After years of negative headlines and post-pandemic economic struggles, San Francisco has chosen a wealthy Democratic outsider with no government experience as the city’s new mayor.
Daniel Lurie, 47, is one of the heirs to the Levi Strauss jeans company fortune and previously spent 15 years as an executive at the San Francisco nonprofit he founded. He defeated several Democratic challengers, including incumbent Mayor London Breed, in an election expected to break local campaign spending records.
Lurie has poured more than $8 million of his own money into his campaign, while his billionaire mother, Mimi Haas, has given him another $1 million in support. He will be the first San Francisco mayor to have never served in government since 1911, making him the city’s “most inexperienced mayor in a long time,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
But the Chronicle ultimately endorsed Lurie, praising his “balance of compassion and toughness” in his plan to deal with San Francisco’s homeless problem and saying the city needed a change in leadership, which made Lurie The inexperience may be worth the risk.
Lurie has touted his experience funding and building affordable housing at the Tipping Point Foundation as evidence that he can lead San Francisco in the right direction.
