Career
In 2001, Lurie moved to New York City to work for the Robin Hood Foundation, founded by Paul Tudor Jones. [5] [4] In 2003, he returned to San Francisco where he received his Master of Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at University of California, Berkeley, in 2005; [5] [9] his thesis consisted of a business plan for a charitable foundation based on the Robin Hood model. [5]
After he graduated, he founded the Tipping Point Community, which has raised over $500 million from private donors. [10] Other founding members of the board were former football player Ronnie Lott, Katie Schwab Paige (daughter of Charles R. Schwab), and Chris James (founder of activist investment firm Engine No. 1). [5] Tipping Point focuses on education, housing, employment, and family wellness. [5]
Lurie was named by San Francisco mayor Ed Lee to lead the 2016 San Francisco Bay Area Super Bowl Bid Committee; after a successful bid, he was able to ensure that 25% of revenue was designated to local non-profits to help fight poverty. [5] In 2018, Lurie committed to raising $100 million in two years to reduce chronic homelessness in San Francisco by 50%. [11] [12] On November 16, 2019, Lurie stepped down as CEO of Tipping Point Community after 15 years of leading the organization. Lurie remains with Tipping Point as chair of the board. [13]
2024 San Francisco mayoral campaign
Overview
On September 26, 2023, Lurie launched his candidacy for mayor of San Francisco in the 2024 election, challenging incumbent mayor London Breed. [14] A committee supporting his candidacy received a $1 million donation from his mother Mimi Haas. [15] A report by The San Francisco Standard concluded that this was possibly "the largest contribution to a committee in support or opposition of a candidate in San Francisco history." [16] Other donors included Jan Koum (co-founder of WhatsApp) and the biotech investor Oleg Nodelman, who each contributed $250,000 to the committee, which raised about $3.5 million in total by January 2024. [15] [16] On November 5, 2024, Lurie was elected. Breed, who finished as runner-up, conceded the race on November 7. [17]
Endorsements
Lurie is a moderate Democrat, and was endorsed by some Republican groups, [18] [19] such as the San Francisco Briones Society. [19] The co-founder of this group, Jay Donde, said that Lurie was the only candidate who could deny being involved in the politics that led to the mess that the city is currently in. [19] Lurie reacted to this endorsement by stating that he is a lifelong Democrat but welcomes the endorsement because he looks for support from anyone, and his policy views are common sense and not political: improve safety, end homelessness, and crack down on drug problems. [19] Former San Francisco mayor and police chief Frank Jordan endorsed Lurie, saying that their political ideals aligned. [20] For example, Lurie called for a fully staffed police department and sheriff's office during the 2024 election. [20]
The San Francisco Chronicle initially endorsed both Breed and Lurie for Mayor, saying that Breed was the safe choice and Lurie was the candidate for change. [21] [22] [23] Then, the Chronicle endorsed Lurie due to his balance of compassion and toughness on key policy issues. [21] [24] [23] Also, it mentioned how Lurie, despite his lack of political experience, can use his connections to surround himself with politically smart people who understand policy. [21] [24] [22] [23]
Campaign
Daniel Lurie was seen as a centrist Democrat. [18] [25] Lurie’s moderate views led him to gain support from the business community. [23] Tech companies were influential in this mayoral race as they spent millions of dollars on candidate’s campaigns for more centrist policies and thus benefited Lurie. [25] Lurie campaigned on tough-on-crime policies. [18] His campaign also criticized City Hall insiders for not building more housing and needing to provide both funding and staff for the police and sheriff departments. [24] Lurie had family wealth, allowing him to contribute more than $8 million to his campaign. [18] [26] [25] [27] [21] [28] Also, his mother contributed more than $1 million to an independent committee that supported Lurie’s mayoral campaign. [25] [27] [21] [28] Overall, Lurie’s campaign raised more than $16 million. [27]
Lurie self-funding a majority of his campaign caused some people to see him as a political outsider competing against people in City Hall amidst corruption and scandals. [25] [28] His campaign played into this view and focused on how he was an outsider with no government experience. [25] [27] [21] [24] [28] The campaign centered on Lurie being a political newcomer with a business background, pitching himself as common-sense and accountable. [18] [26] Some people argued that Lurie won because of high public support for his policy issues and a lack of government experience, [28] which is historic as Lurie was the first candidate to be elected mayor of San Francisco with no government experience since 1911. [26] [21] There was controversy over Lurie’s lack of political experience and self-funding, with opponents critiquing Lurie for spending so much on his campaigns. [26] [27] For example, some critics said that Lurie was buying the election and was a "trust fund kid" relying on family wealth, while others said he was simply campaigning seriously to increase his name recognition. [27] [24] [28]
