SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco’s first black woman elected mayor is battling a self-funded philanthropist for re-election, while in nearby Oakland, the first Hmong American mayor of a major city is fighting a recall Wednesday.

It was too early to call either San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s re-election bid or Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s recall effort, both fueled by concerns about public safety and homelessness. San Francisco and Alameda counties won’t update results until Thursday.

Breed was following anti-poverty nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie after a costly campaign in which several challengers — all fellow Democrats — accused her of wasting six years in office while homeless tent campsopen air drug use and retail theft proliferated.

“It’s not over until it’s over,” Breed said at an election party Tuesday night, noting that she, too, was initially in the back in her first mayoral race in 2018, but ultimately won the position.

Crime and homelessness also drove residents frustrated Oakland to collect enough signatures to place Thao’s recall on Tuesday’s ballot. They blame Thao, who won office just two years ago, for a long list of the city’s problems. California Governor Gavin Newsom sent State Highway Patrol officers, state prosecutorsand surveillance cameras to help Oakland fight crime.

Thao became the first Hmong American mayor of a major US city after being elected in November 2022. Oakland has about 400,000 residents and is sometimes more politically liberal than San Francisco. Vice President Kamala Harris, who admitted the presidential race to former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, he claims Oakland like her hometown.

Supporters of the recall say the mayor “created a public safety crisis” in part by DRAWING popular Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. Her memory was FUNDED largely by investor Philip Dreyfuss, who did not respond to requests for comment. The local NAACP supports the recall.

Thao has an FBI investigation hanging over her head after authorities in June raided her home and other properties owned by a politically influential family that controls the city’s recycling contract. Thao maintained her innocence and authorities have not said what they are investigating.

Thao said Tuesday night that there were still ballots to be counted.

But California voters have shown frustration with crime and easily approved a proposal Tuesday that reclassifies some misdemeanors theft and drug crimes as crimes.

The streets of San Francisco were cleaner and homeless tents much harder to findbut a shooting during the day in September San Francisco 49ers rookie Ricky Pearsall in a popular central business district has reignited the issue of safety in the city.

Breed, who was raised by her grandmother in public housing in San Francisco, says the pandemic has challenged the city, but her administration has laid the foundation for recovery. In the March primary, she supported a successful public safety ballot pair measures to expand police powers and force some people into drug treatment.

San Francisco elects its mayor using a ranked choice voting system which allows voters to list up to 10 candidates in order of preference. Lurie led the Breed in early returns.

Lurie, who has never held elected office, pledged to bring accountability and public service back to City Hall and relished his role as a political outsider.

“We cannot solve today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions,” he said at his election party.

Lurie has pumped nearly $9 million of his own money into his first mayoral bid, saying that as a political outsider he needs to introduce himself to voters. He is an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune. through his mother, Mimi Haas, who married Peter Haas when Daniel was a child. Peter Haas was a longtime CEO of the famous clothing company who died in 2005.

Breed raised more than $5 million in his re-election bid, including $1.4 million from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Early results showed San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, the most progressive contender in the race, in third place and Mark Farrell, a venture capitalist and former San Francisco supervisor who briefly served as interim mayor, in fourth place.

Breed won the election as mayor in June 2018 to serve out the remainder of Lee’s term. She was re-elected in 2019 to a full term that lasted five years instead of the usual four after voters changed the electoral calendar to align with presidential contests.