Rep. Karen Bass and Rick Caruso are neck and neck in their respective bids to be the next mayor of Los Angeles.
With 12% of precincts reporting, Angelenos are split on who they want to lead the city following the departure of current mayor Eric Garcetti, who has termed out and is waiting to be appointed as the United States ambassador to India.
If elected, Bass would become the first woman mayor of Los Angeles and the second Black person to hold the office.
Bass hopes to trade in her spot as Representative of the 37th Congressional District to become L.A.’s chief political leader.
During a speech to a crowd of supporters, Bass described her vision for the city and her pride for the campaign she ran.
“We wanted to run a campaign where we would bring people along on this journey, where we would have hundreds of volunteers, because we wanted to do more than build a campaign, we wanted to build a movement, a movement of people committed to our city, a movement where everyone has skin in the game, a movement where people wanted to see a new vision for Los Angeles,” Bass said.
Caruso has pumped millions of his own money into the race, picking up multiple celebrity endorsements, including Katy Perry, Chris Pratt, Snoop Dogg and Kim Kardashian.
Caruso is a real estate developer who owns The Grove and Americana at Brand shopping centers.
He addressed supporters Tuesday night and was optimistic about his chances going into the overnight hours and talked about what he learned during the race.
“The wonderful thing I never knew as a candidate, when you’re running for mayor, is that you develop a larger family alongside the people that you would never have met in communities, because we’ve all come together for a cause. And that’s a very uplifting thing,” Caruso said.
Both Bass and Caruso said they prioritized combating the housing crisis and finding solutions for the thousands of unsheltered individuals in the city.