Lindsey Horvath will not run for mayor of Los Angeles, becoming the latest political heavyweight to decide not to challenge incumbent Karen Bass.
Horvath, who as Los Angeles County supervisor represents 2 million people in a sprawling Westside and San Fernando Valley district, ended weeks of speculation about her political intentions and said her work in the county “is not over.”
“Over these past few months, you have shown me all the reasons why you love Los Angeles and why it is worth fighting for,” Horvath said Friday in a statement. “I am grateful to the many leaders, organizations and all Angelenos who urged me to run for mayor of Los Angeles.”
Horvath's announcement, issued the night before the candidate filing deadline, comes days after former Los Angeles school superintendent Austin Beutner ended his mayoral campaign, citing the death of his 22-year-old daughter. Real estate developer Rick Caruso also dropped out of the race and said for the second time Thursday that he would not run.
The filing period for mayoral candidates in the June 2 primary closes at noon Saturday.
Bass campaign spokesman Douglas Herman had no comment.
Horvath, 43, has been one of the mayor's most outspoken critics over the past year, attacking her history on homelessness and last year's Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead. On social media, Horvath fueled speculation about his political future, calling the city's record on homelessness “indefensible.”
Bass, in turn, has criticized county officials for taking hundreds of millions of dollars from a city-county homeless agency (a move spearheaded by Horvath) and putting them into a new county agency. Most recently, the mayor spoke out against the county's plan to cut $200 million in homeless services.
Bass, 72, still faces other rivals from across the political spectrum.
Reality TV star Spencer Pratt, a Republican, has received praise from a number of Trump supporters, including Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. Pratt has largely focused on the city's handling of the fire, which destroyed his home.
Democratic socialist Rae Huang is running against the mayor of her political left. Huang has called for more public housing and a reduction in the number of police officers, with the cost savings going to other city services.
Brentwood tech entrepreneur Adam Miller, who describes himself as a lifelong Democrat, said the city is on a downward trajectory and needs stronger management. The 56-year-old nonprofit executive plans to leverage his personal wealth to boost his campaign.
Also in the race is Asaad Alnajjar, a Public Lighting Office employee who sits on the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council. Alnajjar, who has already loaned his campaign $80,000, said he would do a better job than Bass running the city.
“I'm a leader. She's a manager. That's the difference,” said Alnajjar, 61.
With so many candidates in the mix, Bass and his political team do not expect him to surpass the 50% bar to avoid a second round in November.
Bass has been laying out his record, touting a significant drop in homicides and a reduction in street homelessness since taking office in 2022. He has talked about his efforts to speed up the approval of affordable housing and permits for redevelopment projects in Pacific Palisades.
The mayor has positioned herself as a brake on Trump's agenda. During last summer's immigration raids in Los Angeles, he regularly called on the president to end the crackdown and withdraw the California National Guard from the city.
From the start, a mayoral run would have been a risky move for Horvath, who is not expected to face any major challenges in his own re-election bid.
Horvath would have had to resign his seat to run against Bass, while facing a tight fundraising schedule. His campaign had already scheduled a re-election fundraiser for next week, after the deadline for filing mayoral candidates.
In political circles, Horvath is seen as a strong 2028 candidate for county chief executive, an elected position created through a ballot measure Horvath championed.
Last week's willy-nilly events raised Horvath's political profile as he aired his criticism of the mayor on CNN and other news programs.
Relations between Bass and Horvath have been frosty at least since the Palisades fire broke out. The two were at odds over news conferences held to inform the public about the disaster and about efforts to reopen the burned area to traffic.
The relationship deteriorated further after Horvath and his colleagues voted to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county partnership, and to a new county homeless agency.
Horvath, on social media, accused Bass of spreading “misinformation” about the new county agency. Bass, in turn, warned that the county's actions could set the city back in its fight against homelessness.
Horvath has held elected office on and off since 2009, when he joined the West Hollywood City Council. He left the council in 2011, then rejoined in 2015 and remained there for about seven years.
In 2022, Horvath won her supervisory seat, defeating former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, a political veteran.
Had he entered the race, Horvath would have faced questions about a host of issues plaguing the county, including a $4 billion legal settlement for sexual abuse that was later clouded by fraud allegations.
He was also a major force behind Measure G, a 2024 ballot measure that will expand the number of county supervisors and create the position of county chief executive, but is also on track to inadvertently repeal a criminal justice reform measure approved by voters in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
