Only one of three union-backed challengers was in the lead in early vote counts in school board and college trustee races in Tuesday’s election.

Dan Bordona, a retired teacher who is trying to unseat incumbent Claudia Cazares in the Hoover region on the Fresno Unified School Board, had a slight lead over Cazares with 28% of the votes counted Tuesday.

Meanwhile, James Martinez who is seeking to win the Fresno High region seat on the Unified School Board and Pablo Villagrana, who is trying for the Area 2 seat on the State Center Community College District board, were trailing the incumbents in early vote counts.

Bordona, Martinez, and Villagrana each had significant union support for their campaigns.

A three-way race for the Area 2 seat on Clovis Unified School Board was tight among the two frontrunners Molly DeFrank and Wilma Tom Hashimoto, with only seven votes separating the two.

Here’s how the elections are shaping up in early vote counts Tuesday evening:

State Center Community College District

Incumbent Nasreen Michelle Johnson, who was outspent by Villagrana in campaign spending, was leading 55% to 45% with 27% of the votes cast.

The most expensive race among local school or college trustees was for the Area 2 seat on the State Center board. Villagrana, president of the Iron Workers local in Fresno, had raised more than $106,000 by election day, almost all of it from union sources. His biggest contributors included the State Center teachers union, which had contributed $12,500, and $5,000 from his own union local.

Johnson, who enjoyed significant union support when she won election to her first term four years ago, had raised about a fifth of Villagrana’s total by Election Day.

Three other seats on the State Center board were also up for election. Incumbents Danielle Parra and Deborah Ikeda faced no opposition and won reelection to their seats in Areas 3 and 6. Newcomer Austin B. Ewell, a local businessman, had one of the easiest races in the county — he claimed the Area 7 seat after incumbent Richard Caglia didn’t seek reelection and no other candidates filed for the seat.

Fresno Unified

All three seats on the Fresno Unified School Board that were up for election were contested, with most of the attention and money being spent on the Fresno High and Hoover region races.

In the Fresno High region, incumbent Andy Levine was leading his two challengers by a margin of 47% to 28% for Martinez and 25% for Emma Villa with 28% of the votes counted.

Levine is a Fresno State lecturer who won a special election two years ago to complete the term of the late Carol Mills. Martinez is chief administrator at Fresno State’s Associated Students Inc. Villa is an attorney and a special education advocate.

Martinez initially had filed for re-election to his seat on the Fresno County Board of Education, but in June he switched gears and launched his FUSD trustee candidacy, with substantial financial support from the Fresno Teachers Association. Villa, who entered the race shortly before the filing deadline, ran a low-spending race.

In the Hoover region, incumbent Claudia Cazares, an analyst with the city of Clovis, was trailing Bordona, who like Martinez, enjoyed substantial union support. Bordona was leading by a margin of 52% to 48% for Cazares, with 29% of the votes counted. Cazares is seeking her third term on the board.

In the Roosevelt region, incumbent Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas apparently is breezing to an easy reelection to her third term. Her challenger is Joseph Aquino, a Fresno State student who, as a Hoover High student, served as one of the board’s student trustees. With 18% of votes counted, Jonasson Rosas had 69% to Aquino’s 31%.

Clovis Unified

Two of the four seats up for election were contested. In Area 2, there was no incumbent after David DeFrank decided not to seek re-election. His wife Molly, an author, might have had the benefit of incumbency-by-association as well as massive support from the Clovis Unified establishment. She ran against retired Clovis Unified teacher Janet Kardashian and Wilma Tom Hashimoto, who heads the local foster youth nonprofit CASA of Fresno and Madera counties.

With 40% of the votes counted, DeFrank and Hashimoto each had 41%, while Kardashian was in a distant third place with 18% of the votes cast.

In Area 4, incumbent Hugh Awtrey, a local insurance broker, appeared to be fending off a challenge from Gina Vue, owner of Innovative Minds ABA LLC, a local autism center. With 44% of the votes counted, Awtrey had 62% to Vue’s 37%.

Incumbents Dr. Steven Fogg and Yolanda Moore faced no opposition and were re-elected to their seats in Areas 5 and 7.

Central Unified

Two of the three seats up for reelection on the Central Unified School Board were contested. Incumbents Phillip Cervantes and Richard Solis ran low-cost, low-key campaigns for re-election to their seats in Areas 3 and 5 and were trailing their challengers.

Challenger Natalie Chavez, an education consultant, was leading Cervantes by a margin of 55% to 45% with 31% of the votes counted. Cervantes, a medical supplies sales consultant, was seeking his third term on the board. Chavez’s campaign received cash and in-kind contributions from the union-backed Valley Forward Action Fund as well funds from the pro-Democrat Youth Save Democracy PAC.

Jaspreet Sidhu, a registered nurse making his first run for the school, was leading Solis by a margin of 69% to 31% with 26% of votes counted.

Solis, a retired social worker seeking his third term on the board, also ran a low-spending campaign, unlike Sidhu, who raised tens of thousands of dollars in the Sikh community and also received in-kind contributions from the Valley Forward Action Fund.

In the Area 6 seat, incumbent Jeremy Mehling did not file for reelection. Fresno City College educator Karla Kirk won outright when she was the only candidate to file.