Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, a nationally known Democrat and Los Angeles native, sailed into the city’s top office four years ago. Now, she’s fighting for re-election — a stunning turn for a leader who in 2020 was on the shortlist for vice president.
Here are five things to know about Ms. Bass, 72.
1. She has been a force in Los Angeles for decades. A grandmother, mother and former physician assistant, Ms. Bass rose as a community activist and county emergency room worker during the 1990s crack cocaine epidemic, when she and her ex-husband were raising four of his children and a child of their own. She won an Assembly seat in 2004. Two years later, her 23-year-old daughter died in a car crash, a loss that the mayor has said fundamentally shaped her. In 2008, she became speaker of the Assembly, and two years later won election to Congress, eventually leading the Congressional Black Caucus. When she became mayor in 2022, Ms. Bass beat a billionaire who had spent more than $100 million of his own money campaigning against her.
2. For two years, the city loved her. Her approval ratings held strong as Los Angeles staggered out of the pandemic. Her efforts to house occupants of squalid encampments that had overtaken parks and sidewalks yielded the first decline in unsheltered homelessness in years. Commuters cheered when she tapped state and federal connections to accelerate the reopening of a damaged downtown freeway. When she denounced Texas Republicans for sending busloads of migrants into the city during a tropical storm, the city’s liberal majority applauded. Crime rates fell.
3. Voters turned on her after the Palisades fire erupted. In January 2025, she left the country amid warnings of an incoming windstorm. While she was en route to the inauguration of the president of Ghana, a wildfire leveled Pacific Palisades, an affluent coastal enclave. Victims did not forgive her absence, and political opponents and right-wing media outlets amplified that anger. The billionaire she beat in 2022, Rick Caruso, tirelessly criticized her; President Trump bashed the city’s rebuilding efforts. Her support plummeted, particularly among white and coastal voters. Since then, she has struggled to rebound politically.
4. Challenges mounted after the Trump administration started a militarized crackdown on immigration. Immigrants make up more than 35 percent of the population in Los Angeles. Ms. Bass rose to defend them after federal agents in armored vehicles escalated raids on the city’s workplaces last year in search of undocumented people. When residents protested, the White House deployed thousands of federal troops into the city, confronting her with a military occupation in addition to a major disaster recovery.
5. Her handling of the raids improved her prospects, but incumbents are not doing well this year. After a standoff in MacArthur Park with the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ms. Bass’s approval ratings rebounded. But Pacific Palisades is still dotted with lawn signs calling for her resignation, and recent polls show her support among likely voters hovering below 30 percent. The local disgruntlement has fed into a national unease, particularly in Democratic-led cities, that has fueled calls for generational change and voting out establishment politicians.
Shawn Hubler is The Times’s Los Angeles bureau chief, reporting on the news, trends and personalities of Southern California.
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