San Francisco Mayor London Breed Unseated By First-Time Public Office Candidate

Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed lost her reelection race to philanthropist and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie, according to multiple reports.

Breed, who has served as the city’s mayor since 2018, was defeated by independent candidate Lurie in the first mayoral election to utilize ranked-choice voting, according to multiple sources. This will mark the first time Lurie has served in public office.

As of Friday morning, Breed holds 43.8% of the vote while Lurie leads with 56.2%, and 100% of precincts reporting, according to the unofficial count.

Ranked-choice voting in the city made Breed’s path to victory harder than usual, as a third of likely voters expressed their intention to rank Breed as their lowest choice, according to a February poll. Before Breed and Lurie faced off in the final round, 13 previous rounds whittled away the number of qualifying candidates.

Breed had faced heavy criticism during her tenure over her handling of the homelessness crisis, such as her championing of reductions in homeless tents just weeks after bussing the city’s homeless out. In 2024, the homelessness population increased by 7% from 2022 to 2024, with some districts seeing jumps as high as 89% over those two years,