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Mayoral election in Los Angeles, California (2026)
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← 2022
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| 2026 Los Angeles elections |
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| Election dates |
| Filing deadline: Pending |
| General election: TBA |
| Election stats |
| Offices up: Mayor |
| Total seats up: 1 |
| Other municipal elections |
| U.S. municipal elections, 2026 |
As of September 1, 2025, incumbent Karen Bass and six others are running in the nonpartisan primary for mayor of Los Angeles, California, on June 2, 2026.
Bass was elected mayor on November 8, 2022, defeating real estate developer Rick Caruso 54.8% to 45.2%. Though the city's mayor is nonpartisan, Bass is a Democrat and ran as a progressive, focusing on issues of homelessness and affordable housing. Caruso, who registered as a Democrat in January 2022, after being registered as an independent and Republican, ran as a political outsider and anti-establishment Democrat.[1][2]
The Los Angeles Times' Julia Wick and David Zahniser wrote of Bass' re-election bid: "Bass appeared to be on the path to an easy reelection, with no serious challengers in sight after a relatively drama-free first two years in office. But that was before a wildfire annihilated swaths of Pacific Palisades, putting Bass’ leadership under a national microscope, and before the city slid into a major financial crisis, with Bass searching for cuts to close a nearly $1-billion budget gap."[3]
Bass, who was in Ghana at the start of the wildfires, faced criticism for her response to the wildfires, including her removal of Fire Chief Kristin Crowley.[3][4] The Recall Karen Bass Committee filed a notice of intention to recall on March 18, 2025, citing the wildfire response in addition to the following: "Underfunded & Overworked First responders, Small Businesses Are Struggling & Leaving LA, Failure to Address Homelessness with Real Solutions, Public Transit is Unsafe, [and] No Real Progress on Government Reform & Accountability."[5] The recall did not qualify for the ballot.[6]
The Westside Current's Jon Regardie wrote, "Bass has taken some hits and recovery won’t be easy, but she’s a veteran pol and has time to alter the narrative. It’s entirely possible that, by early 2026, L.A. sees more progress combatting homelessness, houses are sprouting across Palisades burn zones, and the city’s financial situation has improved."[7] Unlike in 2022, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing Los Angeles Police Department officers, endorsed Bass' re-election. In 2022, the union had endorsed Caruso.[3]
Pomona College Professor Sara Sadhwani said of Bass: "You’re only actually vulnerable if a viable candidate runs against you. Right now, we don’t see who that viable candidate would be."[3] According to Wick and Zahniser, the race will take a clearer shape once Caruso decides whether he is running again. An anonymous Democratic strategist told Wick and Zahniser, "The Rick of it all is freezing the field. Everybody’s waiting to see whether Rick [Caruso] runs."[3]
In Los Angeles, a candidate can win the election outright if they receive more than 50% of the vote in the primary. If no candidate does so, the top two vote getters advance to the general election. Since 1933, every open election for Los Angeles mayor has advanced to the general election.[8][9][10]
Los Angeles uses a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive. Los Angeles has term limits for the position of mayor. Those limits are: Two four-year terms.
On this page, you will find:
- Elections in Los Angeles in 2026
- Los Angeles' election history
- Mayoral partisanship in the top-100 cities
- Help inform our readers
- About the city of Los Angeles
Elections
Click on the tabs below to show more information about those topics.
Election history
2022
- Main article: Mayoral election in Los Angeles, California (2022)
Karen Bass defeated Rick Caruso in the nonpartisan general election for mayor of Los Angeles, California, on November 8, 2022. The candidates advanced from the June 7 primary election since neither received 50% of the vote. Incumbent Mayor Eric Garcetti could not run for re-election due to term limits.
