Endorsement
Why I'm Standing With Karen Bass
My endorsement of Mayor Karen Bass — and why her leadership matters for the future of Los Angeles.
I’ve spent my career in Los Angeles and working on the civic problems that come with a city this big and this ambitious. So when I say I’m endorsing Karen Bass for a second term as Mayor, it’s not a casual statement. It’s a judgment about who is actually capable of doing this job at the moment we’re in.
Let me be straight: the last few years have been brutal for this city. The Palisades fire was the most destructive in our history. We’ve faced a budget crisis, a housing shortage decades in the making, and the daily strain of homelessness on our streets. Nobody — including the Mayor — would tell you everything has gone perfectly. She’s said as much herself.
But leadership isn’t measured by whether the hard years stay away. It’s measured by what you do inside them. And on the things I know best, Karen Bass has delivered. Homelessness is down for the first time in years, against a national trend moving the other way. Violent crime has fallen. She has cut red tape so we can actually build housing faster — work that matters enormously to anyone trying to get shovels in the ground in this city. And the rebuilding effort after the fires, whatever the critics say about pace, is one of the more serious recovery pushes California has attempted in modern memory.
There’s a bigger picture too. We are hosting the world in 2028. The decisions made in the next four years — on housing, on transit, on public safety, on how we treat the most vulnerable Angelenos — will define what kind of city shows up for that moment. I want steady, experienced hands on that, not a learning curve.
I’ve watched a lot of people talk about fixing Los Angeles. Karen Bass has spent a lifetime in public service actually doing it, from Sacramento to Washington to City Hall. She’s earned a second term, and she’s earned my support.
The primary is June 2. If you care about this city the way I do, I’d ask you to vote, and to vote for Karen Bass.
— Brian Rosenstein