Special edition: Your June 2026 voter guide
Ballots are in mailboxes this week. Here’s the GrowSF Voter Guide!
Your ballot should have arrived (or be arriving any day now). We expect turnout in the June 2 primary to be around 45%, so your vote matters about twice as much compared to a November election where turnout is above 80%.
As always, you can find the full GrowSF Voter Guide at growsf.org/voter-guide, but we have an abridged version below.
How to vote. Mail it back (free postage, postmarked by June 2). Drop it in any city ballot box by 8pm on Election Day. Or vote in person at City Hall through June 2, or at your polling place on Election Day.
GrowSF Voter Guide at a glance
San Francisco
D2 Supervisor: Stephen Sherrill
D4 Supervisor: Alan Wong
SF Board of Education: Phil Kim
Superior Court Judge: Phoebe Maffei
Prop A (Earthquake Safety Bond): Yes
Prop B (Lifetime Term Limits): Yes
Prop C (Decreases to Small Business Taxes): Yes
Prop D (Grocery Tax): No
State
Governor: Matt Mahan
Lieutenant Governor: Josh Fryday
Attorney General: Rob Bonta
Secretary of State: Shirley Weber
Controller: Malia Cohen
Treasurer: Eleni Kounalakis
Insurance Commissioner: Patrick Wolff
State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Josh Newman
Board of Equalization: Sally Lieber
State Assembly D17: Matt Haney
State Assembly D19: Catherine Stefani
Federal
House D11: Scott Wiener
D2 Supervisor: Stephen Sherrill
Stephen Sherrill brings real policy experience (senior advisor in the Bloomberg administration in NYC, then ran SF’s Mayor’s Office of Innovation), and he’s used it. As Supervisor, he co-sponsored the resolution speeding up 911 response near schools, co-sponsored Mayor Lurie’s RV homelessness legislation, and backed the Recovery First sober-housing ordinance. On small business: he passed the chain-store ordinance to fill long-vacant storefronts on Van Ness (which has 53% ground-floor vacancy), and helped extend First Year Free, which has now helped over 13,000 small businesses. He voted yes on Mayor Lurie’s Family Zoning Plan and supported the unanimous office-to-residential conversion law.
D4 Supervisor: Alan Wong
Mayor Lurie picked Alan Wong out of five finalists in an open process last December. Wong is a Sunset native with a public-service resume that includes labor organizer, community safety volunteer and organizer, Community College Board trustee, and First Lieutenant in the Army National Guard. To help close SFPD’s 500-officer shortage, he wants bilingual recruiting and civilianizing desk roles so sworn officers can return to patrol. He’s pledged half his staff time to constituent services with a 24-hour reply commitment, and he wants to replace the current red-tape maze for new businesses with a simple checklist. His first vote was yes on Mayor Lurie’s Family Zoning Plan.
SF Board of Education: Phil Kim
Phil Kim is a former public-school teacher who’s led K-12 STEM education across 20+ states and 300+ schools. He joined the Board in 2024 and was unanimously elected Board President. Under his leadership, SFUSD’s finances are back on track and no teachers were laid off.
He was also the deciding vote to bring algebra back to 8th grade, ending a 12-year ban. The vote was 4-3. He’s stayed relentlessly focused on 3rd-grade reading, 8th-grade math, and college readiness, and for the first time in years, those numbers are moving up.
Yes on Prop A: Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond
Prop A is a $535M bond for earthquake safety and emergency response, which will finance the Emergency Firefighting Water System, fire stations, police stations, and a replacement for the Potrero bus yard. Bonds in SF don’t raise taxes; new ones are timed as old ones retire. Average annual cost works out to about $7.45 per $100K of assessed value, taken out of your existing property taxes.
The Westside still has no dedicated high-pressure firefighting water system. If a major earthquake hits, firefighters in the Sunset and Richmond may not have reliable water (this just happened in the Palisades fire). Prop A expands pipes, cisterns, and tunnels to those neighborhoods. The Potrero bus yard was built in 1915, can’t house electric buses, and would likely collapse in a major quake. The $200M replacement meets seismic standards and lets Muni keep running after a quake. A citizens’ oversight committee will audit spending annually.
Yes on Prop B: Lifetime Term Limits for Mayor and Supervisors
Prop B changes term limits for Mayor and Supervisors from consecutive to lifetime. Still two four-year terms total, just no coming back for more after sitting out a cycle. The practical stakes are tiny: since SF adopted term limits in 1990, exactly one person (Aaron Peskin) has ever come back for nonconsecutive terms. Everyone else moved on or retired.
The academic research on strict term limits is genuinely mixed: some studies say they make races more competitive, others say they shift power to lobbyists and insiders. But since most people already think these offices have lifetime limits, we’re supporting Prop B just to makes the law match common understanding.
Yes on Prop C: Decreases to Small Business Taxes
Prop C raises the small-business tax exemption from $5M to $7.5M in yearly revenue, indexed to inflation, so thousands more small businesses will owe less. Rates go up slightly on larger businesses to offset some of the cost. Net fiscal impact: about $30-40M less City revenue per year.
