Fil-Am lawyer surges ahead to No. 1 in LA’s 14th District race

“This victory is a testament to the power of the people, the power of community and the power of grassroots organizing,” says Fil-Am lawyer Ysabel Jurado. Photo from Ysabel Jurado’s campaign website

LOS ANGELES – Filipino American tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado Tuesday surged ahead of incumbent Kevin de León and is now leading the race for Los Angeles’ 14th District City Council seat.

If she wins, Jurado would make history as the first Fil-Am LA City Council member.

“Today, I am immensely grateful and honored to announce that our campaign has earned the support of our community, propelling us into the runoff election as the first-place candidate in District 14,” Jurado – a single mom and daughter of formerly undocumented Filipino immigrants – said in a statement.

“This victory is a testament to the power of the people, the power of community and the power of grassroots organizing.”

Jurado entered Tuesday’s resumption of the ballot count trailing de León by 26 votes, then took a 318-vote lead, according to the ballot count update released by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.

Jurado leads de León, 7,965-7,647, 24.46-23.49 percent. Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, remained in third with 6,917 votes or 21.24 percent.

The election results have shifted significantly since the primary election on March 5.

Many LA residents opted to mail in their ballots and ballots are still being counted by the LA County Registrar-Recorder. It was unclear how many ballots remain to be counted.

Jurado, held the third spot Wednesday last week, then moved into second Friday after a vote-count update with 5,214 votes or 21.51 percent.

It was a tight race for the second spot with Santiago, a former assemblymember who is backed by several powerful county and state-level elected officials.

Both de León and Santiago had outspent Jurado. Santiago benefited from $700,000 in spending from outside groups, mostly labor unions, to support his election efforts.

“From the very beginning, our mission has been clear — to uplift and empower the voices of those who have been marginalized, neglected, and silenced for far too long,” Jurado said.

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

Jurado has credited her success to grassroots efforts, knocking on thousands of doors, raising over $223,000 from donors and earning $174,000 in public funding.

With the financial backing from supporters, she was able to hire more than 20 staffers and coordinate with more than 250 local volunteers to reach voters.

With more than 75 percent of the primary vote going to candidates other than de León, Jurado is the heavy favorite in the runoff.

De León drew the ire of the public and fellow elected officials, including President Joe Biden, for his participation in a secretly recorded conversation in 2021 over redistricting that included a series of racist remarks.

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

Jurado 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.