Laura Capps appeared to be on track for a second term with 76.27% of the vote in preliminary election night results Tuesday for the Second District Santa Barbara County supervisor race.

Capps started the night with a huge lead in the election over Elijah Mack, which only grew as more results were counted, according to Elections Office results.

The match-up between incumbent Capps and Mack is for the Second District seat, which represents the eastern Goleta Valley, Isla Vista and UC Santa Barbara. It also covers portions of Goleta and Santa Barbara.

The five-member Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is the county’s highest governing body, and each supervisor is elected by voters within their district.

Capps, who attended an election results watch party at Santa Barbara Public Market, responded to the early results by saying she is honored to serve the people of Santa Barbara County and tackle a second term.

“This has been a challenging year for Santa Barbara, for our country, and I’m excited to serve and excited to face our challenges together,” Capps said.

Capps was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in June 2022 after running unopposed for the seat.

She was a school board member for the Santa Barbara Unified School District and before that, had experience working in Washington, D.C., politics, including at the White House and U.S. Senate.

During her first term, Capps has been a proponent of building housing across the South Coast and her home district. She also supports using county land to build workforce housing.

Capps has expressed her intent to ensure that new housing in her district is affordable for the community.

She said her goal if re-elected was to continue the push for housing, promoting sustainability in new construction, continuing to protect open spaces, and seeing that the county’s oil and gas phaseout is completed.

On the topic of the county’s financial future, Capps has acknowledged that the county is facing turbulent times but said it is in better financial shape than much of the state.

She attributed that to the Board of Supervisors’ fiscal planning and tough choices in previous years.

Mack, 21, is a political newcomer who challenged Monique Limón in 2024 for the 21st District State Senate seat. Despite losing to Limón, he said he learned valuable lessons during the race.

Mack teaches religious classes for young people at his parents’ church in Montecito and at another church in Goleta. He said he recently completed college and paid for his classes on his own.

In challenging Capps, Mack said his goal was to run a nonpartisan campaign and focus on local issues, not national ones. The issues he highlighted during his campaign included housing, supporting local businesses and cutting back on government spending.

Mack said he supports building more middle-class housing. He has advocated for incentives, such as tax cuts, removing regulations and fees, and finding ways to encourage developers to build more housing for working and middle-class families.

Mack also expressed concern about the county’s plan to phase out oil and gas production, saying the plan would bring lawsuits against the county and drive oil companies to counties with fewer regulations.

Check back with Noozhawk for updates to this story and other election results. 

The Santa Barbara County Elections Office will release additional election results later Tuesday night, as staff process ballots received from polling places, mail and drop boxes. It will then release updates in the coming days as additional ballots are processed and counted. The county needs to certify the June 2 election results by July 2.