Levi Strauss Heir Daniel Lurie Elected San Francisco Mayor

San Francisco Mayor London Breed conceded the San Francisco Mayoral election on Thursday, with Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie finally garnering enough votes in the ranked-choice system to win the race.

Previous polls have shown a close race between former Mayor Mark Farrell and Breed. In the first poll released in February, Farrell was up by two points with 20% against Breed’s 18%, followed by Lurie with 16% and Supervisor Ahsha Safai with 8%. However, the addition of San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin entering the race in April shook things up. Despite sinking in popularity polls, the controversial Peskin allowed Breed to move up in the next Mayoral polls.

Since then, it has been a huge back and forth between Farrell and Breed. Breed had a narrow lead in May polling, with Farrell retaking the lead in June, only for Breed to come back in July and August. According to the last two polls conducted in early August and mid-August, Breed was narrowly ahead of Farrell in a one on one matchup in the former, with Lurie actually outscoring Farrell in ranked choice, who ultimately lost to Breed in a 52% to 48% showing. Polls in September showed Farrell moving back up, but thanks to a late election push of new homeless initiatives and crackdowns on encampments, Breed was out to a narrow 51% lead by late September.

However, October has brought on a late surge by Lurie. Pouring $8 million into his campaign, Lurie outspent the other candidates in the past month. While initially making waves over issues like public safety and homelessness, Lurie has focused on the economy and small businesses as of late, as well as going directly after both Breed and Farrell. And with those two having been so focused on each other for most of the year so far, Lurie came out strong. In a poll in early October, Lurie managed to defeat Breed in the final vote in the ranked choice system, 53% to 47%. By late October it had grown to 56%-44%.

This led to the election on Tuesday. Throughout the night, Lurie’s lead grew. By Wednesday morning he was 7,000 up over Breed and 14,000 up over the next nearest candidate, Peskin. As more votes came in on Wednesday and Thursday, Lurie’s lead only grew further. When the next update came on Thursday afternoon, Lurie had, as polls predicted, 56% of the final vote, or 108,142 votes. Breed, meanwhile, had only 83,800 votes. Deemed enough of a gap, Breed conceded the election to Lurie shortly after those numbers were released on Thursday.

“Being Mayor of San Francisco has been the greatest honor of my lifetime,” said Breed in her concession on Thursday. “I’m beyond grateful to our residents for the opportunity to serve the City that raised me. When I first took office in the middle of the night, back in 2017 when Mayor Ed Lee passed, I didn’t know what lay ahead. But I answered the call and always gave San Francisco and its people my heart and soul.”

“Today, I called Daniel Lurie and congratulated him on his victory in this election.”

Meanwhile, Lurie released his own statement, thanking voters for his dark horse victory.

“I’m deeply grateful to my incredible family, campaign team, and every San Franciscan who voted for accountability, service, and change. No matter who you supported in this election, we stand united in the fight for San Francisco’s future and a safer, more affordable city for all,” expressed Lurie.

Lurie’s come from behind victory over Breed and Farrell surprised many on Thursday, as only a month ago Lurie was still polling in third place.

“It was an incredible run in the last month for Lurie,” said political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe on Thursday. “He and Peskin took advantage of Breed and Farrell going after each other. And Lurie built on that growing discontentment in San Francisco too. And, as a final stroke, we saw from exit polling that a lot of people who voted for Trump in San Francisco went with Lurie. It’s not a big contingent, but considering Trump had a rise in the last month two, it’s a bit of a parallel. Especially since Lurie is a rich businessman who never held public office before being elected to a major position. Where have we seen that before?

“This election shows just how much faith San Franciscans had in Breed and how she was running things. Breed was doing everything she could to stop Farrell and Lurie, but so many people just did not like the job she was doing. Look at her, Sheng Thao likely being recalled in Oakland, DAs in Alameda and LA being switched out, Trump getting an all-time high vote count in California and, right now, the Dems not flipping any House race in California and it shows this is a big year for those really wanting change.

“Lurie is a big part of that change, and we’ll see if the city improves under his leadership.”