Family and community are pivotal for the LA Mayor’s efforts to win reelection in November

As the campaigns heat up to elect the next Mayor of Los Angeles on Nov. 3, incumbent Karen Bass said it is crucial to campaign with Latinos, not just because her family is Latina but because Latinos represent half of the City of Angels. 

In a recent one-on-one interview with CALÓ News, she said that if she wins a second term, she will also continue working on one of her priorities: affordable housing. There is no doubt that in the second largest city in the nation, Los Angeles' number one issue is affordability. 

“I can't deal with the gas prices. I can't deal with the food prices. That [rests with] the White House and the instability that the president has created,” she said. “But what I can do is housing, and so we have built more housing, more affordable housing in my four years than was built [in] the 10 years previous.”

Bass said she has worked to fast-track 47,000 units of housing and 10,000 of those are currently under construction.

This process has been done under Mayor Bass’ Executive Directive 1 to dramatically accelerate and lower the cost of building affordable housing and temporary housing. It streamlines the approval process for 100% affordable housing projects in the city. 

In December 2025, the City Council unanimously voted in favor of making Executive Directive 1 a permanent city ordinance. 

Bass said it is unfortunate that during campaigns, opponents paint a picture of a decadent city that needs to be saved, but she knows Los Angeles is one of the best cities in the country. 

“Do we have problems? Absolutely, we do. If we didn't have problems, I wouldn't have run,” she said. 

 According to the Census, Los Angeles city has a population of nearly 3,900,000 residents and 47.2% are of Hispanic origin. 

During the primary elections, more than 39% of the electorate participated, according to the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk. 

The close and extended Latino family

Bass made it very clear that at any time possible she is more than glad to support a Latino for a leadership role, including if a good candidate for mayor in 2030 emerges.

But when it came to appointing the next LAPD chief, she chose Jim McDonnell over three top candidates who were Latino. She said she was one of the most fervent supporters of former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when he was running for governor of California. He lost in the primaries.

Bass said since she was a teenager she has worked in solidarity with Latinos, whether on immigration issues, police-community relations, development or in leadership roles. 

“So these communities are not new to me. I worked in Boyle Heights. I worked at White Memorial Hospital. I worked at County General Hospital. I worked at community clinics on Indiana (St.) in Boyle Heights. So I'm not a visitor. I'm not a tourist,” she said. 

Bass was married to Chicano activist Jesus Lechuga. They had one child, Emilia Bass-Lechuga, who proudly identified as Blaxican. After their divorce, Bass and Lechuga developed a very close relationship with his three Latino children and she helped raise them, together with Emilia. 

“We believed in keeping the kids together. My daughters and son do not like being referred to as a step,” she said. 

Both Emilia and Jesus have passed away, but Bass is grateful for the three children and two grandchildren she gained. 

“My daughter and grandsons live with me.”

Debunking backlash from the wildfires

Bass said that while the 2025 wildfires were devastating and people blame her for the entire chaos, she was only in charge of Pacific Palisades. Altadena and Malibu are outside of the City of Los Angeles. 

“It was horrible that I was out of town. I was not on a vacation,” she said. “President Biden had asked me to represent the country for the inauguration of the Ghanaian president, because when I was in Congress, I worked on African issues.” 

Nonetheless, this is not an excuse, she said, because at any time when someone in your family gets hurt or sick and you are not there, you feel extremely bad. 

“I felt horrible that when my city needed me, I wasn't here,” she said.  

She said she also understands people will continue attacking her for this tragic incident because that’s what people do during campaigns. However, she also highlighted that she hasn’t stayed idle. She has been fighting for a swift rebuilding process. 

“We have over 1,000 houses that are under construction now. People are beginning to move back, and I have cut every bit of bureaucracy, every bit of red tape, so that they could build faster,” she said.

A continuous fight on immigration

Bass said she will also continue advocating for a fair immigration path. She said when she was in Congress and the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was in the process of being canceled, she fought against it. 

“What we did was the Black Caucus, the Latino Caucus, the Asian Caucus, we would join together and fight for TPS extensions,” she said. “I still have all of those relationships in Congress, and we are and will continue to fight on the D.C. level.”

She said that serving in D.C. as a congressmember and Sacramento as an assemblymember was crucial because now, as the Mayor of Los Angeles, she has those strong ties and can have a say and get policies done. 

“I can do that because I have experience on those levels, and I have deep relationships just like I do here. That's one thing that distinguishes me from my opponent,” she said. “I'm from here and because I've been fighting, not as an elected official but as a community activist. Many more years I've fought as a community activist than I did as an elected official.”