Fil-Am lawyer leads in tight race for 2nd in LA’s 14th District

LOS ANGELES – Filipino American tenant rights lawyer Ysabel Jurado leads Assemblyman Miguel Santiago by 251 votes in the race for second place for Los Angeles’ 14th District City Council seat.

Jurado added 230 votes to her lead Saturday, according to the ballot count update released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

Ysabel Jurado is a tenants rights attorney, affordable housing activist, single mom and daughter of undocumented Filipino immigrants. Photo from Ysabel Jurado’s campaign website

Jurado has 6,056 votes or 22.52 percent while Santiago has 5,805 or 21.59 percent.

The incumbent, Councilman Kevin De León, continues to lead with 6,641 votes or 24.69 percent.

Because no candidate in the field of eight will receive a majority, the top two candidates will meet in a runoff in November.

Jurado, who held the third spot Wednesday, moved into second Friday after a vote-count update with 5,214 votes or 21.51 percent. Santiago had 5,193 or 21.42 percent.

Jurado was in third with 18.92 percent in the count released Wednesday morning with Santiago in second with 20.27 percent, 250 votes ahead of Jurado.

Jurado trailed Santiago by 291 votes in the count released Wednesday afternoon and by 148 votes in the count released Thursday afternoon.

The 14th District encompasses Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Downtown Los Angeles, El Sereno and Northeast Los Angeles.

Jurado describes herself on her campaign website as a tenants rights attorney, affordable housing activist, single mom and daughter of undocumented Filipino immigrants.

She attended Pasadena City College and put herself through college at UCLA, where she completed her bachelor’s degree. She went on to UCLA School of Law, where she graduated with a Juris Doctorate with specializations in Critical Race Studies and the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy.

“She did it all as a single teen mom while raising her daughter, Stella,” states her campaign website.

Jurado’s platform focuses on expanding affordable housing, ending homelessness, supporting small businesses, tackling the climate crisis and building a more just economy for all.

As a housing rights lawyer, Jurado fought to stop tenant evictions and stood side by side with community organizations and small businesses that were at risk of losing their leases.

A newcomer in politics, Jurado is in a tight race for the second spot with Santiago, a former assemblymember who has raised the most money out of all the District 14 candidates and has been endorsed by several powerful county and state-level elected officials.

If she wins, Jurado will become the first Fil-Am to serve in the LA City Council.