The $5M exemption that voters passed in 2024 was a good start, but Bay Area prices are up ~15% since 2021, and rent, labor, and supply costs have risen even more. A neighborhood restaurant doing $6M isn’t a corporate giant; it’s a small business with thin margins getting squeezed. The rate increases on larger businesses are small, and were already scheduled to take effect in 2028. Prop C just speeds them up a little.
No on Prop D: Grocery Tax
Prop D is marketed as a “CEO tax.” It isn’t. It’s a Grocery Tax. It’s an 800% increase in the gross receipts tax (paid on sales, not on executive pay) calculated using the ratio between a company’s CEO and its median worker. Companies with lots of hourly workers (cashiers, stock clerks, pharmacy techs) have high pay ratios because the median employee earns ~$30K. Tech companies whose median employee is a $300K+ engineer have low pay ratios and stay under the threshold.
The result: Google (32:1 pay ratio), Meta (65:1), and Amazon (43:1) are exempt. Walgreens (410:1), Safeway (506:1), and Starbucks (6,666:1) get hit with an 800% increase.
Grocery stores run on 1-3% net margins. They have two options: raise prices, or leave.
Insurance Commissioner: Patrick Wolff
Patrick Wolff is the only candidate in the race with a California insurance license. He spent four years at Capital One building a home and auto insurance business, and 25 years analyzing insurance markets. In a field of career politicians, he’s an actual expert. His plan will cut filing review timelines, strengthen the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, and publish a public claims report card grading every insurer, shown before you buy.
Ben Allen is also a strong pick (State Senator from the Palisades fire zone, authored the $10B Prop 4 climate bond).
Do not vote for Jane Kim. She wants to replace private insurance with a state-run program where San Franciscans would subsidize people living in dangerous wildfire prone areas. It’s the exact opposite of how insurance should function - people should pay MORE to live in dangerous areas, and LESS to live in safe areas. Kim’s plan would raise your rates and bankrupt the state at the next big disaster.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction: Josh Newman
Only 47% of California kids read at grade level, and SFUSD is in the bottom 10% of California districts. We know how to fix this. Mississippi switched to phonics in 2013 and went from 49th to 9th for 4th-grade reading. California finally passed its own phonics law (AB 1454) in 2025, but adoption is voluntary. The Superintendent’s job is to make districts actually adopt it. Josh Newman chaired the Senate Education Committee and has the most specific plan in the field: a California Literacy Coaching Corps modeled on Mississippi’s, universal early screening, and transparent dashboards so parents can see who’s using proven methods and who isn’t. He’s also the only candidate willing to say this office should probably be appointed by the Governor, not elected. We agree.
The rest of your ballot, in one sentence each
Superior Court Judge: Phoebe Maffei. 15 years in the DA’s office across homicide, domestic violence, elder abuse, and mental-health cases; led the David DePape prosecution and secured a life sentence.
Governor: Matt Mahan. As Mayor of San Jose, unsheltered homelessness is down ~23% from 2019, San Jose became America’s safest big city, and thousands of new homes got unlocked through fee cuts and faster permitting.
Lieutenant Governor: Josh Fryday. The most ambitious housing plan in the field: use the LG’s seats on UC Regents, CSU Trustees, and State Lands to push 1 million homes committed or permitted on public and campus land.
Attorney General: Rob Bonta. Effective incumbent who co-sponsored SB 1037 with Scott Wiener, then actually used it to fine cities blocking housing; also got a $7M settlement from Greystar for algorithmic rent collusion.
Secretary of State: Shirley Weber. Runs California’s elections without drama, hit a record 22.6M registered voters, and refused (and won in court) when the federal government demanded California’s voter database.
Controller: Malia Cohen. Knows public finance and SF; ran SFERS ($35B), now sits on CalPERS and CalSTRS boards (~$1T combined), and led the task force on California’s largest-ever charter school fraud.
Treasurer: Eleni Kounalakis. The only candidate with private-sector experience actually building housing and managing real money, and the Treasurer chairs CDLAC and CTCAC, the agencies that decide which housing gets financed.
Board of Equalization: Sally Lieber. Most BOE powers were stripped in 2017; what’s left is narrow tax administration. Office should probably be abolished, but until then, vote for the competent incumbent.
State Assembly D17: Matt Haney. Got AB 507 signed (statewide office-to-housing conversions) and AB 2475 (no releasing violent state-hospital patients without a plan); running unopposed and earned another term.
State Assembly D19: Catherine Stefani. Got seven bills signed in her first term, including Wyland’s Law (gun violence prevention), the Restitution First Act, and a license-plate-cover ban.
House D11: Scott Wiener. Wrote SB 35, SB 423, and SB 79, the laws that forced housing approvals statewide and legalized mid-rise apartments near transit. Built the coalition that got $1.1B in emergency funding to keep Muni and BART running.
Before you go
Want more on any race? The full voter guide has comparison tables, candidate questionnaires, prop legal text, and the full reasoning on every endorsement above.
If this email helped you fill out your ballot, forward it to a friend or neighbor who hasn’t sent theirs in yet. Every cycle, readers tell us the GrowSF Voter Guide is what their family and friends use to vote.
Happy voting, from all of us at GrowSF.
— Steven, Sachin, McKenna, Graham, and Jess
Paid for by GrowSF Voter Guide. Not authorized by a candidate, candidate's committee, or a committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.