Mahmood leads incumbent Preston in race for San Francisco District 5 supervisor seat

an Francisco Board of Supervisors District 5 incumbent Dean Preston is trailing in his reelection bid to his top challenger, Bilal Mahmood, according to initial results in Tuesday's election.

As of the latest update as of 1 a.m. Wednesday, Mahmood was winning 8,413 to 7,457, or 53.01% to 46.99%, after multiple rounds of ranked choice voting.

Preston was endorsed by House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, state Assemblymember Phil Ting and the California Nurses Association, among others, but is not currently in the lead in the district, which includes the Tenderloin, Haight-Ashbury and the Fillmore District.

A political action committee opposing Preston's reelection, Coalition to Grow San Francisco, known as GrowSF, raised nearly $300,000 to defeat him.

Mahmood is a former policy analyst in the Obama Administration who went on to found and work for several nonprofit philanthropic organizations. He was endorsed by Mayor London Breed and state Sen. Scott Wiener.

He pledged to speed up the permitting process for affordable housing by using technology to process permits faster, cut fees and reduce the number of permits needed to build housing, and coordinate city departments to both target fentanyl dealers and create strategies to provide shelter for homeless residents, according to his campaign website.