Jurado Declares Victory Over De Leon In Los Angeles City Council Seat

Tenants rights attorney and Los Angeles City Council candidate Ysabel Jurado declared victory on Thursday in the Council’s 14th district race over scandal-ridden incumbent Kevin de Leon. with de Leon not yet conceding as of Friday.

For months, the race had been very competitive, thanks to de Leon’s decades of scandals and gaffes. This has included illegally ghost voting in the Assembly,  voting for bills where companies that backed him before benefited, called much of the state “Tumbleweeds”, not knowing the pledge of allegiance, and perhaps most infamously, made multiple racist remarks in a scandal that resulted in two Councilmembers having to leave office and de Leon barely staying on.

Despite 60% of his constituents against him and continued calls for his resignation, he decided to run for reelection in 2024. He still had a massive block of support stemming from goodwill from decades in the past, but now, he was more politically vulnerable than ever. Jurado, running against him, actually beat him in the primary 25% to 24%, leading to the November run off. However, the race has since settled in to a dead heat, with many residents turned off by her more progressive leanings. Many in the district are upset that the two candidates are a far-left progressive who wants to shift money from the LAPD to other areas and a scandal-ridden lawmaker who has somehow remained in office for what most other politicians would have been  the end of their careers.

However, the race made national headlines late last month when Jurado, speaking to young supporters at CSU Los Angeles, was answering questions about police spending. When a question came about police overtime funding from a student who said “As someone who is myself pro-abolishment of police, where do you stand on that spectrum?”, Jurado responded by saying “What’s the rap verse? F— the police, that’s how I see them. The city’s budget is broken, with the LAPD funded more than it’s actually ever been funded before.”

The comment was met with immediate backlash from police unions and citizens groups. The LAPPL, normally on the quiet side of things during election season, brought out a full ad blitz against Jurado, with de Leon getting a massive eleventh hour boost of support. De Leon also surged as a result. She refused to apologize, and as a result, most people gave de Leon the edge in the race.

Election night told a different story. Upending all pollster predictions, Jurado steamed ahead, with the latest results showing Jurado ahead 33,350 votes to 26,442 votes, or roughly 56% to 44%. While the vote is too early that outlets aren’t even close to calling the race, Jurado nonetheless declared victory on Thursday.

“Today, I am humbled to officially declare victory in the race for Los Angeles City Council District 14. This win is not mine—it belongs to our community,” said Jurado in an Instagram statement on Thursday. “It was the community that made their voices loud and clear: Trumpism has no place in CD-14 – and we proved that by resoundingly rejecting the divisive tactics deployed by our opponent – tactics adopted directly from the Trump playbook.

“Our campaign flower is an orchid. It is the resilient nature of an orchid that allows them to thrive in diverse environments if they are properly cared for that mirrors our own journey and the story of CD 14. Despite being abandoned by our leadership, despite the challenges thrown our way, like the orchid we have managed to stand strong.”

Jurado declares victory

In addition to no one else calling the race as of Friday morning, de Leon has yet to concede or even respond to Jurado’s announcement. However, should the results hold and he is officially ousted, it will mark the first time in his career that he will have lost reelection to any position. While he has lost numerous elections in the past, such as U.S. Senate in 2018 and Los Angeles Mayor in 2022, he has never been voted out of office before.

“These results, as well as her declaring victory, was not how we had been tracking it,” explained LA County pollster Manny Rodriguez to the Globe on Friday. “What likely happened was that so many people voted early before her remarks, and they couldn’t switch them as they were locked in. If Jurado is officially the winner, that is likely the reason, on top of all his scandals and everything. Jurado appears to have gotten lucky. But only she has declared victory so far, and yesterday’s announcement still can be a ‘Dewey defeats Truman’ moment for her.”

A Jurado victory would also likely not affect the LAPD all too much, as most of the rest of the City Council supports LAPD expansion in one way or another.

“Oh yeah, Jurado likely won’t be able to do anything there,” added Rodriguez. “Bass can override a lot of things, and the Council knows how important public safety is. They don’t want to be known as the next San Francisco. Plus, with Gascon gone now, and Hochman likely to reverse a lot of things he did, the LAPD will be more effective. That means more support their way and less people wanting to go into Hurado’s stances.

“Again, this is just an extreme candidate managing to, should these results stay in her favor, beat an incumbent because of a history of major scandals, then overcoming one herself. Early voting really helped her out here.”

More results in the district are due to be up by 4 P.M. on Friday.