LA Councilmember Kevin De León Announces Reelection Bid

L.A. City Councilmember Kevin de León announced Wednesday that he’s running for re-election. De León was one of the councilmembers who was heard last October on a secretly recorded audio tape that featured racist, homophobic and anti-indigenous comments, prompting calls for his resignation.

De León told LAist that people should not be known only for their mistakes and that he’s found his constituents to be forgiving.

“What I discovered was people by and large have huge hearts,” he said. “When a lot of my friends and allies turned away from me, my constituents had my back.”

De León was heard calling Councilmember Mike Bonin’s young son, who is Black, just a prop for the colleague — like “a Louis Vuitton bag.”

President Biden and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla were among those who called on him to step down. For weeks, activists camped outside his home demanding he resign.

He refused and instead apologized for the comment, calling it “flippant.”

The scandal prompted a series of reform proposals, including one for an independent redistricting commission. The people heard on the tape — De León, then-Council President Nury Martinez, then-Councilmember Gil Cedillo and former labor leader Ron Herrera — were heard on the tape discussing how to redraw the politicians’ district boundaries in a way that would maintain their power.

Next week, LAist Studios will release a podcast with the first interview with Martinez, the central figure in the scandal, since she resigned from the council.

De León said he should not be ousted from politics because of his comments. He said that if "the answer to racial division is to silence people, then we are all in trouble.”

De León added he has worked hard to build racial divisions, taking a delegation of Black business people to Tijuana recently to build economic ties with that city.

He also said people should judge him based on his work as a council member, saying he has built more homeless housing in his district than any other elected official in L.A.

“People know me and they know my body of work,” he said. “I’m well known in the district and I have an excellent chance of winning reelection.”

De León believes his constituents will forgive him and elect him to another four year term — even if many of his allies have abandoned him.

At least 10 people have announced their intent to challenge De León in the March 2024 primary for the Council District 14 seat, including state Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo and Miguel Santiago. Santiago has already raised about $243,000, Carillo about $116,000, according to the city Ethics Commission website.

Ysabel Jurado, a lawyer and tenants rights activist, has raised the third largest amount of money — about $70,000 — and is expected to gain significant support from progressive activists. Ground Game L.A. recently hosted an event for her.

De León has not started fundraising. He raised more than $1 million when he first ran four years ago.

De León is a former labor leader. He was once one of the most powerful people in California, serving as leader of the state senate. He was also the darling of progressives when he challenged Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the 2018 election. He unsuccessfully ran for mayor last year, garnering just 8% of the vote in the primary and finishing a distant third.

The 14th Council District includes all of downtown L.A. and stretches east to Boyle Heights and north to Eagle Rock.

De León knows a lot of people have abandoned him.

“Politics is a brutal and unforgiving sport and you hope that the ones closest to you will stick by your side but you can never count on that,” he said.