2022 Los Angeles mayoral election

The 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the mayor of Los Angeles, California. A top-two primary was held on June 7, 2022. Candidates could win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote, but no candidate received a majority. More than forty candidates formed committees to run. Twenty-seven filed their declaration of intention to collect signatures for the ballot, and of these twelve qualified.

Source: Wikipedia

Article

2022 Los Angeles mayoral election

Incumbent Mayor Eric Garcetti was ineligible to seek a third term due to term limits but was serving an extended second term due to a law moving election dates from an "off-year election" to a midterm and statewide election year. In July 2021, Garcetti was nominated to become United States Ambassador to India. If Garcetti left office before his mayoral term ended, the Los Angeles City Council would have appointed an interim replacement to finish the remainder of that term. This nomination was stalled in the Senate, leaving Garcetti to finish his term.

U.S. Representative Karen Bass and real estate developer Rick Caruso advanced to the general election. On November 16, Bass was declared the winner.

There were a total of 2,120,515 registered voters within the city of Los Angeles and 1,018,139 votes received as of November 22, 2022 as of the last update; there were 15,105 ballots outstanding within Los Angeles County. The election was nonpartisan, as are all local elections in California.

Candidates

Advanced to general election

• Karen Bass, U.S. Representative from California's 37th congressional district and former Speaker of the California State Assembly • Rick Caruso, CEO of Caruso Affiliated, developer of The Grove at Farmers Market and The Americana at Brand, president of the University of Southern California board of trustees, former president of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, and former member of the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power and the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission

Eliminated in primary

• Kevin de León, city councilmember from the 14th district, candidate for the US Senate in (/wiki/2018USSenateelectioninCalifornia) and former President pro tempore of the California State Senate • Craig Greiwe, business executive • Alex Gruenenfelder Smith, Echo Park neighborhood councilman • John "Jsamuel" Jackson, business owner • Andrew Kim, lawyer • Gina Viola, community organizer/activist • Mel Wilson, real estate agent and former Metro board member

Disqualified

• Louis De Barraicua, teacher and self-described homeless advocate • Barry "Boenvilla" Boen, CEO of SilentRight • Chuck Cho • YJ Draiman, former Northridge East Neighborhood Councilmember and father of David Draiman • Austin Dragon, veteran and education advocate • Sean Enright, construction worker • Jesse N. Forte, self-described astronaut • Chris Gilmore, business owner • Jesseca Harvey, business administrative consultant • Evan Jasek, web developer • G. Juan Johnson, housing advocate (write-in) • Juanita Lopez, businesswoman • Alicia Tashaunna Lowery, children's social worker • Asher Luzzatto, developer • William "Rodriguez" Morrison, community organizer and perennial candidate (write-in) • Jemiss Nazar, chiropractor • Vincent "King Spider-D" Willis, community activist

Withdrawn

• Joseph May, urban designer, artist, and entrepreneur • Helan Mahmood, co-founder of fashion brand Don Kaka • Jessica Lall, business executive (endorsed Caruso) • Joe Buscaino, city councilmember from the 15th district and former LAPD officer (remained on ballot; endorsed Caruso) • Mike Feuer, Los Angeles City Attorney and former state assemblyman from the 42nd district (remained on ballot; endorsed Bass) • Ramit Varma, co-founder of Revolution Prep (remained on ballot; endorsed Caruso)

Declined

• Austin Beutner, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District and 2013 mayoral candidate • Mike Bonin, city councilmember from the 11th district • Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company • Paul Krekorian, city councilmember from the 2nd district and former state assemblyman from the 43rd district • Steve Lopez, journalist • Nury Martinez, President of the Los Angeles City Council from the 6th district • Mark Ridley-Thomas, suspended city councilmember from the 10th district and former Los Angeles County Supervisor

Primary

Campaign

Bass launching her bid for mayor at LATTC, 2021.

With an open race for mayor, Karen Bass announced that she would retire from Congress and run for Los Angeles mayor. Bass was widely seen as the favorite frontrunner with other moderates and progressives polling much lower and divided amongst themselves. The wide lead led to speculation that Bass would have been able to avoid a runoff all together. Real estate developer Rick Caruso had announced that he would run after speculation in past races and polled in the single digits. However, during the spring of 2022, Caruso saw a surge of support rivaling that of Bass.