Bass was first elected to public office in 2004 to serve in the California State Assembly. She served in the Assembly from 2005 to 2010 and was speaker from 2008 to 2010. Bass was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 and represented California's 37th Congressional District at the time of the mayoral election.[11] In a campaign ad, Bass said, "I’m running for mayor to meet today’s challenges: crime, homelessness, and the soaring cost of housing."[12]
Caruso was the founder and chief executive officer of a retail complex development company.[13] He also served on Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power Commission, as the president of Los Angeles’ Police Commission, and on the USC Board of Trustees.[14] In a campaign ad, Caruso said, "I’m running for mayor because the city we love is in a state of emergency: rampant homelessness, people living in fear for their safety, and politicians at city hall just in it for themselves."[15]
Though the election was officially nonpartisan, both candidates were registered Democrats. Caruso announced he changed his party registration from no party preference to Democrat in January 2022.[16] Bass had held elected office as a Democrat since 2005.
The New York Times' Jennifer Medina wrote that the race "has focused on voters’ worries about public safety and homelessness in the nation’s second-largest city" and could "become a test of whether voters this year favor an experienced politician who has spent nearly two decades in government or an outsider running on his business credentials."[17]
Speaking to Axios, Bass spokeswoman Anna Bahr said, "Voters have a choice in this race — between a billionaire real estate developer who has never built a single unit of affordable housing despite 50,000 people living on our streets, and a Black community organizer who has spent her life running toward this city's crises and solving them."[18]
Caruso Senior Advisor Peter Ragone said, "Los Angeles is in a crisis: Homeless, crime and corruption are uncontrolled. This is a moment for someone like Rick to come in and clean up City Hall."[18]
This was the first even-year election for Los Angeles mayor since the 2015 passage of Charter Amendment 1, which shifted city elections to even-numbered years beginning in 2020.
The city of Los Angeles uses a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.
Heading into 2022, the mayors of 63 of the country's 100 largest cities were affiliated with the Democratic Party. Republicans held 28 mayoral offices, independents held four, and five mayors were nonpartisan. One mayor's partisan affiliation was unknown. Heading into the election, Los Angeles had a Democratic mayor.
Candidates and election results
General election
General election for Mayor of Los Angeles
Karen Bass defeated Rick J. Caruso in the general election for Mayor of Los Angeles on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Karen Bass (Nonpartisan) | 54.8 | 509,944 | |
| Rick J. Caruso (Nonpartisan) | 45.2 | 420,030 | ||
| Total votes: 929,974 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Los Angeles
The following candidates ran in the primary for Mayor of Los Angeles on June 7, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Karen Bass (Nonpartisan) | 43.1 | 278,511 | |
| ✔ | Rick J. Caruso (Nonpartisan) | 36.0 | 232,490 | |
| Kevin de León (Nonpartisan) | 7.8 | 50,372 | ||
| Gina Viola (Nonpartisan) | 6.9 | 44,341 | ||
| Mike Feuer (Nonpartisan) (Unofficially withdrew) | 1.9 | 12,087 | ||
| Andrew Kim (Nonpartisan) | 1.5 | 9,405 | ||
| Alex Gruenenfelder (Nonpartisan) | 1.0 | 6,153 | ||
| Joe Buscaino (Nonpartisan) (Unofficially withdrew) | 0.7 | 4,485 | ||
| Craig E. Greiwe (Nonpartisan) | 0.4 | 2,439 | ||
| Mel Wilson (Nonpartisan) | 0.4 | 2,336 | ||
| Ramit Varma (Nonpartisan) | 0.3 | 1,916 | ||
| John Jackson (Nonpartisan) | 0.2 | 1,511 | ||
| Total votes: 646,046 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2017
- Main article: Municipal elections in Los Angeles, California (2017)
The primary election determined the winners in six city council races and three community college board races, as well as races for mayor, city attorney, and city controller. Mayor Eric Garcetti defeated a field of 10 challengers to win a second term. This election was the second impacted by Charter Amendment 1. Passed in March 2015, the amendment shifted city elections to even-numbered years beginning in 2020. As a result, officials elected in 2017 won special five-and-a-half year terms ending in 2022.
Candidates and election results
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2013
- Main article: Los Angeles, California mayoral election, 2013
A primary election was held on March 5, 2013. No candidate received more than 50% of the vote, leading to a general election on May 21, 2013, between Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel. Garcetti defeated Greuel.
