Billionaire heir Daniel Lurie defeated Mayor London Breed and a crowded field of rivals to win the San Francisco mayoral race, earning his first term leading California’s fourth-largest city.
Lurie, a Democrat and political novice, told the Washington Examiner that Breed and his opponents “underestimated not only us, but they underestimated the people of San Francisco and their desire for change and accountability.”
Lurie, founder of the anti-poverty nonprofit organization Tipping Point, said his No. 1 priority would be public safety.
San Francisco uses a ranked choice voting system, which delayed the results. Under the system, voters rank candidates from their first choice to their least preferred. In multiple rounds of tallying, the candidate who receives the fewest votes is eliminated, and their supporters’ votes are carried over to the voters’ next preferred pick until there is a winner.
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Though San Francisco holds nonpartisan elections, all five of the leading candidates were Democrats.
Breed, a political centrist by California standards, leaned into the city’s shifting political winds, hoping to gain some traction among voters, but it proved to be too little, too late.
Her political opponents, which also included a former San Francisco mayor and two city supervisors, blamed her for the city’s failure to bounce back as quickly as others after the pandemic. They also hammered her on the growing drug epidemic, property crime, and a homelessness crisis that has led to an economic downturn and businesses fleeing the area.
During her closing arguments to voters over the weekend, Breed claimed San Franciscans were feeling safer “than they ever have before” while admitting there was more work to be done.
On Thursday, Breed conceded the race to Lurie.
“Today, I called Daniel Lurie and congratulated him on his victory in this election,” she said in a statement. “I want to thank all of the city staff who have worked tirelessly to improve this city for the last six years.”
In the weeks leading up to the election, Lurie, former interim Mayor Mark Farrell, and Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Ahsha Safai inched up in the polls.
Lurie emerged as the strongest threat to Breed and slammed her for contributing to a corrupt system that was grossly mismanaged and did little to benefit residents.
“The city hall insiders have failed to deliver for the people of San Francisco, and we are going to deliver on that promise of true public service, not for personal profit but to serve the people again,” he told the Washington Examiner. “We are going to get our behavioral health crisis on our streets under control. We are going to get people off the streets and into help. More mental health, drug treatment beds. We are sending a message to the country: You do not come to San Francisco to deal drugs, to do drugs, or to sleep on our streets.”
Despite his message, Lurie was accused by his opponents of trying to buy the race.
In addition to the $8 million Lurie contributed to his own campaign, his mother, Mimi Haas, supported his candidacy through a million-dollar independent committee contribution. His brother, Ari Lurie, gave $150,000 to the same committee. Daniel Lurie’s rich tech friends also opened their wallets for him and forked over hundreds of thousands of dollars.
On a per-capita basis, he has only been outspent by two candidates in modern mayoral history: Rick Caruso, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Los Angeles, and Michael Bloomberg, who served three terms as mayor of New York City. Both are self-made billionaires who pitched voters on their business chops and ability to run the massive organizations they built.
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Lurie’s only significant work experience has been in philanthropy.
Lurie’s win makes him the first person since 1911 to be elected mayor of the city without prior government credentials.
