Former San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell Announces 2024 Run For San Francisco Mayor

Former San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell announced on Tuesday that he will be running for the Mayor of San Francisco this November, joining a small list of candidates including current Mayor London Breed, Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, and Supervisor Ahsha Safai.

Farrell, a graduate of Loyola Marymount University and the University of Pennsylvania, began his career as a lawyer and investment banker for several Silicon Valley firms in the 2000’s. In 2010, he began his political career, elected as a Supervisor. Reelected again in 2014, Farrell became known as a strong gun control advocate, known as the Supervisor who helped the last gun store be kicked out of the city. Overall Farrell had a mixed record, doubling the size of San Francisco’s homeless outreach team and being part of a committee bringing the Super Bowl to the region in 2016, while also being part of a huge ethics probe in 2016 which found him receiving $191,000 in unlawful campaign funding.

Despite the ethics issues, in January 2018, Farrell was selected by the Board of Supervisors to replace then acting Mayor London Breed for a Mayoral term lasting until July 2018, following the June special election. Farrell’s short stint as Mayor was largely uneventful, which found him not even in the running for the June special election. With Breed winning the special election, Farrell left and didn’t return to public office. Since leaving office, he has taken a harder-line stance on crime and was rumored to be thinking of a run for Mayor. Those changing beliefs, as well as numerous other issues, brought Farrell back into the running to be Mayor again on Tuesday, announcing that he will be challenging Breed and the others in November. As the election will be a ranked-choice vote rather than a jungle primary vote, there will be no primary, with all candidates appearing in the general election.

“I am running for my family and for families across San Francisco. I am running for Mayor because I am the only candidate with the right experience, policies, and track record of leadership inside of City Hall to turn San Francisco around,” said Farrell at a press conference on Tuesday. “People don’t feel safe, the conditions of our streets have never been worse, downtown has collapsed, and we’re the butt of jokes across America. San Francisco cannot afford another four years of Mayor Breed. I will be a bold and decisive leader that makes San Francisco a place we are all proud to call home again.”

“San Francisco faces enormous challenges and over three-fourths of voters believe the City is on the wrong track. Under five years of failed leadership from Mayor Breed, public safety and crime have become the consistent top concerns of voters, tent encampments and overdose deaths have skyrocketed, entire neighborhoods are being held hostage by drug dealers, downtown office vacancies are the highest ever recorded while our economic recovery is one of the slowest in the nation, and the City faces a nearly $1 billion structural budget deficit.

“I am running on a vision for San Francisco where people feel safe, families are a priority, and the sidewalks belong to everyone, and for a City that is vibrant and thriving economically in all neighborhoods.”

In a message on X, Farrell added, “I’m running for Mayor for my family & for families across San Francisco. Over the past 5 years, I’ve watched our beloved City crumble. I have a clear vision for a safer, cleaner, & more vibrant San Francisco.”

I'm running for Mayor for my family & for families across San Francisco.

Over the past 5 years, I’ve watched our beloved City crumble.

I have a clear vision for a safer, cleaner, & more vibrant San Francisco.

Join our campaign today: https://t.co/PuUndDsCia pic.twitter.com/BoeCKaVLOc

— Mark Farrell (@MarkFarrellSF) February 13, 2024

While focused in many areas, Farrell is heavily promoting great support in public departments and police services. This includes hiring a new police chief, no more budget cuts to public safety departments like the SFPD, increasing police staffing, and instituting a zero-tolerance policy for all crimes in the city.

“Chief Bill Scott is a good man, but San Francisco needs a much more aggressive head of our police department.”

In addition Farrell made other promises, such as removing all tent encampments in the city in his first year of office, launch a 24/7 centralized intake center in the first 100 days in office that helps homeless individuals get off the streets, audit all homeless spending, Create new tax incentives and programs across the City’s economic engines, Exempt every small business making less than $5 million in gross receipts from paying business taxes to support small businesses, and reopening Market Street back up to cars.

Maggie Muir, a political consultant for Breed, said on Tuesday that Farrell disappeared for many years while Breed was the one who stuck by and dealt with all the problems of the city.

“It’s easy to run but it’s hard to lead,” said Muir. “Mayor Breed is the one who’s had to make the tough decisions, leading the city through the pandemic and its aftermath, while the others were nowhere to be found.”

However experts told the Globe that those decisions are precisely why so many are now opposing her.

“Breed has been trying, but her administration also pushed a lot of people like Farrell and Supervisors away,” explained political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe on Tuesday. “That’s why we are seeing candidates be much more tough on crime and reversing these years, or in some cases, decades worth of liberal policies. They aren’t working. So we are seeing a lot of tough but compassionate stances now. Like on homelessness. A lot of lawmakers in the city are now thinking “Hey, no more tents, we won’t tolerate drug use anymore, but we’ll help you through it or send you to another place if you want.”

“Or on crime. I mean, San Francisco is going to see crime really fought on in the late 202os it looks like. It started with DA Chesa Boudin being recalled a few years ago. And now we have more police hiring and serious candidates saying that they want zero tolerance on breaking laws now. With Farrell in spouting all these things, this will be a very interesting election.”

More on the 2024 San Francisco Mayoral election is due out soon.