San Francisco’s mayor is the latest casualty of the 2024 anti-incumbent election cycle, losing her seat to a political novice after just one term. Democrat London Breed had been a member of the city’s Board of Supervisors since 2012 when she became the first Black woman to lead the city in 2018. In a “stunning” upset, she conceded defeat to Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, also a Democrat, on Thursday, San Francisco’s KTVU reported. “Being Mayor of San Francisco has been the greatest honor of my life,” Breed said in a statement. Lurie, the founder and CEO of an anti-poverty nonprofit called Tipping Point, was leading the contest with 56.2 percent of the vote to Breed’s 43.8 percent. He was a “virtual unknown” at the start of the race, according to KTVU, and faced criticism for spending $6 million of his own money on his campaign. But he managed to win an endorsement from the San Francisco Chronicle, which praised his balance between “compassion and toughness” after Lurie called for securing more housing for homeless people while also hiring more police officers. He also said he wanted to implement a “co-responder” model with police working alongside outreach workers and mental health counselors.
