London Breed wins San Francisco mayor race, becoming city's first black female leader

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

published 14 June 2018

London Breed, the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, will be the city's next mayor after eight days of ballot-counting all but eliminated rival candidate Mark Leno, who conceded the race Wednesday afternoon. As of Wednesday, Breed led Leno by 2,177 votes with only about 6,700 left to count. Breed, 43, will become San Francisco's first black female mayor and the city's second female mayor, after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.); San Francisco will become the largest U.S. city currently led by a woman. Leno would have been San Francisco's first openly gay mayor. All three frontrunners were Democrats.

Breed briefly took over as mayor when Mayor Ed Lee (D) died of a heart attack in December, but a month later, her board colleagues gave the job instead to interim Mayor Mark Farrell. On Wednesday, Farrell offered his "sincere congratulations to Mayor-elect London Breed on her election victory." Breed, who was raised in San Francisco public housing by her grandmother, said "the message that this sends to the next generation of young people growing up in this city is that no matter where you come from, no matter what you decide to do in life, you can do anything you want to do."

Breed will serve out the remainder of Lee's term, until 2020, and face the voters again in 2019. You can learn more about Breed and her victory in the San Francisco Chronicle podcast below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.