SLOCDP Central Committee Unanimously Endorses San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano
First-ever SLOCDP endorsement for any candidate
not registered as a Democratic Party voter
Dear SLO County Democrats,
Our vote has never been more threatened – or more important.
Our addled president and his Republican enablers know they’re in deep trouble with voters everywhere. The reasons are indisputable:
The rising cost of everything due to their illegal, unnecessary wars and ridiculous tariffs.
Their violent, lawless immigration policies and murder in the streets.
Their rampant in-our-face graft and systemic corruption.
Their indefensible protection of the pederast Epstein Class.
Since Trump took office, Democrats have racked up one electoral victory after another across the county, flipping 27 consecutive state legislative seats while Republicans have flipped none.
Their odious rule by fiat has cost them dearly in the court of public opinion, triggering Trump and his party to behave as if the only way to hold onto power is by lying about the integrity of free and fair elections, making it harder to vote, and by outright rigging elections.
The so-called SAVE Act, pending in the U.S. Senate, is a case in point. It’s been called the worst voter suppression bill in American history.
Trump and his cult know they can’t win unless they keep us from voting. We know it, too. We also know every “election fraud” accusation is an admission of their own duplicity.
It’s not just happening at the national level. We have our own threats to the vote right here in SLO County.
Our County Clerk-Recorder, Elaina Cano, is the elected official in charge of conducting local elections and counting votes. She’s done an even-handed, non-partisan job conducting free and fair elections for SLO County since 2021. No rational person would say otherwise.
Still, Elaina Cano is being challenged in the June 2 primary by two election-denying extremists who aim to turn a non-partisan office into a maga-controlled, election-denying operation.
Both are attacking the way Ms. Cano’s office collects and counts our ballots, using the same radical rhetoric as maga world, the same if-we-didn’t-win-they-cheated lies – only they’re local, poising more immediate menace to our democracy.
One challenger has been endorsed by the SLO County Republican Party, which has long supported election denial in SLO County. The other is facing felony vote fraud charges in SLO County Superior Court, running for the very office she’s accused of cheating.
At our monthly Central Committee meeting this week, the SLO County Democratic Party took a historic step toward helping protect the vote locally.
We voted unanimously to endorse Ms. Cano’s re-election bid.
This is the first time in memory the SLOCDP has endorsed a candidate in an election that – until now – has been for a neutral, non-partisan office. In order to do this, we also voted unanimously for a this-time-only amendment of our bylaws that had prohibited us from endorsing non-Democrats, as Ms. Cano is registered as a “no party preference” voter.
We’re proud to endorse Elaina Cano for SLO County Clerk-Recorder, and even more proud to defend the integrity of her office and our vote.
In solidarity,
Tom Fulks
Chair, SLOCDP