APTOS >> Candidate Kim De Serpa maintained a tight lead Wednesday in the race to represent 2nd District residents on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

As of the latest vote count Wednesday morning, De Serpa had received 9,587 votes, about 51%, while Kristen Brown, her opponent in the race, collected 9,142 votes, or 48%. That’s a difference of 445 votes.

De Serpa told the Sentinel Wednesday that she was cautiously optimistic her lead would hold or even expand in the coming days, and that she was grateful for all the support she had received.

“I feel like I ran a great campaign, full of integrity,” said De Serpa, noting that her own jubilant feelings Tuesday night were tempered by national trends. The Associated Press called the presidential race Wednesday in favor of Donald Trump, who will make a return to the White House as 47th president of the United States.

“Hopefully I’ll prevail and will represent District 2 in a way that will make people proud,” she added.

De Serpa, 57, is hoping to halt her opponent’s momentum from the March primary after Brown outpaced her by 1,225 votes. However, because both candidates failed to clear the 50% threshold needed to declare victory during the primary, as the top two finishers, De Serpa and Brown both advanced to the November head-to-head runoff.

In all, five candidates appeared on the ballot in the March primary and the three that failed to advance — Bruce Jaffe, David Schwartz and Tony Crane — cumulatively took in 6,734 votes.

De Serpa has served on the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees for 14 years and has a background in health care and social services. She is also a social services manager at the Salinas Valley Health Center.

Brown, 37, has been on the Capitola City Council since 2016 and currently serves as the city’s mayor. She is also preparing to wrap up her terms as board chair for two major transportation agencies in the county: Santa Cruz Metro and the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.

“We are feeling good,” Brown told the Sentinel via text message Tuesday while noting the vote differential at the time. “We’re feeling optimistic and continuing to celebrate all our hard work leading up to today.”Both experienced local politicians are vying to replace Supervisor Zach Friend who has held an office in the county building since 2012 and announced last year that he would not seek a fourth term.

But no matter who wins, De Serpa and Brown have guaranteed that a woman will hold a seat on the nonpartisan five-member board for the first time in 12 years. Ellen Pirie was the last woman elected to serve among the county’s highest ranking public officials and represented the 2nd District for 12 years before Friend succeeded her in 2012.

The 2nd District has a population of 54,740 according to 2020 census data. It hugs the coastline from Capitola to Pajaro Dunes but also includes more inland areas around Day Valley, Corralitos, Amesti, Larkin Valley, Freedom and a small portion of the city of Watsonville.

A full term on county Board of Supervisors lasts four years.

So far, 96,486 total votes had been tabulated countywide — about 57% of registered voters — and the vast majority have come in via vote by mail. According to Santa Cruz County Clerk Tricia Webber, this total includes all the vote by mail that had been received through the weekend and all of the in-person votes that had been cast on Election Day or during the early voting period.

According to the county’s website, 35,000 vote-by-mail ballots, 3,700 same day registrations and 130 provisional ballots were still left to be counted. Another tabulation update will not be shared until approximately 4 p.m. Thursday.