As the primary neared, many prominent candidates dropped out and endorsed the two frontrunners, Bass representing the progressive element of the race and Caruso representing the moderate element. This had been shown with two former mayoral candidates: Joe Buscaino, a City Councilmember, endorsed Caruso, and Mike Feuer, the Los Angeles City Attorney, endorsed Bass. Councilmember Kevin de León also had significant support but lagged behind Bass and Caruso, and ultimately did not advance to the general election.

Debates

On December 12, 2021, the Stonewall Democratic Club hosted a forum with candidates Bass, Feuer, Lall, and Greiwe. Buscaino and de León cancelled last minute due to scheduling conflicts. On February 22, 2022, Loyola Marymount University alongside Spectrum News 1 hosted the first formal debate between candidates, with Caruso absent because of a scheduling issue. During the debate, protesters started heckling them, resulting in them attempting to rush the stage near the end of the debate.

On March 22, 2022, FOX 11 along with the Los Angeles Times hosted a debate at the University of Southern California with Bass, Buscaino, Caruso, de León, and Feuer. Although most of the other candidates attacked Caruso, many people said that Caruso had won the debate.

Professor and civil leader Melina Abdullah is removed from the Los Angeles 2022 Mayoral election debate

On April 28, 2022, ABC7 announced that they would be hosting a debate at California State University, Los Angeles with the top five leading candidates. In response to the list, candidates Craig Greiwe, Alex Gruenenfelder Smith, Gina Viola, and Mel Wilson criticized their exclusion at the debates and the organizers. Candidate Ramit Varma later released a statement criticizing his exclusion at debates. During the Sunday debate, police removed Melina Abdullah, a professor at Cal State LA and Black Lives Matter founder, as well as other protesters from the room as they did not have a tickets to the event.

The issues talked at the debates were homelessness, the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, crime, and climate change.

Mayoral debates and forums

<table><thead><tr><th>2022 Los Angeles mayoral election primary debates and forums</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Date</td><td>Host</td><td>Moderator(s)</td><td>Link</td><td>Participants</td><td>Ref.</td></tr><tr><td>Key: P Participant A Absent N Non-invitee W Withdrew O Not yet entered race </td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Bass</td><td>Buscaino</td><td>Caruso</td><td>de León</td><td>Feuer</td><td>Greiwe</td><td>Gruenenfelder</td><td>Lall</td><td>Varma</td><td>Viola</td><td>Wilson</td></tr><tr><td>December 12, 2021</td><td>Stonewall Democrats of California Minority AIDS Project National Association of Black Journalists</td><td>Jarrett Hill Tanya McRae</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>A</td><td>O</td><td>A</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>February 19, 2022</td><td>Heart of Los Angeles Invest In Youth Coalition</td><td>Kelvin Washington</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>W</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>February 22, 2022</td><td>Loyola Marymount University Spectrum News 1</td><td>Fernando Guerra Giselle Fernández</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>A</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>March 15, 2022</td><td>Los Angeles Business Council Spectrum News 1</td><td>Alex Cohen</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>A</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>March 21, 2022</td><td>Temple Beth Hillel</td><td>Erika D. Smith</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>March 22, 2022</td><td>FOX 11 University of Southern California Los Angeles Times</td><td>Elex Michaelson Erika D. Smith</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>March 26, 2022</td><td>National Union of Healthcare Workers Courage California</td><td>Sophia Mendoza Irene Khao</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>April 12, 2022</td><td>Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters ABC7</td><td>Josh Haskell</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>April 30, 2022</td><td>Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance</td><td>Andrew Menor</td><td></td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>May 1, 2022</td><td>League of Women Voters California State University, Los Angeles ABC7</td><td>Marc Brown</td><td></td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>May 16, 2022</td><td>Los Angeles Latino Equity and Diversity Initiative</td><td>Gabriel Lerner Claudia Batera</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>W</td><td>A</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>May 18, 2022</td><td>University of California, Los Angeles</td><td>Bineh Ndefru</td><td>Video</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>W</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td>A</td><td>P</td><td>P</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>May 20, 2022</td><td>Los Angeles Times KCRW</td><td>Anna Scott Gustavo Arellano</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>A</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>May 24, 2022</td><td>ICM Partners Politico</td><td>Jeremy B. White</td><td></td><td>P</td><td>A</td><td>P</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td>W</td><td>N</td><td>N</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