Election
First-choice votes for the top five candidates were 26.3% for Daniel Lurie, 24.4% for incumbent Mayor London Breed, 22.9% for Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, 18.5% for former Supervisor Mark Farrell, and 2.9% for Supervisor Ahsha Safai. [25] [29] [23] Lurie was the only top candidate who was an outsider to politics, never holding a position in local government. [29] San Francisco mayoral elections use a ranked-choice voting system where voters rank candidates based on their order of preference. The election goes on until one candidate has the majority of the votes. This is done by the candidate with the least number of votes being eliminated, and everyone who voted for them their vote is redistributed, but this time it is for their next choice candidate. Lurie led all rounds of ranked choice voting with an ultimate 56% of votes for Lurie and 43% of votes for Breed. [18] [25] [29] [24] There were 14 rounds of counting. [24] It took two days to validate the winner of San Francisco’s ranked-choice voting system. [25]
Expert analysis
San Francisco State University political science professor Jason McDaniel said this election represented change, with Lurie having never held political office but running a well-funded campaign, capitalizing on how ranked choice voting works and focusing on how he will do things differently in office. [25] [24] Jim Ross, a veteran Bay Area Democratic strategist, said this was a billionaire election with high spending on campaigns. [25]
Mayor of San Francisco
On January 8, 2025, Lurie was sworn in as the 46th mayor of San Francisco. [30] [31] He announced prior to inauguration that his salary would be capped at $1 per year instead of the full $364,582 salary. [32]
According to a San Francisco Chronicle poll released on July 21, 2025, 73% of 961 respondents approved of Lurie's mayorship. Residents praised him for tackling cleanliness and crime while criticizing housing prices and lack of shelters for the homeless. [33]
Policy priorities and actions in office
Since taking office in 2025, Mayor Daniel Lurie's administration has focused on trying to reduce crime by decreasing the city's homelessness and behavioral health crises, and by stimulating San Francisco's economy. [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] His administration has also created new shelters and treatment beds as part of the "Breaking the Cycle" plan, which aims to reduce visible street homelessness and connect more people to long-term housing and care. [40] [41]
Lurie's administration has also prioritized the building of more affordable housing. [42] [43] [44] He has also created measures to speed up housing approvals, and has removed some legal barriers for builders and lowered costs for developments. [45] [46] His administration also introduced legislation on February 25, 2025, to make the process of converting empty office buildings into housing simpler and has launched an online tracker of permits to increase transparency and speed up project timelines. [47] [48] In May 2025, the median home list prices in San Francisco increased by 51% compared to a year before in the downtown ZIP code. [49] In the second quarter of 2025, San Francisco's office leasing market also showed signs of recovery. [50] According to preliminary data from real estate firm CBRE, the total vacancy rate in the downtown core declined to 35.1%, down from 35.8% the previous quarter—marking the largest quarterly decrease since 2015. Availability also dropped to 37.7%, reflecting an 80-basis-point improvement. [51] [52]
Lurie set a goal of hiring 425 new police officers, sheriff's deputies, and 911 dispatchers within his first three years to reduce response times and ensure consistent neighborhood patrols to deter crime. [53] [54] [55] On May 13, 2025, Lurie announced a "Rebuilding the Ranks" initiative is aimed at restoring baseline staffing across public safety agencies and reducing reliance on overtime. [56] [57]
Lurie has also committed to making local government more transparent and accountable. [58] [59] In February 2025, he launched a new permitting tracker to increase public visibility into city operations. [60] His administration has pledged to review nonprofit contracts to ensure public funds are being used effectively and to shift resources away from underperforming providers. [61]
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