Voters in Merced County’s District 4, which includes Hilmar and Delhi, will have three candidates to choose from when they cast their ballot in the March primary election.

Incumbent Lloyd Pareira will be facing challengers Dennis Brazil and Jim Soria for the county supervisor seat.

The top two vote-getters will go to face each other in the November general election, unless one candidate can capture more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary.

Pareira, a retired farmer who lives on a ranch in Snelling, has been the District 4 supervisor for six years (seven after Jan. 3). Previous to that he was a school board member on the Merced River School District for 19 years.

Pareira said the decision to seek re-election was made when he looked at what has already been accomplished and what lies ahead.

“The first reason was that there has been a tremendous amount of good projects that have come to fruition and the second reason was for all the good projects that I want to see completed in the future,” Pareira said.

Pareira pointed to the $3.7 million grant for a new park in Winton as a recent accomplishment that is benefiting the District.

For future projects he wants to see safety implementations, like improved crosswalks in Gustine, new traffic safeguards in Hilmar and mitigation efforts for flood prone areas of Hilmar. He also believes Delhi is long overdue for a community park.

Brazil is a Gustine resident and a retired operations agriculture manager. He has previously served on the Gustine Airport Commission, as the Gustine mayor for six years, a board member of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, the Gustine City Council and is currently serving on the air district’s advisory committee for environmental justice and is in his second term as the board president of the West Side Community Healthcare District.

Brazil said his decision to run for the supervisor seat was because he feels he will so “a better job at being a voice for everyone in the county and the district.”

An issue that he plans to address during his campaign are road conditions and how Measure V funds are being used.

“The Measure V money is being shuffled all over the place — for roundabouts, sidewalks and big regional projects like for the University, but it’s not being used to fix our roads,” Brazil said. “The roads are not being addressed in the way that voters believed they would be when Measure V was passed.”

Soria is a retired law enforcement member from the Mendota Police Department and current safety officer at Modesto Junior College, who resides in Hilmar. He has previously served on the Livingston City Council as a councilmember for four years and mayor as two years.

“There are a lot of things that need fixing in District 4, like the roads and public safety,” Soria said. “I’m big on ensuring our communities are safe and that our law enforcement is properly staffed.”

Soria has spent multiple years as a coach for youth sports and that idea of giving back is one reason why he decided to seek office again.

District 4 includes Gustine, Delhi, Hilmar, Stevinson, Snelling, Winton, Ballico and Cressey.

The primary election is set for March 5, 2024. For information about registering to vote or about the 2024 election in Merced County, visit countyofmerced.com/elections