrity,” Warnke said.

“I think she’ll be a wonderful DA for our county and we need someone like her to go out and fight.”

Meanwhile supporters of Helms Lewis, including Sober Grad President Jeremy Jenkins, were proud of her campaign.

“She drove a hard campaign. She proved herself to be the district attorney she is today She proved herself to be about the community. I expect her to take victory,” Jenkins said.

Helms Lewis in 2018 defeated Larry Morse II becoming the first female district attorney in the county’s history.

Ballots will be canvassed by elections officials in the coming days until completed. Election results will be updated as ballots are processed.

The final day for the elections office to certify results is July 7.

Preliminary results for Merced County

This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 8:39 PM.