Former Vice President Kamala Harris endorsed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for reelection on Monday, backing her just as ballots began arriving in Californians’ mailboxes. Harris said Bass has done what so many said could not be done, pointing to the first ever two-year decline in homelessness and crime levels the city has not seen since the 1960s.
Harris, who has known Bass for more than two decades, also said Bass refused to back down when the federal government came after our neighbors. She added, “She has my full support for re-election.”
The endorsement lands in a race Bass is still leading but has not yet locked down. A March poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies showed her at 25% support, with Nithya Raman at 17% and Spencer Pratt at 14%, while another 25% of voters were undecided. The same poll showed 56% of voters viewed Bass unfavorably, a reminder that her standing with Angelenos is shakier than her polling lead suggests.
Bass faces Pratt, Raman and other candidates in a contest shaped by the aftermath of the Palisades fire. That backdrop has made the mayor a more polarizing figure even as she enters the mail voting period with a financial edge built early. Through April 18, Pratt and Raman had raised more money than Bass this year, but Bass had nearly $2.3 million in the bank because she started fundraising for reelection two years ago.
Harris and Bass have moved in the same political orbit for years. They worked together more than a decade ago on youth homelessness and fixing the child welfare system, and Harris swore Bass in as the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles in 2022. On Monday, Harris also endorsed Rob Bonta for reelection as state attorney general, Malia Cohen for reelection as state controller and Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis for state treasurer, underscoring how central California remains to her political map.
For Bass, the question now is not whether she has help at the top of the ticket. It is whether a strong endorsement can overcome the unfavorable view that has taken hold with many voters after the fire and turn a polling lead into the kind of margin that survives mail ballots already on the move.
