2024 Election Results: Latest on L.A. City Council, LAUSD and other city races
Los Angeles City Council District 14 candidate Ysabel Jurado declared victory over embattled incumbent Kevin de León on Thursday, Nov. 7, in what was the most watched and contentious city council contest that Angelenos witnessed this year.
Jurado, who jumped out with a solid lead over de León on election night and maintained a double-digit lead two days later, declared herself the winner late in the afternoon of November 7, shortly after the L.A. County registrar’s office released updated vote tallies.
LIVE ELECTION RESULTS: See a chart of the latest vote counts
A tenant rights attorney and political newcomer, Jurado had 55.78% of the vote as of Thursday afternoon. De León, a former state lawmaker running for a second term on the City Council, had 44.22% of the vote.
It’s unclear how many more ballots are left to be counted for this race, but the registrar’s office estimates that countywide there were 906,100 ballots left to count as of Thursday, most of them mail-in ballots. The registrar’s office won’t finish tabulating votes for days and has until Dec. 3 to certify the results of the election.
In a lengthy statement declaring herself the winner, Jurado – who also came out atop the leaderboard in the primary election – said she was “humbled” to declare victory this week.
“This win is not mine—it belongs to our community. It was the community that came together to knock over 83,000 doors; it was the community that mobilized into a thousand-plus army of volunteers; it was the community that wrote and sent over 8,000 postcards … it was the community that registered over 300 neglected constituents in Skid Row to vote,” Jurado stated.
She accused de León of adopting tactics from President-elect Donald Trump’s playbook.
De León’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this article.
Of the three L.A. City Council races on the ballot, this one in particular garnered widespread attention and, in the lead-up to Election Day, only grew more contentious.
De León has weathered calls to step down for his role in a secretly recorded conversation filled with racist and derogatory comments. The conversation featured two other council members – neither of whom are still on the council – and a powerful labor leader who resigned after the recording went public in 2022.
De León has apologized for not shutting down that conversation when he had the chance.
Jurado then found herself at the center of her own controversy for saying “[expletive] the police” after a student asked her position on police spending last month. Jurado later issued a statement saying she was quoting a lyric from a song but she did not issue an apology as the union representing Los Angeles police officers has demanded.
Council District 14 represents downtown L.A. and Eastside communities including Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Northeast L.A.
Jurado will be the first Filipino American and first woman to represent District 14 on the L.A. City Council, according to her campaign. She will also bring back queer representation to the council, which currently has no openly LGBTQ+ members, her campaign said.
Her presence on the City Council will also bring the number of council members endorsed by Democratic Socialists of America to four, or more than a quarter of the 15-member L.A. City Council.
With de Leon’s loss to Jurado, the number of Latino council members will drop from five to four of the 15 members. Latinos make up nearly half of L.A.’s population.
While the L.A. City Council District 14 race was one of the more highly publicized ones in L.A. County there were other local races that voters care about.
We’ve highlighted some of these match-ups below.
Los Angeles Unified School District
In the race to represent District 3 constituents on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, math teacher Daniel Chang slightly cut into incumbent Scott Schmerelson’s lead. As of Thursday, Schmerelson had 51.91% while Chang had 48.09%. The gap between the two narrowed by just 0.04 percentage points over the previous day’s numbers.
They running to represent District 3, which stretches from North Hollywood to Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and most of the West San Fernando Valley communities. Schmerelson worked as a principal in L.A. Unified before retiring. He’s been on the school board since 2015. Chang is a teacher at James Madison Middle School in North Hollywood.
Smaller cities near Los Angeles
Burbank: Incumbent City Councilmember Konstantine Anthony and eight other candidates ran for two open seats on the Burbank City Council. Anthony remained in the lead with 22.78%, followed by a tight battle for the second spot between Chris Rizzotti at 20.72% and Judie Wilke at 19.77%.
Other candidates lagging behind are Eddy Polon at 10.75%; Mike Van Gorder at 10.53%; Hovanes Tonoyan at 6.99%; John Parr at 3.54%; Emma Pineiro at 3.13%; and Patricia “Trish” Suarez Nacion at 1.8%.
Malibu: Three Malibu City Council members hoped to keep their seats but faced two challengers. The top three vote-getters will win seats on the council.
Councilmember Bruce Lee Silverstein had 24.64%; Councilmember Steve Uhring 22.88%; and Haylynn Conrad was close behind at 20.63%. Councilmember Paul Grisanti was nipping at Conrad’s heels with 19.53%. C. Channing Frykman had 12.32%.
San Fernando: Five candidates ran for two seats on the San Fernando City Council. Incumbent Victoria Garcia, with 29.15% and Patty Lopez with 22.43%, were ahead of the pack with Sean Rivas close behind at 21.23%. The two candidates with the most votes will secure a seat on the San Fernando City Council.
Running behind them were Sylvia Ballin at 16.24% and Jason Strickler at 10.94%.
Santa Clarita: In Santa Clarita, Jason Gibbs ran unopposed in District 3 and won without appearing on the ballot.
The three candidates running for the sole open seat in Santa Clarita City Council District 1 were Patsy Ayala, Tim Burkhart and Bryce Jepsen. It could be anyone’s race with Ayala ahead with 34.85% followed by Burkhart with 33.92% and Jepsen at 31.23%.
West Hollywood: City Councilmember John M. Erickson had 28.1% and Danny Hang had 21.06%. They led the pack to fill two seats on the five-member West Hollywood City Council.
Other candidates were Larry Block 13.8%; George Nickle at 12.53%; Zekiah “Z” Wright at 9.51%; Stefanie LaHart at 5.64%; Jordan Cockeram at 5.02%; Dorian J. Jackson at 1.41% and William West Seegmiller at 0.85%.