In the end, San Francisco mayor London Breed’s recent efforts to crack down on homelessness and crime weren’t enough to save her from the wrath of voters frustrated by years of disorder and talk of a “doom loop” in the famously progressive city.
After 14 rounds through the city’s ranked-choice voting process, Breed lost decisively to Daniel Lurie, a more moderate Democrat and a wealthy heir to the Levi Strauss fortune.
Lurie was ahead from the first round, and after 14 rounds led with 56.2 percent of the vote to Breed’s 43.8 percent, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections.
Aaron Peskin, the far-left president of the Board of Supervisors and rent-control supporter, took third.
Breed conceded the race late Thursday, writing on X that being San Francisco’s mayor has been “the greatest honor of my life,” and saying that she “always gave San Francisco and its people my heart and soul.”
Breed congratulated Lurie and vowed to work with his team to ensure a smooth transition.
“I know we are both committed to improving this City we love,” she wrote.
In a thank-you letter posted on his website and X on Tuesday, Lurie wrote that “hope is alive and well” in San Francisco, and that residents are “ready for change.”
“Now we must show how government can deliver,” he wrote. “Clean and safe streets for all. Tackling our drug and behavioral health crisis. Shaking up the corrupt and ineffective bureaucracy. Building enough housing to turn around our affordability crisis. Breathing life back into our downtown, and ensuring our small businesses are thriving.”
“Here’s the truth,” he added. “Turning around this city is not going to happen overnight.”
In the months and years following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and racial-justice riots of 2020, San Francisco became a poster child for blue-city decline and disorder. Downtown offices emptied, blowing a hole in the city’s budget. Businesses fled amid increasing crime. Massive homeless camps took over sidewalks, giving residents and tourists another reason to avoid downtown.
In 2020, Breed caved to the anti-police fever, slashing the police and sheriff’s office budgets, and redirecting $120 million to racial-justice causes. Breed said that the city was “prioritizing investments in the African American community around housing, mental health and wellness, workforce development, economic justice, education, advocacy and accountability.”
More recently, Breed has backed tough-on-crime ballot initiatives to increase police powers and require welfare recipients to undergo drug screenings. She has also has cracked down on homeless camps and beefed up a program to bus the homeless out of the city, angering many far-left homeless advocates.
Lurie campaigned as a moderate Democrat and an outsider. Before running for mayor, he launched an anti-poverty nonprofit with about 50 staffers. He’ll now lead a city with more than 36,000 employees. He’ll also inherit an $800 million budget deficit.
Lurie will be the first San Francisco mayor since 1911 to never have served in government before election, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
As a candidate, he vowed to prioritize “cost-effective and dignified” homeless shelters as opposed to permanent housing, fully staff local law enforcement agencies, put more foot patrols in high-crime areas, speed up 911 response times, and to “write measurable results into nonprofit contracts to ensure accountability.”
“I’m not just someone that talks,” Lurie told the Chronicle before the election. “We’re going to bring people together. I’m going to take input, and I’m going to make the tough decisions. I’m not going to please everybody every time, and I’m okay with that.”
Most of the highest-profile mayoral candidates — Breed, Lurie, and Mark Farrell, a businessman and former mayor — campaigned as moderate Democrats and accused their opponents of being closet conservatives linked to Donald Trump.
Ellen Lee Zhou, the lone major Republican running for mayor, placed sixth. She didn’t receive her party’s endorsement. The San Francisco Republican Party and the center-right Briones Society endorsed Lurie, snubbing Farrell who had campaigned as the most conservative candidate in the race, according to the San Francisco Standard.
Breed’s loss comes on the heels of San Francisco voters recalling far-left prosecutor Chesa Boudin and three progressive school-board members in 2022.
Across the Bay, voters in Oakland appear to have recalled progressive mayor Sheng Thao and progressive Alameda County district attorney Pamela Price amid spiraling crime, disorder, and a budget crisis in that city. Votes are still being counted, but the recalls are leading by wide margins.