Incumbent Kate Harrison won the District 4 seat in the Berkeley City Council midterm election with 52.62 percent of the vote as of press time at 3:17 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Harrison was sworn into office in March 2017 and during her time on the council has worked on multiple issues, including police reform, affordable housing and homelessness. Now that Harrison has been re-elected, she said she is “gratified” by the results.
“I feel this is a great result for the community,” Harrison said. “We talked a lot about affordable housing and police accountability and dealing with homelessness, and people came to the forefront for how they want to approach the issues.”
During her campaign, Harrison advocated for affordable housing, limiting federal influence on emergency preparedness on a local level, affordable rents and police reform.
Harrison was endorsed by the Alameda County Democratic Party, the Sierra Club, the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, and elected officials such as state Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, outgoing state Assemblymember Tony Thurmond, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín, City Councilmembers Cheryl Davila and Sophie Hahn, and Berkeley Unified School District board members Ty Alper, Beatriz Leyva-Cutler and Judy Appel, among others.
Harrison said she is still focused on affordable housing for all students and residents in Berkeley and is looking to build a stronger Police Review Commission.
Harrison said she believes she was re-elected because of her work with the community and with constituents.
“I’m an honest worker. I’m not always perfect — I make mistakes — but I think people see that I’m doing this because I care about our community,” Harrison said. “I love our community, and I think people are trying our best to come up with solutions.”
Harrison’s opponents — Ben Gould and Greg Magofña — could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Gould, a UC Berkeley alumnus, campaigned for ensuring public safety, combating homelessness and making housing affordable. He received 34.56 percent of the vote.
“I’m running for City Council because I believe in the future of our community, and I don’t believe the incumbent for my district, District 4, has done enough,” Gould previously told The Daily Californian. “And I’m running again because I hope the voters will give me a second chance.”
Magofña, interim nutrition manager at the J-Sei senior center and co-founder of the housing advocacy group East Bay for Everyone, received 12.63 percent of the vote.
Magofña campaigned on what he called the “two biggest crises” in Berkeley: housing and the climate. He previously told the Daily Cal that he wants to “build housing for all” and use revenue generated by property taxes from new housing to reinvest in public infrastructure.
“I have a lot of professional policymaking experience, and I bring a lot of empathy to the table,” Magofña previously told the Daily Cal. “I care about the citizens of Berkeley and working toward good outcomes for them.”
Harrison said this election was an “interesting” race, and she appreciated the value that young people brought to the campaign. Harrison added that there was some “negativity, but we were able to move past it and focus on the issues.”
