Incumbent Ann Hsu loses in Board of Education race to challenger Alida Fisher

(SAN FRANCISCO) Ann Hsu, one of the three incumbents who were appointed by Mayor London Breed earlier this year to the Board of Education, loses her re-election race to challenger Alida Fisher who caught up with more votes in the last few days when more election results were released.

Hsu, who was in third place with 8,240 more votes than the fourth place candidate Fisher on election day, keeps falling behind Fisher, who was the fourth most voted candidate when first election results were reported.

As of November 16, the vote count had been almost at the final stage with 2,600 vote-by-mail ballots and 3,200 provisional ballots left, the latest results indicated that Hsu lost in the Board of Education race.

The latest results showed that Fisher was in third place with 118,762 votes, while Hsu received 115,188 votes which was 3,574 fewer votes than Fisher.

Fisher ran for the Board of Education four years ago and lost. According to her campaign website, Fisher is an adoptive parent and parent activist at her children's schools. She is also an advocate of special education.

Fisher was endorsed by a significant number of progressive elected officials in the city for her Board of Education race, including Chinese American Supervisors Gordon Mar and Connie Chan, State Assemblymember Matt Haney, Supervisors Shamann Walton, Hillary Ronen, Dean Preston, and Myrna Melgar, former Supervisors Norman Yee, Sandra Lee Fewer, Jane Kim, David Campos and John Avalos, and BART Board Director Bevan Dufty.

Two incumbents, Lisa Weissman-Ward and Lainie Motamedi, have consistently received the votes to keep them at two top seats from the beginning with Weissman-Ward leading.

All three incumbents were appointed to fill in the vacant seats after three former School Board Members, Gabriela Lopez, Allison Collins and Faauuga Moliga, were recalled by the voters in the February election.

In July, Hsu issued a public apology for making insensitive statements related to the African and Hispanic American students and parents. Hsu was criticized and called for resignation by both ethnic communities.

Lopez also ran in the race trying to take back her seat. She lost with fewer votes than Hsu in fifth place.