Updated on Nov. 13
Daniel Lurie, a nonprofit founder and philanthropist from a prominent Jewish family, will be San Francisco’s next mayor.
In the latest numbers, Lurie bested incumbent Mayor London Breed 56.2% to 43.8% in ranked-choice voting. Tens of thousands of votes were yet to be counted as of Thursday afternoon, but Breed had little chance of catching up. She conceded the race around 4:30 p.m.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Lurie has longstanding ties to the Bay Area Jewish community. His parents, who divorced when Daniel was a child, are Rabbi Brian Lurie and Miriam “Mimi” Lurie Haas. His father was executive director of the Jewish Community Federation from 1974 to 1991 and later served as president of the New Israel Fund, a progressive organization that advocates for democracy and civil rights in Israel, including Palestinian rights. His mother married Peter Haas, a great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss, making Daniel an heir to the Levi’s fortune.
“I am very proud of him for running a hard and challenging campaign,” Brian Lurie told J., adding that many people had called to say that his son’s results are a “silver lining” in an otherwise dismaying election season for Democrats.
Lurie is married and has two children. He founded the anti-poverty nonprofit Tipping Point Community, where he served as CEO for 14 years. Tipping Point has doled out more than $440 million since its launch, according to the organization’s website.
Lurie, who has a master’s degree in public policy from UC Berkeley, came into the race with no political experience, unlike almost every other mayor of the city.
Lurie’s campaign challenged Breed on issues such as homelessness, the drug crisis and a local economy that has struggled to recover since the pandemic. He ran on a platform of improving public safety and revitalizing downtown. His campaign got a boost from the endorsement of the San Francisco Chronicle.
Other mayoral candidates who were eliminated in earlier rounds included Aaron Peskin, who identified himself as the only progressive in the race. He is also Jewish and serves as president of the S.F. Board of Supervisors.
Lurie will be San Francisco’s fourth Jewish mayor, after Feinstein, Adolph Sutro and Washington Bartlett.