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| Elections in California |
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The 2026 Los Angeles mayoral election will be held on June 2, 2026, to elect the mayor of Los Angeles, California. [1] If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, a runoff election will be held on November 3, 2026. Incumbent mayor Karen Bass announced her re-election bid in July 2024. [2]
Karen Bass was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, defeating Rick Caruso in the most expensive election in the city's history. [3] Caruso may seek a rematch in the 2026 election. [4] In the wake of the January 2025 Southern California wildfires, Caruso has emerged as a vocal critic of Bass's administration. [5] [6] Kenneth Mejia, the Los Angeles City Controller, who has frequently criticized the Bass's budget for FY2024-25 for the large increases to LAPD funding and decrease of LAFD funding, has been floated as a potential contender. [7]
The mayor of Los Angeles is the head of the executive branch of the government of Los Angeles and the chief executive of Los Angeles. The office is officially nonpartisan, a change made in the 1909 charter; previously, both the elections and the office were partisan.
Laura N. Chick is an American civil servant and politician.
Karen Ruth Bass is an American politician, social worker, and former physician assistant who has served as the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles since 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, Bass previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2022 and in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010, serving as speaker during her final Assembly term.
Rick Cole is an American politician and former journalist who is a member-elect of the Pasadena City Council since 2024. Previously, he served as a councilmember from 1983 until 1995 and as Pasadena's mayor from 1992 until 1994. Cole also held positions as the city manager for Azusa, Ventura, and Santa Monica, as well as Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles under Eric Garcetti and Deputy Los Angeles City Controller under Kenneth Mejia.
The 2013 Los Angeles mayoral election was held on March 5, 2013, to elect the mayor of Los Angeles. No candidate received a majority of the primary votes to be elected outright, and the top two finishers, Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel advanced to a runoff vote. On May 21, 2013, Garcetti was elected mayor with a majority of the votes in the runoff.
Betty T. Yee is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as California State Controller from 2015 to 2023. She previously served as a member of the California Board of Equalization from 2004 to 2015. She won the open seat for Controller in the 2014 election, with 54% of the vote. Yee won reelection in 2018, defeating Republican Konstantinos Roditis in a landslide, and she served as Controller until January 2, 2023.
Rick Joseph Caruso is an American billionaire businessman. The founder and former chief executive officer of Caruso, an American real-estate company, he is also the chair of the board of trustees at the University of Southern California. Caruso was previously the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, a member of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, and was the runner-up to Karen Bass in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election.
The government of the City of Los Angeles operates as a charter city under the charter of the City of Los Angeles. The elected government is composed of the Los Angeles City Council with 15 city council districts and the mayor of Los Angeles, which operate under a mayor–council government, as well as several other elective offices. Under the California Constitution, all judicial, school, county, and city offices, including those of chartered cities, are nonpartisan. The current mayor is Karen Bass, the current city attorney is Hydee Feldstein Soto and the current city controller is Kenneth Mejia.
The 2016 United States Senate election in California was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of California, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
A special election was held on June 6, 2017, to elect the member of the United States House of Representatives for California's 34th congressional district. A special open primary election was held on April 4, 2017.
Two 2024 United States Senate elections in California were held on November 5, 2024, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of California. There were two ballot items for the same Class 1 seat: a special election to fill the seat for the final month of the 118th United States Congress, and a regular general election for a full term that starts on January 3, 2025, starting in the 119th United States Congress. This was the second time in a row that both a regular and special election for the U.S. Senate occurred simultaneously in California, following the 2022 elections.
The 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election was held on November 8, 2022, to elect the mayor of Los Angeles, California. A top-two primary was held on June 7, 2022. Candidates could win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote, but no candidate received a majority. More than forty candidates formed committees to run. Twenty-seven filed their declaration of intention to collect signatures for the ballot, and of these twelve qualified.
The 2022 Los Angeles elections were held on June 7, 2022. Voters elected candidates in a nonpartisan primary, with runoff elections scheduled for November 8, 2022. Eight of the fifteen seats in the City Council were up for election while three of the seven seats in the LAUSD Board of Education were up for election. The seat of Mayor of Los Angeles was up for election due to incumbent Eric Garcetti's term limit. The seats of the Los Angeles City Controller and the Los Angeles City Attorney were also up for election, as their incumbents, Mike Feuer and Ron Galperin, were running for mayor and California State Controller respectively.
The 2026 United States elections are scheduled to be held, in large part, on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. In this U.S. midterm election, which will occur during Republican President Donald Trump's non-consecutive second term, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate will be contested to determine the 120th United States Congress. Thirty-nine state and territorial U.S. gubernatorial elections, as well as numerous state and local elections, will also be contested.
Kenneth Mejia is an American activist, accountant, and politician, serving as the City Controller of Los Angeles since 2022. A member of the Democratic Party and a former Green Party member, Mejia was a three-time candidate for the United States House of Representatives in California's 34th congressional district, prior to his candidacy and subsequent election as City Controller in 2022.
The 2026 California gubernatorial election will take place on November 3, 2026, to elect the next governor of California. The statewide top-two primary election will take place on June 2, 2026. Incumbent Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom will be term-limited and ineligible to seek reelection.
As part of the 2022 United States elections, throughout the year various elections were held at the local level, including the office of mayor, as well as several other municipal and county-level positions. A number of major U.S. cities held mayoral elections in 2022, and saw incumbent mayors re-elected, including Fort Smith, Arkansas ; Little Rock, Arkansas ; Tallahassee, Florida ; Lexington, Kentucky ; Flint, Michigan ; Reno, Nevada ; Newark, New Jersey ; Charlotte, North Carolina, and Raleigh, North Carolina ; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; Clarksville, Tennessee ; Murfreesboro, Tennessee ; Denton, Texas ; and Washington, D.C..
The 2024 Los Angeles elections were held on March 5, 2024. Voters will elect candidates in a nonpartisan primary, with runoff elections scheduled for November 5. Seven of the fifteen seats in the City Council will be up for election.
The 2022 Los Angeles City Controller election was held on held on November 8, 2022, to elect the Los Angeles City Controller. Incumbent City Controller Ron Galperin was unable to seek a third term due to term limits, and unsuccessfully ran for California State Controller. However, he was serving an extended second term due to a law that shifted election dates from an off-year election to a midterm and statewide election year. Certified Public Accountant Kenneth Mejia defeated city councilmember Paul Koretz to become the 20th City Controller.
The 2026 Los Angeles elections will be held on June 2, 2026. Voters will elect candidates in a nonpartisan primary, with potential runoff elections scheduled for November 3, 2026. Eight of the fifteen seats on the City Council are up for election, as are three of the seven seats in the LAUSD Board of Education. The Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass is running for reelection. Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto and Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia are also eligible to seek reelection, but have yet to indicate if they will do so.