Polling

<table><thead><tr><th>Poll source</th><th>Date(s) administered</th><th>Sample size</th><th>Margin of error</th><th>Karen Bass</th><th>Joe Buscaino</th><th>Rick Caruso</th><th>Kevin de León</th><th>Mike Feuer</th><th>Other</th><th>Undecided</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Berkeley IGS</td><td>May 24–31, 2022</td><td>1,204 (RV)</td><td>± 2.9%</td><td>25%</td><td>0%</td><td>23%</td><td>6%</td><td>3%</td><td>8%</td><td>35%</td></tr><tr><td>816 (LV)</td><td>± 3.5%</td><td>38%</td><td>1%</td><td>32%</td><td>6%</td><td>3%</td><td>4%</td><td>15%</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>May 24, 2022</td><td>Varma drops out and endorses Caruso</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>May 17, 2022</td><td>Feuer drops out and endorses Bass</td></tr><tr><td>FM3 Research (D)</td><td>May 13–17, 2022</td><td>798 (LV)</td><td>± 3.1%</td><td>35%</td><td>1%</td><td>37%</td><td>6%</td><td>6%</td><td>6%</td><td>10%</td></tr><tr><td>David Binder Research (D)</td><td>May 12–16, 2022</td><td>500 (LV)</td><td>± 4.4%</td><td>34%</td><td>–</td><td>32%</td><td>7%</td><td>–</td><td>5%</td><td>17%</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>May 12, 2022</td><td>Buscaino drops out and endorses Caruso</td></tr><tr><td>EVITARUS (D)</td><td>May 2022</td><td>– (LV)</td><td>–</td><td>30%</td><td>2%</td><td>28%</td><td>–</td><td>3%</td><td>–</td><td>–</td></tr><tr><td>Berkeley IGS</td><td>March 29 – April 5, 2022</td><td>1,380 (LV)</td><td>± 3.5%</td><td>23%</td><td>1%</td><td>24%</td><td>6%</td><td>2%</td><td>6%</td><td>39%</td></tr><tr><td>Berkeley IGS</td><td>February 3–10, 2022</td><td>1,446 (LV)</td><td>± 4.0%</td><td>32%</td><td>4%</td><td>8%</td><td>8%</td><td>4%</td><td>4%</td><td>40%</td></tr><tr><td>Loyola Marymount University</td><td>January 4 – February 10, 2022</td><td>1,000 (A)</td><td>± 3.1%</td><td>14%</td><td>7%</td><td>6%</td><td>12%</td><td>6%</td><td>9%</td><td>46%</td></tr><tr><td>815 (RV)</td><td>± 3.4%</td><td>16%</td><td>8%</td><td>6%</td><td>12%</td><td>7%</td><td>10%</td><td>42%</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>February 8, 2022</td><td>Lall drops out</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>September 16, 2021</td><td>Martinez announces she will not run</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>August 16, 2021</td><td>Ridley-Thomas announces he will not run and endorses Bass</td></tr><tr><td>FM3 Research (D)</td><td>July 29 – August 5, 2021</td><td>803 (LV)</td><td>± 3.5%</td><td>22%</td><td>5%</td><td>6%</td><td>6%</td><td>4%</td><td>12%</td><td>45%</td></tr></tbody></table>

