Levi Strauss Heir Daniel Lurie To Join 2024 San Francisco Mayoral Race

According to new reports released on Monday, non-profit founder and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune Daniel Lurie is joining the 2024 San Francisco Mayoral election, becoming the third major candidate to declare a run for the office next year.

Lurie, a graduate of both Duke University and UC Berkeley, first began his political career in 2000 by working for the presidential campaign of former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley. Following that, Lurie turned towards non-profits, first working for the Robin Hood Foundation in New York in the early 2000’s before forming his own  non-profit, Tipping Point Community, in San Francisco in 2005. As CEO of the non-profit, Lurie focused it towards education, housing, employment, and family wellness in the Bay Area.

By the late 2010’s, Lurie had steered Tipping Point towards combatting homelessness, even raising $100 million in helping erase homelessness in San Francisco. It was also during this time that then-mayor Ed Lee selected him to head the San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl Bid Committee, with Lurie ultimately being successful in luring Super Bowl L to the Bay area. His wife, Becca Prowda, also received political appointments in the late 2010’s, being named the Director of Protocol by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019.

Since stepping down as CEO of Tipping Point in 2020, Lurie has backed more non-profits in the city, such as the arts-based Civic Joy Fund, and has looked into running for office. Since the beginning of 2023, Lurie has been meeting with others regarding a possible run for office, has been building up staff, and has been working with political consultants at Thematic Campaigns for a possible bid. On Monday, reports finally indicated that Lurie would likely be joining in the race soon, creating a wider race for one of the most anticipated elections in California next year.

The 2024 Mayoral race is to be the first such election happening in the city since 2019, when London Breed won with 70% of the vote against two other challengers. This will also be Breed’s third such Mayoral election, having won in both 2019 and the special election in 2018 to fill the term left by the death of Ed Lee who had died in office in 2017. 2024 is noted to be especially important because crime, drug use, police expansion, homelessness, affordable housing, an emptying downtown, and the exodus of both businesses and residents have plagued the city since the last election. Breed’s support has gone down since 2019 given the compounding problems, with attempted fixes proving to be ineffective at best, and exacerbating the problems at worst.

Must read for anyone that wants to better understand the chaotic/violent open air drug dealing that has exploded here in SF and caused so much pain and death. Stellar reporting from @meganrcassidy and photojournalism from @gabriellelurie (no relation) of the@sfchronicle https://t.co/cgaZMm7wsb

— Daniel Lurie (@DanielLurie) July 11, 2023

“To Breed’s credit, she has been trying,” explained political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe on Tuesday. “But, to her detriment, nothing seems to be working. And there is worry there. San Francisco residents are, to put it mildly, angry at leadership in the city, and have been doing everything they can to right the ship. Elections at the city and county level have been venomous, and they have even had successful recalls against school board members and the district attorney in the last few years. They aren’t afraid to make the hard decisions, and for Breed, this is terrifying.”

More candidates in the 2024 race

With Lurie now all but confirmed to be in the race, he will be joining both Breed and Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who had announced their intention to run in May. Other Supervisors joining in the race are also likely, as are other lawmakers. In particular, Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) has been named as a likely challenger, albeit with no official announcement on a run as of yet. Lurie’s background of periphery political jobs and appointments, as well as his non-profit background in areas such as housing and homelessness have been noted by commentators as a possible alternative to the usual candidates with prior elected experience. However, many have also noted his ‘old money’ ties to the city as a likely detriment.

“Lurie is old money. Old Democratic money,” added Lee. “For voters wanting change, picking the rich guy doesn’t appeal to many. He does have a track record of helping alleviate the homeless problem and would likely push a lot of solutions to the big issues in the city. But he’s also representative of what many resident’s can’t stand. Being part of either that old money network or the Newsom political machine. Breed has strong ties to Newsom, and so does Lurie. Newsom would not have picked his wife for an appointment if there was anything negative there.

“When he announces, he absolutely should not lean on the ‘outsider’ label, as he is anything but. He may not have had elected experience, but, to many, he will still seem to be part of that political machine. He should focus on his non-profit work a lot and focus on his successes in that. He might also want to hit the sidewalks and go to some of these downtrodden districts. He needs to get rid of that elite air around him, and the best thing is to go back to his non-profit roots and find what the problems are at the ground level, something Breed has tried but failed to do.”

More candidates are expected to join the race soon.