A Look At The 2024 Los Angeles Election Results
Photo by Bas van den Eijkhof on Unsplash
Los Angeles County Voter Turnout:
On Tuesday, November 26th the Los Angeles County Clerk released the final update for the 2024 election. While the same strategies were in place this year to encourage participation as in the last presidential election, turnout was 12.59% lower than in 2000. Voter registration increased slightly but 546,155 fewer people voted. The 66.10% turnout rate was the smallest of the Trump era:
Presidential Results:
In deep blue Los Angeles, it is no surprise that Kamala Harris easily beat Donald Trump, more than doubling his vote count. However, she underperformed Hilary Clinton and Joe Biden by more than six percentage points.
Trump has steadily improved his performance over the past three elections, rising from 22.5% in 2016 to 31.91% this year. In 2020, most of the gain came at the expense of the third-party candidates, but this year, it all came from the Democrats.
Third-Party Scraps:
Voters in Los Angeles County have four options beyond the two major parties: Green, Libertarian, American Independent, and Peace and Freedom. Combined, these parties have seen a reduced share of the votes during the Trump years. However, all but the Libertarians saw improved results over 2020.
The steady decline of the Libertarian party is perplexing. It would seem that a party “strongly oppose[d to] any government interference into their personal, family, and business decisions” would thrive in an election where one of the candidates espouses authoritarian rule. Perhaps they are not “The Party of Principle,” but just care about pushing any politician who says they will “cut and eliminate taxes at every opportunity”, no matter the cost to our civil liberties.
The American Independent Party claims that “it’s time for California to declare independence from the antiquated two-party system.” They then chose to be represented by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who originally ran in the Democratic primary and later dropped off the ballot in some states to endorse the Republican.
Law and Order over Justice?
In the wake of the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd, Black Lives Matter (BLM) was formed to draw attention to police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people. In the subsequent examination of the approach to criminal justice, Californians passed Proposition 47 which revamped criminal sentences and misdemeanor penalties. In Los Angeles County 64.29% of the electorate voted “Yes.”
The murder of George Floyd in 2020 further drew attention to the inequities in the system. In the aftermath of the resulting protests, including a local incident where the incumbent’s husband pulled a gun on BLM protestors, George Gascon was elected District Attorney with 53.53% of the vote.
Despite a crime rate in line with what Angelenos have experienced since 2016, the public perception is that crime has skyrocketed out of control. This is driven by media coverage that has magnified crime, especially surrounding smash-and-grab robberies. With fear in control, 64.3% of voters in Los Angeles County voted to repeal Proposition 47. Nathan Hochman will replace Gascon after promising to roll back criminal justice reforms. Hochman earned 59.89% of the vote.
A small bright spot is the 53.97% of Los Angeles who voted to change the state constitution so that involuntary servitude for incarcerated persons would no longer be allowed. Unfortunately, this was not a large enough margin to compensate for more conservative parts of the state and Proposition 6 failed to pass. Certain forms of slavery are still legal in California.
The Fighter Pilot Is Grounded:
Democrats had long felt they could pick off the 25th Congressional District, as their voter registrations had surpassed the Republicans and the races were exceedingly close. After Steve Knight voted against the interests of his constituents and embraced a documented bigot, they got their chance in 2018. The incumbent was defeated by Katie Hill with a margin of over ten points.
While Republicans have continued to support Trump even after he was found to have sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll, Democrats abandoned Hill after she was involved in a sex “scandal” that included only consensual participants. Without party support and victimized by revenge porn, she was forced to leave office. In the resulting special election, Mike Garcia retook the seat for the Republicans, beating Christy Smith 54.15% to 45.85%.
The following November, Smith tried again and this time came up short by 333 votes. The cost was high as the California Assembly seat she gave up to run was won by Republican Suzette Martinez Valladares.
After the 2020 census, redistricting renumbered the seat as the 27th District and changed its boundaries so that they only included Los Angeles County. This did not help Smith as she lost her third contest against Garcia with the Republican improving his margin of victory.
Despite Trump’s improved performance in Los Angeles, Garcia lost the seat this year to Democrat George Whitesides. While the former fighter pilot will not be returning to Washington as a Congressman, he does meet the most important qualification for a spot in the Trump administration; Garcia is adept at kissing Trump’s ass. Despite the oath he has taken to uphold the Constitution he supported the January 6th insurrection even while representing a decidedly purple district.
A Blow Against Entrenched Power:
When Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez got caught participating in a conversation steeped in racism she had enough respect for her constituents to resign from office. Gil Cedillo stubbornly refused to step down but at the time of the revelation had already been voted out of office and was already a lame duck. That left Kevin de Leon as the only member of the trio who had not faced accountability.
Displaying hubris that is often a side effect of spending many years in elected office, de Leon claimed that he had learned his lesson and tried to run for reelection. The voters finally held him responsible and voted for his opponent, Ysabel J. Jurado, by a margin of 57.17% to 42.83%. The City Council will get some new blood with CD14’s more liberal council member.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.