{"id":298598,"date":"2025-10-13T00:41:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T00:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/298598\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T00:41:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T00:41:18","slug":"former-lausd-superintendent-austin-beutner-launches-2026-mayoral-bid-daily-breeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/298598\/","title":{"rendered":"Former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner launches 2026 mayoral bid \u2013 Daily Breeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner<\/a> is running for the mayor of Los Angeles, becoming the most high-profile candidate to officially enter the 2026 race so far.<\/p>\n

In an interview Saturday night with Southern California News Group, Beutner leveled criticism at Mayor Karen Bass.<\/p>\n

Beutner said Los Angeles is \u201cadrift\u201d and that the city government has failed to meet the basic needs of residents. He said he\u2019s entering the 2026 mayoral race to help lead what he called a \u201ccitywide turnaround,\u201d citing concerns over affordability, safety and the everyday challenges of living in L.A.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems every day Los Angeles is becoming less affordable, less safe, and a more difficult place to live. We\u2019re adrift,\u201d Beutner said. \u201cWhen people live in Los Angeles, they know the problems are there. What we need are elected officials to get on and solve them, and so we need to quit talking about problems and start solving them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LosLos Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Monday, July 21, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

Bass also led the city\u2019s response to the January wildfires, though her absence at the onset of the fires \u2014 while traveling in Ghana \u2014 drew criticism from some residents and from then \u2013 Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, who was later pushed out of her role.<\/p>\n

Bass responded to criticism by issuing an emergency order to expedite rebuilding in fire\u2011destroyed areas and streamlining permit processes for infrastructure repair. She has also defended her administration\u2019s handling of fire department and public safety staffing, denying that recent budget cuts compromised the city\u2019s emergency response.<\/p>\n

Bass also confronted a federal immigration crackdown in June, when heavily armed federal agents carried out raids across Los Angeles, prompting widespread protests. In response, she vocally condemned the sweeps, criticized the deployment of National Guard troops, and worked with local allies to defend immigrant communities \u2014 actions that helped her regain political ground after early criticism of her handling of the January wildfires.<\/p>\n

SCNG has reached out to Bass\u2019 campaign for comment.<\/p>\n

Beutner confirmed his intent to run during Saturday\u2019s interview.<\/p>\n

He is the most prominent challenger so far to Bass for her second term in office. Bass, a fellow Democrat and a former congresswoman elected in 2022, has made homelessness her top priority, launching initiatives like Inside Safe to move unhoused Angelenos indoors. Rick Caruso, who lost to Bass in 2022, has also signaled interest in a potential 2026 run, though he has not formally entered the race. The developer has also weighed whether to run for California governor.<\/p>\n

The 65-year-old Beutner has held a range of high-profile roles in the city over the past two decades. He served as deputy mayor under Antonio Villaraigosa, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and LAUSD superintendent from 2018 to 2021, leading the district through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

He also founded the nonprofit Vision To Learn, which provides free glasses to low-income students, and led the successful Proposition 28 campaign<\/a> to boost arts and music funding in public schools.<\/p>\n

Beutner said those experiences \u2014 from managing crises to advocating for underserved communities \u2014 shaped his belief that leadership is about making government work for everyday residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good superintendent\u2019s job is to make sure teachers and cafeteria workers and bus drivers have what they need,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd a good mayor, their job is to make sure the firefighters on the front lines, or the people cleaning the streets or fixing the street lights, or the police keeping us safe, that they have what they need, and that\u2019s where we fall short.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FILEFILE PHOTO: Austin Beutner. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

Beutner said the January wildfires served as a wake-up call for many Angelenos about the state of the city, exposing not just the physical damage, but what he sees as a broader failure of city leadership to respond to crises or meet residents\u2019 basic needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fires, if anything, are a metaphor,\u201d Beutner said. \u201cThink of a broken fire hydrant, really a metaphor for a city that\u2019s not well led and not well run.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to aging infrastructure, unaffordable housing, persistent homelessness and what he called a lack of urgency at City Hall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the fires I think showed all of us is we don\u2019t have leadership in City Hall that we can count on. That\u2019s an awakening,\u201d he said. \u201c\u200aWe need leadership who can rise to the occasion and we need leadership who treat as a crisis the lack of affordability in Los Angeles, the lack of safety, the never ending challenge with homelessness, the \u200abroken infrastructure, the streetlights, the sidewalks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beutner said he will share specific policy proposals in the coming weeks. His focus, he said, will be on restoring trust in city government and making Los Angeles work better for the people who live here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI, like many people who live in Los Angeles, want to see a brighter future for our families, for our kids, for our neighbors. That\u2019s what this is about,\u201d Beutner said. \u201cAnd I think my 17 years in public life have given me a pretty good understanding of how to work with people, how to make sure everybody\u2019s voice is heard, and ultimately how to get something done.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of now, eight individuals have filed to run in the 2026 mayoral race, according to the L.A. City Ethics Commission<\/a>. Beutner has not yet formally filed. Among those listed, only Mayor Karen Bass and longtime city civil engineer Asaad Y. Alnajjar have reported raising campaign funds.<\/p>\n

Also running at this point are: Ernesto Castelli, Rahaf Hasu, Tom Simson, Kridikel R.D. TruthBey, Franziska Von Fischer and Vincent Wali.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: October 11, 2025 at 11:53 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner is running for the mayor of Los Angeles, becoming the most…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":298599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[7373,1582,276,18825,2961,8629,224,6080,5337,50,80,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-298598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-california-politics","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-local-politics","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-county","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115364082084674400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}