Democrat KarenBassLA becomes first woman elected Mayor of Los Angeles. Republican Rick Caruso held the lead in the vote count after Election Day, but Bass took the lead days later.
LOS ANGELES – Developer Rick Caruso conceded defeat in the Los Angeles mayor’s race to Rep. Karen Bass, after the updated vote count released Thursday reported her lead had increased to more than 46,500 votes.
Caruso held the lead in the vote count after Election Day, but as updates slowly trickled in over the next week, Bass surpassed him and then gradually extended her lead. “The people of Los Angeles have sent a clear message: it is time for change and it is time for urgency,” said Bass, the first sitting House member to be elected mayor of Los Angeles since 1953, when Rep. Norris Poulson was elected. Then-Reps. James Roosevelt, Alphonzo Bell and Xavier Becerra lost campaigns for mayor in 1965, 1969 and 2001.
The race tightened in the weeks before Election Day, with Caruso closing the gap in several polls after trailing by as many as double-digits among likely voters as late as October, according to a Los Angeles Times/UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll. Heading into Election Day, several experts described Bass as the favorite, though they were uncertain how much Caruso’s spending would sway the race.
“People do vote the party line now more than ever, in this very hyper- polarized state we’re in,” Mindy Romero, director of USC’s Center for Inclusive Democracy, told City News Service. Bass inherits leadership of a city grappling with a scandal that has embroiled City Hall for the past month, after three council members and a top county labor official took part in a recorded conversation in October 2021 that included racist comments and attempts to manipulate redistricting.
In 2004, Bass was the only Black woman in the Legislature when she was elected to the Assembly. Four years later, she became the first Black woman to lead the chamber. Bass was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010.