Karen Bass becomes 1st woman elected mayor of Los Angeles

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.

With 74.54 percent of the expected vote in, Bass has 53.1 percent of the vote, while Caruso has 46.9 percent.

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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.