Clovis councilmembers vie for possible Fresno County supervisor vacancy

A likely vacancy on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors has already turned into an early fight for political power in Clovis, with Mayor Vong Mouanoutoua and Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce both seeking the District 5 seat before it formally opens. The winner would help shape county decisions in eastern Fresno, Clovis and the mountain communities that stretch to the Tulare and Inyo county borders.

District 5 could come open if Nathan Magsig wins the California State Senate District 12 race in November and then resigns his county seat to take office in Sacramento. Magsig advanced from the June 2 primary with 59.6% in unofficial returns and will face the general election on Nov. 3. Under the Fresno County Charter, the Board of Supervisors must call a special election without delay, to be held 75 to 90 days after the vacancy is called unless state election timing rules apply. If Magsig takes the Senate seat on Dec. 7, 2026, the earliest special election would fall on Feb. 23, 2027.

The race matters because the county board controls elections, law enforcement, jails, vital records, tax collection, public health and social services across Fresno County, a charter county formed in 1856 and now covering 6,011 square miles. A shift in District 5 could alter the balance between Clovis interests, eastern Fresno neighborhoods and the rural mountain communities that often feel the impact of county land-use and public-safety decisions first.

Mouanoutoua brings a long local government résumé into the contest. He was elected to the Clovis City Council in 2017, became Clovis’s first Hmong mayor in 2024 and previously spent more than a decade on the city’s Planning Commission. He also works as director of external relations for Community Health Systems and lectures at Fresno State. His second council term runs through 2028, which gives him a longer runway in city politics even as he eyes county office.

Pearce, by contrast, enters the race as a councilmember who has already said she will leave her current seat. She joined the Clovis City Council in 2022, announced in April that she would not seek reelection, and her term ends in November 2026. Pearce owns an entertainment company and works part time as a television and radio host. She has cast herself as a “proven fighter” and warned that Fresno County should not go the way of San Francisco or Los Angeles, while calling Mouanoutoua a “ceremonial ribbon-cutter” who does not speak out.

The contest is unfolding while both remain on the Clovis dais for at least the next several months, and it could widen. Allen Clyde, a retired foot doctor and Fresno County Board of Education member since 2001, said Thursday that he is interested in running. Magsig said he knows both Mouanoutoua and Pearce well and considers them friends, but has not decided whom to support.

The race also comes as Clovis itself changes its election map. The city adopted by-district council elections in March 2025, starting with the November 2026 election, after more than a century of at-large elections. Pearce and councilmember Matt Basgall both live in the newly drawn District 4 in northeast Clovis, and Basgall’s decision to seek reelection after first signaling otherwise has set up another intramural battle.