Levi's heir sews up win over San Francisco Mayor Breed

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Daniel Lurie, heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, defeated incumbent London Breed to become mayor of San Francisco with just over 56% of the vote so far, according to the San Francisco Department of Elections on Thursday.

“I’m deeply grateful to my incredible family, campaign team, and every San Franciscan who voted for accountability, service, and change,” wrote the mayor-elect in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Although Lurie seized 28% in early results compared to Breed’s 24.6%, both centrist Democrats urged patience while officials tallied the votes.

San Francisco uses ranked choice voting, which counts the second- and third-choice picks of voters who selected other candidates and takes more time to finalize. After 13 rounds of eliminations, Breed and Lurie were the only candidates left after election night.

Lurie did, however, release a triumphantly worded post on X early Wednesday, thanking his supporters.

“After years of record-high budgets, worse outcomes, and more excuses, San Franciscans are ready for change,” he tweeted and posted on his official website.

The city has one month after election night to finalize the count. According to The New York Times, 48% of the votes have been reported as of Thursday afternoon.

Before he entered the mayoral race last fall, Lurie wasn’t a well-known name to San Francisco voters. The Levi’s heir has never held public office before and was previously best known as the founder of the anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point, based in the city.

During the race, Lurie branded himself as a political outsider and the preeminent dark horse, promising to tackle the city’s biggest issues, including the drug crisis, homelessness, housing affordability and political corruption.

In what was already the most expensive mayoral race in San Francisco’s history, Lurie spent more than $8.4 million of his own money on his campaign. He was also backed by sizable donations from his mother, Mimi Haas, who contributed an additional $1 million to his campaign, and an independent committee prepared to back him with millions more.

Breed conceded the win to Lurie in a post on X Thursday.

“At the end of the day, this job is bigger than any one person and what matters is that we keep moving this City forward,” she tweeted.

Breed also said she called Lurie to congratulate him on the win.

Courthouse News reached out to the Lurie campaign for further comment but has not received a reply.

Breed was elected in 2018. She became the first Black woman to serve as the mayor of San Francisco, a position she filled after the unexpected death of Mayor Ed Lee. She won reelection to a full term in 2019.

Although Breed touted her achievements of reducing homeless encampments and furthering programs to revitalize the downtown, her struggles with the ongoing crises of drugs, homelessness and retail crime provided ample material for her opponents to seize on during the election.

In September, a corruption scandal in her administration created further criticism after reports surfaced that the director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission was improperly spending public funds.

The new mayor is expected to be sworn in Jan. 8, 2025.