Daniel Lurie, Jewish political neophyte and heir to Levi Strauss fortune, wins San Francisco mayoral race

A Jewish scion to a business fortune with deep ties to the Bay Area Jewish community will be San Francisco’s next mayor.

Daniel Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss clothing empire who has never before held political office, bested incumbent London Breed in this week’s elections.

Lurie was beating Breed in ranked-choice voting, 56.2% to 43.8%, late on Thursday with outstanding votes still to be tallied when Breed conceded the race. The 47-year-old will become the fourth Jewish mayor in the city’s history, joining a political lineage that has also included Dianne Feinstein, who later ascended to the Senate.

“I’m deeply grateful to my incredible family, campaign team, and every San Franciscan who voted for accountability, service, and change,” Lurie wrote in a victory message on social media Thursday. “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.”

Lurie’s Jewish biography is extensive. His father, Rabbi Brian Lurie, served as president of San Francisco’s Jewish federation and as president of the progressive pro-Israel group New Israel Fund. After her divorce from his father, his mother, Miriam “Mimi” Lurie Haas, married Peter Haas, a great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss.

“I am very proud of him for running a hard and challenging campaign,” Brian Lurie told J. the Jewish News of Northern California about his son’s win.

Though both candidates in this deep-blue city were Democrats, Lurie ran on a reformist campaign promising to take a tougher stance on homelessness, drug use, public safety and the local economic downturn. He is the founder and former CEO of Tipping Point Community, a nonprofit that says it has given more than $440 million to Bay Area organizations fighting poverty since it was founded in 2005.

In addition to seeing its local economy decimated during the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco under Breed’s mayorship also saw a groundswell of pro-Palestinian activism that left many Bay Area Jews feeling unsafe. In January, the federal Department of Education opened an investigation of antisemitism in the city’s schools, and in September, pro-Palestinian groups said a training on antisemitism was canceled following their lobbying efforts. In March, anti-Israel protests at a major city arts center prompted its Jewish leader to resign. 

Elsewhere in the Bay Area, recall efforts against Oakland’s mayor and Alameda County’s District Attorney seemed likely to pass on Friday. The local Jewish Community Relations Council suggested that Jewish anger over “rampant antisemitism” in the region played a role in the outcome.

“Since the October 7th Hamas terror attack in Israel, Oakland and Alameda county have emerged as ground zero for antisemitism in America— in local government, schools, and on our streets,” Tyler Gregory, CEO of the JCRC, said in a statement. “The inability of city and county leadership to address and uproot this darkness was summarily rejected by voters in this change election.”