Karen Bass elected mayor, becoming first woman to lead L.A.’s largest municipality
Karen Bass will become the city of Los Angeles’ 48th mayor on Saturday morning, when she takes the oath and officially takes office as the city’s first woman mayor. Bass is a Democrat who became the first African American woman elected mayor following a heated campaign that included racial slurs aimed at her husband and supporters.
Bass, a longtime city council member who was elected mayor in 2016, was elected with more than 70 percent of the vote, according to the Los Angeles Times.
She joins a city that has a history of electing women as its mayor:
The first was Mayor James Rolph, who started the practice in 1877, the Times reported. Rolph is still the only African American mayor in the city’s history and is the first mayor to be assassinated during his tenure, making her the first woman mayor in the nation to be assassinated during her tenure. The most recent was Janice Hahn, who took office in 2010.
Mayor Hahn was elected as the first woman mayor of a major American city — and then resigned to become the first female mayor of a small municipality in California.
There’s also a woman on the ballot this year in the nonpartisan contest for Los Angeles County supervisor: Democrat Grace Pershing, who is running against incumbent Richard Irvin — who’s serving his second term.
Bass’ election will be preceded by a brief campaign-style ad featuring her swearing-in video.
And, in a fitting twist, L.A.’s first female mayor, Karen Bass, was not the only African American woman to serve in the Los Angeles City Council — she was followed by a second woman after she was elected president of the council.
Kendra Jones, who is also an attorney, was elected to the council for the 15th District in 1996. In 2000, she became the youngest woman elected to the council.
“I’m so thrilled and honored that Karen and I both agreed that in an unprecedented gesture, we would jointly run for mayor,” Jones, who is now a state senator, said in a statement Friday. “She has