Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie declares victory in San Francisco Chinatown

SAN FRANCISCO — At November 5 election night, since the election results were first posted online by the Department of Elections, political outsider Daniel Lurie has been in a commanding lead among all 13 mayoral candidates securing all other choices votes in a ranked-choice voting system. Lurie declared victory on November 8 after current Mayor London Breed conceded loss in her re-election bid to Lurie with a wide margin, 56.34% to 43.66%, behind him.

As of the latest election results before press time, the ranking of 13 mayoral candidates based on votes they received has never changed although more votes were counted on different days.

For the first-choice election results in the mayoral race, Lurie received most votes (62,645) and was ranked first with 27.97% of total votes, incumbent Breed was ranked 2nd with 24.57%, District 1 Supervisor Aaron Peskin ranked 3rd with 21.50%, former Interim Mayor Mark Farrell ranked 4th with 18.37%, District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai ranked 5th with 2.74%, the only Republican and Chinese American candidate Ellen Lee Zhou ranked 6th with 2.28%.

After running 14 rounds of ranked-choice voting results, the ranking of most-voted candidates remained the same. Lurie was able to receive most votes from other candidates' supporters. His total votes were up to 108,142 and secured 56.34% of all votes in the mayoral race. Lurie was consistently in the first place of all candidates.

Election results also indicated that Breed was almost not able to receive any significant votes from other candidates in the ranked-choice voting system except votes of Peskin's supporters in which she took 18,505 while Lurie got 18,086.

Breed conceded the mayoral race on November 7 and issued a statement titled "The greatest honor of my lifetime".

"I’m beyond grateful to our residents for the opportunity to serve the city that raised me. When I first took office in the middle of the night, back in 2017 when Mayor Ed Lee passed, I didn’t know what lay ahead. But I answered the call and always gave San Francisco and its people my heart and soul," wrote Breed. "But today, I am proud that we have truly accomplished so much and my heart is filled with gratitude."

Lurie declared victory on the next day, November 8, at the Saint Mary Square in Chinatown. Several hundreds of journalists from local and national press and supporters from all communities gathered to listen to his victory speech.

Among the attendees at the victory event were retired Police Commander Paul Yep and retired Captain Robert Yick. Both of them were the ones of very few Chinese American leaders who publicly endorsed Lurie prior to the election. The vast majority of the City's Chinese American elected officials, city commission appointees, non-profit and community leaders endorsed Breed or Peskin for their mayoral candidacies.

Most of the City officials who endorsed Lurie were from public safety. In addition to Yep and Yick, former Mayor and Police Chief Frank Jordan, retired Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and retired Sheriff Vicki Hennessy were among Lurie’s supporters.

Lurie was born and raised in a Jewish family in San Francisco. He is the son of Mimi and Rabbi Brian Lurie. His parents divorced when he was two years old and his mother remarried to Peter E. Haas, the great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss who founded the Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco in 1853 as the first company to manufacture blue jeans. Lurie is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune.

Lurie's win in the mayoral race has made history as the first candidate to unseat an incumbent mayor in nearly 30 years and as the first City Hall outsider elected as mayor in 100 years in San Francisco.

In recent decades in San Francisco, former mayors Frank Jordan and Edwin Lee were both first-time candidates when they ran for mayor. Jordan was the Chief of Police and Lee was the City Administrator. They were City Hall insiders. Lurie had never worked at City Hall as an elected official or city employee.

In his speech to declare victory in Chinatown, he called for unity for the best interest of the City. "No matter who you supported in this election, we stand united in the fight for San Francisco’s future and a safer, more affordable city for all," said Lurie.

"I entered this race not as a politician, but as a dad, who couldn’t explain to my kids what they were seeing on our streets," Lurie made it clear that his running for mayor was not for political gain, but for the best interest of the City.

Lurie said his top priorities when he takes office on January 8th, 2025 would be having safe and clean streets, resolving the open drug market, combating corruption and bureaucracy, building enough affordable housing, supporting local small businesses, and bringing businesses back to the Union Square as well as downtown.

Lurie also said he would keep his promise to create a government to be centered on accountability, service and change and make it a safe city for all and welcome everyone to the City.

Within the Chinese and Asian communities, although most of the civic and community leaders publicly endorsed Breed and Peskin and posted photographs with them on social media, the general members of the Asian community were overwhelmingly supportive of Lurie.

85-year-old Ann Yuey and her children who live in the city all voted for Lurie. Yuey also has been a super volunteer of Lurie campaign by donating her time to post signs in Chinatown and working as a volunteer staff at Lurie's Chinatown campaign office on Clay Street since it was opened at late August.

"Daniel is a philanthropist and entrepreneur with extensive management experience and a warm heart for everyone. All of us are so impressed by getting to know Daniel in person. He also has provided his agenda with very thoughtful ways in solving our city's safety, homelessness, dirty streets, local economy, corruption and many issues," said Yuey. "All other top candidates are current or former elected Mayors or Supervisors. There would not be much changes if they were elected. Daniel has gained support from my entire family."

Lily Lii, founder of the Ten Ren's Tea in San Francisco Chinatown, has joined Ann to be an early supporter of Lurie. "I believe in Daniel because he has provided a clear message to me that he wanted to contribute to make San Francisco a better city for all," said Lii. "I am so glad to see Daniel winning in the race. Now I have a hope that San Francisco will be better and return to the thriving days decades ago when I first arrived in San Francisco."

Paul Chen decided to support Lurie months back after he met him in a merchant walk on Irving Street. Chen lives in Chinatown and works at a retail on Irving Street. Everyday he takes muni to commute to the Sunset District for work.

"I have known so well about the changes in our city across town from Chinatown in the northeast to the west side in the Sunset," said Chen. "Everyday in the morning and afternoon when I ride on muni through Union Square and downtown, my heart has been broken in recent years by looking at city streets from east to west becoming dirtier and worse full of homeless people and drug addicts day by day."

"That's why San Francisco has been the focus of global media coverage. Such a beautiful world-class city in the past has become a 'Third World country'. It has made all of us disappointed and outraged," Chen continued. "Also the hate and violence against members of our community occurred in San Francisco before the pandemic in 2020. London Breed and other elected officials have done nothing to stop it."

Chen expressed his frustration to Lurie when Lurie had a merchant walk on Irving Street months earlier. "Mr. Lurie listened and gave me some hope." Chen said.

Pius Lee, founder of the Chinatown Neighborhood Association, has been an outspoken supporter of Breed. He said he has maintained a great working relationship with Breed for the past 6 years and supported her for re-election.