The outgoing mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, was ineligible to run for a third term because of term limits. This meant no incumbent appeared on the ballot. The 2013 election marked the third time in 75 years that there was no incumbent on the mayoral ballot.[19]
Candidates and election results
| Mayor of Los Angeles, General Election, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan |  Eric Garcetti |
54.2% | 222,300 | |
| Nonpartisan | Wendy Greuel | 45.8% | 187,609 | |
| Total Votes | 409,909 | |||
| Mayor of Los Angeles, Primary Election, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Eric Garcetti |
33.1% | 121,930 | |
| Nonpartisan | Wendy Greuel |
29% | 106,748 | |
| Nonpartisan | Kevin James | 16.3% | 60,154 | |
| Nonpartisan | Jan Perry | 15.9% | 58,472 | |
| Nonpartisan | Emanuel Pleitez | 4.1% | 15,263 | |
| Nonpartisan | Norton Sandler | 0.5% | 2,002 | |
| Nonpartisan | Addie M. Miller | 0.5% | 1,810 | |
| Nonpartisan | Yehuda "Yj" Draiman | 0.4% | 1,543 | |
| Total Votes | 367,922 | |||
Mayoral partisanship
Los Angeles has a Democratic mayor. As of September 2025, 66 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 23 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, three are independents, five identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and two mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Help inform our readers
Take our candidate survey
- See also: Survey
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About the city
- See also: Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles is a city in California and the seat of Los Angeles County. As of 2020, its population was 3,898,747.
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government
The city of Los Angeles uses a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.[20]
Demographics
The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.
| Demographic Data for Los Angeles, California | ||
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | California | |
| Population | 3,898,747 | 39,538,223 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 469 | 155,857 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White | 48.9% | 56.1% |
| Black/African American | 8.8% | 5.7% |
| Asian | 11.8% | 14.8% |
| Native American | 0.7% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| Other (single race) | N/A | 14.3% |
| Multiple | 7% | 7.9% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 48.1% | 39.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate | 78.3% | 83.9% |
| College graduation rate | 35.6% | 34.7% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income | $65,290 | $78,672 |
| Persons below poverty level | 16.9% | 12.6% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2015-2020). | ||
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
See also
| Los Angeles, California | California | Municipal government | Other local coverage |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ YouTube, "Get It Done," May 9, 2022
- ↑ Politico, "Walking in LA: Billionaire Caruso unleashes millions as he seeks upset over Bass in LA," November 6, 2022
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Los Angeles Times', "Mayor Karen Bass is looking vulnerable. But will anyone challenge her in 2026?" April 9, 2025
- ↑ Mayor Karen Bass, "Mayor Bass Removes Chief Crowley Effective Immediately," February 21, 2025
- ↑ Recall Karen Bass, "Home," accessed July 29, 2025
- ↑ MSN, "Effort to recall Karen Bass dies after uproar over LA fires," August 4, 2025
- ↑ Westside Current, "COLUMN: A Possibly Amazing 2026 Los Angeles Mayoral Election Is One Year Away," June 2, 2025
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "100 years of Los Angeles mayoral turnout," accessed May 16, 2022
- ↑ Los Angeles Almanac, "Los Angeles City Mayors Past to Present," accessed May 16, 2022
- ↑ LAist, "Yes, LA Voters Could Pick Their Next Mayor In The June Primary. Here's What Would Have To Happen," May 17, 2022
- ↑ Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "Bass, Karen," accessed May 16, 2022
- ↑ YouTube, "Get It Done," May 9, 2022
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Caruso," accessed May 16, 2022
- ↑ Rick Caruso's campaign website, "Meet Rick Caruso," accessed May 16, 2022
- ↑ YouTube, "Faith, Family and Community," February 15, 2022
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Rick Caruso changes registration to Democrat as he weighs a run for L.A. mayor," January 24, 2022
- ↑ The New York Times, "Rick Caruso and Karen Bass head to a runoff in the Los Angeles mayor’s race.," June 8, 2022
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Axios, "Why L.A. mayor’s race matters," May 29, 2022
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "L.A. mayoral election a wide-open contest," December 19, 2012
- ↑ City of Los Angeles, "About the City Government," accessed September 15, 2014
