LOS ANGELES—Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) is planning to run for mayor of Los Angeles in the 2022 election, it was reported Sept. 24.
The Los Angeles Times first reported the news Friday morning, citing three people familiar with Bass’s plans.
Bass has been facing public pressure to run for mayor following the Aug. 23 release of a poll by a California-based public opinion research firm found that more than a quarter of a sample of the city’s Democrats supported Bass against current and potential candidates for mayor in the 2022 election.
If Bass were to be elected mayor, she would be Los Angeles’s first female mayor.
Along with Bass, the current and potential candidates included in the poll were former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner, City Attorney Mike Feuer, Council President Nury Martinez, businessman Rick Caruso, and Councilmen Kevin de Leon, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Joe Buscaino.
Of the group, Buscaino and Feuer were the only ones who had announced a run for mayor at the time the poll was released, but de Leon jumped into the race on Sept. 21. Ridley-Thomas and Council President Nury Martinez have both said they will not run for mayor in 2022.
About 27 percent of Democrats polled said that if the election were held today, they would vote for Bass.
“A plurality is undecided, and the race is wide open, but Bass is the only potential candidate for mayor who can claim a real base of support,” according to a summary of the survey of 803 Los Angeles voters, which was conducted between July 29 and Aug. 5 by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates.
Bass represents California’s 37th Congressional District, which includes Los Angeles neighborhoods west and southwest of downtown, as well as the cities of Culver City and Inglewood.
More than one out of five 22 percent of all people surveyed said Bass was their first choice among the candidates, and 8 percent ranked her second. Bass was the only potential or current candidate who received double-digit first-choice support.
The pollsters identified that Bass’ advantage over the rest of the potential candidates comes partly from progressives and liberals, with 34 percent of progressives and 25 percent of liberals responding that they would vote for her if the election was held today.