Results

Results map by precinct (Interactive version) Bass Caruso de León Others

<table><thead><tr><th>Candidate</th><th>Votes</th><th>%</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Karen Bass</td><td>278,511</td><td>43.11</td></tr><tr><td>Rick Caruso</td><td>232,490</td><td>35.99</td></tr><tr><td>Kevin de León</td><td>50,372</td><td>7.79</td></tr><tr><td>Gina Viola</td><td>44,341</td><td>6.86</td></tr><tr><td>Mike Feuer (withdrawn)</td><td>12,087</td><td>1.87</td></tr><tr><td>Andrew Kim</td><td>9,405</td><td>1.46</td></tr><tr><td>Alex Gruenenfelder Smith</td><td>6,153</td><td>0.95</td></tr><tr><td>Joe Buscaino (withdrawn)</td><td>4,485</td><td>0.69</td></tr><tr><td>Craig Greiwe</td><td>2,439</td><td>0.38</td></tr><tr><td>Mel Wilson</td><td>2,336</td><td>0.36</td></tr><tr><td>Ramit Varma (withdrawn)</td><td>1,916</td><td>0.30</td></tr><tr><td>John "Jsamuel" Jackson</td><td>1,511</td><td>0.23</td></tr><tr><td>Total votes</td><td>646,058</td><td>100.00</td></tr></tbody></table>

Runoff

Debates

<table><thead><tr><th>No.</th><th>Date</th><th>Host</th><th>Moderator</th><th>Link</th><th>Participants</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Key: P Participant A Absent N Non-invitee I Invitee W Withdrawn</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Karen Bass</td><td>Rick Caruso</td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>Sept. 21, 2022</td><td>Los Angeles Times</td><td>Elex Michelson, Erika Smith, Gabriela Teissier</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>P</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Oct. 6, 2022</td><td>KNX</td><td>Charles Feldman, Mike Simpson</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>P</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Oct. 11, 2022</td><td>NBC4 and Telemundo52</td><td>Conan Nolan, Colleen Williams, Dunia Elvir</td><td>Video</td><td>P</td><td>P</td></tr></tbody></table>

Endorsements

Endorsements in bold were made after the primary election.

Polling

<table><thead><tr><th>Poll source</th><th>Date(s) administered</th><th>Sample size</th><th>Margin of error</th><th>Karen Bass</th><th>Rick Caruso</th><th>Undecided</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>UC Berkeley IGS</td><td>October 25–31, 2022</td><td>1,131 (LV)</td><td>± 4%</td><td>45%</td><td>41%</td><td>13%</td></tr><tr><td>J. Wallin Opinion Research</td><td>October 15–17, 2022</td><td>400 (LV)</td><td>± 4.9%</td><td>37%</td><td>40%</td><td>24%</td></tr><tr><td>UC Berkeley IGS</td><td>September 22–26, 2022</td><td>1,349 (LV)</td><td>± 4.0%</td><td>46%</td><td>31%</td><td>23%</td></tr><tr><td>1,688 (RV)</td><td>± 3.5%</td><td>34%</td><td>31%</td><td>31%</td></tr><tr><td>Probolsky Research</td><td>September 19–25, 2022</td><td>500 (LV)</td><td>± 4.5%</td><td>48%</td><td>42%</td><td>10%</td></tr><tr><td>Global Strategy Group</td><td>August 2022</td><td>– (LV)</td><td>–</td><td>43%</td><td>37%</td><td>20%</td></tr><tr><td>FM3 Research (D)</td><td>August 2022</td><td>– (LV)</td><td>–</td><td>49%</td><td>38%</td><td>13%</td></tr><tr><td>UC Berkeley IGS</td><td>August 9–15, 2022</td><td>1,746 (RV)</td><td>± 2.5%</td><td>43%</td><td>31%</td><td>24%</td></tr><tr><td>1,212 (LV)</td><td>± 3.0%</td><td>53%</td><td>32%</td><td>14%</td></tr><tr><td>UC Berkeley IGS</td><td>May 24–31, 2022</td><td>1,204 (RV)</td><td>± 2.9%</td><td>37%</td><td>33%</td><td>30%</td></tr><tr><td>816 (LV)</td><td>± 3.5%</td><td>49%</td><td>35%</td><td>16%</td></tr><tr><td>FM3 Research (D)</td><td>May 13–17, 2022</td><td>798 (LV)</td><td>± 3.1%</td><td>48%</td><td>39%</td><td>13%</td></tr></tbody></table>

Results

<table><thead><tr><th>Candidate</th><th>Votes</th><th>%</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Karen Bass</td><td>506,372</td><td>54.82%</td></tr><tr><td>Rick Caruso</td><td>417,375</td><td>45.18%</td></tr><tr><td>Total votes</td><td>923,747</td><td>100.00</td></tr></tbody></table>