Karen Bass is LA’s first female mayor

Angelenos have elected the first female mayor — and only second Black mayor — in Los Angeles history, as the Associated Press called the mayoral race for U.S. Rep. Karen Bass on Wednesday, Nov. 16.

Bass, a six-term congresswoman and the early frontrunner in the race, had a solid lead over developer Rick Caruso on Wednesday, as the latest vote tallies by the county registrar’s office showed her ahead by 46,578 votes, or 6-percentage points.

After some initial back-and-forth in terms of who was ahead on election night, Bass pulled ahead of her opponent last Friday and has led since, widening her lead with each successive update from the registrar’s office.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Bass had received 403,427 (53.06%) of the votes counted whereas Caruso had captured 356,849 (46.94%) of the votes.

She increased her overall lead by another 10,229 votes (1 percentage point) between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Of the 46,339 ballots processed Wednesday, 61% of the votes went to Bass — in line with the vote breakdowns of the past few updates.

Neither campaign immediately responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

On Monday, the congresswoman said she was “honored and grateful for the support we are continuing to see.”

In an email to supporters Tuesday morning, Caruso’s campaign thanked them for their patience “as we continue to wait for the final election results,”

“We want to make sure every vote counts,” the campaign said before providing instructions on how voters can track the status of their mail-in ballot and how to correct issues like forgetting to sign one’s signature on the vote-by-mail envelope by Dec. 3 “to make sure your vote counts.”

At least a few political observers have now said it would be difficult for Caruso to win at this point.

The later vote-by-mail ballots that the registrar’s office is now tabulating tend to come from Democrats and younger voters, ages 18-34, who are inclined to support more progressive candidates, data analyst Paul Mitchell, vice president of Political Data Inc., said this week.

Data suggest Bass will only see her lead grow, he added.

The candidates saw a similar pattern play out during the June primary election.

Back then, Bass trailed Caruso by 5 percentage points in early returns but ultimately landed atop the leader board 7 points ahead as later vote-by-mail ballots were counted.

The registrar’s office is expected to provide daily election results updates through Saturday.

Before joining the Los Angeles Daily News in 2020, Linh Tat covered K-12 and higher education as a statehouse reporter for POLITICO New Jersey. Linh started her career in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she worked as a night cops, city hall and education reporter for Bay Area News Group. After moving to the East Coast, she joined The Record newspaper in New Jersey in 2011. There, she was introduced to the world of Superfund sites while covering several municipalities and also spent time covering state and federal courts. Linh is a product of California’s public school system and attended UCLA. Linh returned to her home state of California in 2019.