San Francisco’s mayoral race is still too close to call, but political outsider Daniel Lurie took an early lead last night.
Hundreds of people gathered at The Chapel — a music venue in San Francisco — last night, for Daniel Lurie’s mayoral campaign party.
Although the race hasn’t been called, Lurie’s supporters were excited about the early results. Polling indicates that one of the top concerns in this election is homelessness and Lurie is the founder of Tipping Point, a non-profit organization that’s worked to address homelessness in San Francisco. Many of his supporters said they trust his track record on the issue. Here’s Lurie supporter, Fran Molettieri.
“He is all about accountability and public safety and really taking care of the homeless the way this should be taken care of.”
Lurie is also the heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune. Of the 16 million dollars poured into his campaign, more than half of that came from his own pocket. He spent more than any of the other candidates in an already historically expensive mayoral race.
Lurie has no government experience, but his supporters say they like that. They see him as an outsider, with a fresh perspective who will clean up corruption in City Hall. Here’s Judy Mahtaban, another Lurie voter.
“Everyone's talking about the same stuff, like public safety, small businesses, you know, vibrant neighborhoods, right? So yeah, I think it does just come down to, you know, do you think that person's an honest person? Do they have the energy to do the job, et cetera.”
In a cautiously optimistic speech on Tuesday night, Lurie addressed the crowd just after 10pm.
“It's never been more clear to me that so many people love this city and it's time for us to start making people feel like the city loves them back.”
Votes are still being counted and it’s possible that final results will not be known for several days.
