Karen Bass becomes 1st woman elected mayor of Los Angeles

Karen Bass.
(Image credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) defeated billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso in the Los Angeles mayor's race, The Associated Press is projecting.

Bass, 69, will be the first woman to serve as mayor of the city and only the second Black person. A former nurse, she was speaker of the California Assembly before moving to Congress, where she was elected to six terms.

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Caruso, 63, is a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, and was known across the city for building upscale shopping centers like The Grove. He spent $100 million of his own fortune on his campaign. He ran as a Democrat, after previously being registered as a Republican or with no party preference.

Bass will be tasked with leading the city through a homelessness crisis as well as a scandal at City Hall, following the October leak of a recording of council members making racist remarks. Prior to the election, Bass said once she takes office, her first move will be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness and get people who need it into housing, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.