Representative Karen Bass

Karen Ruth Bass (born October 3, 1953) is an American politician who has served as the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles, California, since 2022 and previously represented California in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms in Congress during a significant period in American history, contributing to the legislative process and representing the interests of her constituents. Before her election to Congress, she served in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010, becoming the 67th speaker of the Assembly and the first African-American woman in United States history to serve as speaker of a state legislative body.

Bass was born in Los Angeles and raised in the Venice/Fairfax area of the city. She attended San Diego State University and later California State University, Dominguez Hills. Her early exposure to the civil rights movement and anti–Vietnam War activism shaped her political outlook and commitment to social justice. After her undergraduate studies, she trained and worked in the medical field, eventually becoming a physician assistant. Her early life in Los Angeles and her family’s working-class background informed her later focus on urban issues, health care, and community empowerment.

After attending San Diego State University and California State University, Dominguez Hills, Bass worked as a physician assistant and community organizer. She spent many years in frontline health care and community work, including founding and leading the Community Coalition in South Los Angeles, an organization focused on addressing substance abuse, poverty, and crime through community-based solutions and policy advocacy. This combination of medical practice and grassroots organizing provided the foundation for her later legislative priorities in health, child welfare, and criminal justice reform.

Bass entered electoral politics in 2004, when she was elected to represent California’s 47th State Assembly District. In the Assembly, she quickly rose through the leadership ranks, serving as Majority Whip and Majority Floor Leader before being elected speaker in 2008. As the 67th speaker of the California State Assembly, she led the legislature during the severe state budget crisis that followed the Great Recession. In June 2009, she drew criticism from conservative commentators for remarks in a Los Angeles Times interview in which she described the intense pressure on Republican lawmakers from conservative talk radio and activists, saying they “operate under a terrorist threat” if they supported revenue increases. Despite the controversy, her leadership in negotiating difficult budget agreements was recognized nationally. In 2010, Bass, along with Dave Cogdill, Darrell Steinberg, and Michael Villines, received the Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation for their bipartisan efforts to address California’s financial crisis. Term limits made her ineligible to run for reelection to the Assembly in 2010.

With Representative Diane Watson retiring from Congress in 2010 and encouraging her to run, Bass sought federal office. On February 18, 2010, she announced her candidacy for California’s 33rd congressional district. Her 2010 campaign was financed by a broad coalition of supporters; she raised $932,281.19 and spent $768,918.65, with no single donor group contributing more than 15 percent of her total funds. Major sources of support included labor unions ($101,950), financial institutions ($90,350), health professionals ($87,900), the entertainment industry ($52,400), and lawyers and law firms ($48,650). Bass won the November 2, 2010, general election with over 86 percent of the vote, beginning her service in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2011. She initially represented California’s 33rd congressional district, and following redistricting after the 2010 census, her district was renumbered as the 37th. In 2012 she faced no primary opponent and won the general election with 86 percent of the vote, raising $692,988.53 and spending $803,966.15, with $52,384.92 cash on hand and a debt of $3,297.59 at the close of the cycle.

During her six terms in Congress, from 2011 to 2023, Bass participated actively in the democratic process and became a prominent voice on issues of criminal justice reform, child welfare, foreign affairs, and racial equity. She was involved in President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, playing a leadership role in the California African Americans for Obama organization and serving on Obama’s national African American Leadership Council; she had also served as a co-chair of African Americans for Obama in California during the 2008 campaign. She was reelected to a third term with 84.3 percent of the vote and to a fourth term with 81.1 percent. In 2015 she endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. On August 3, 2016, she launched a petition calling for then-candidate Donald Trump to undergo a psychological evaluation, suggesting he exhibited symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder; the petition drew 37,218 signatures. She chose not to attend President Trump’s inauguration after conducting a public poll on Twitter. In response to Trump’s election and to channel the political energy of Angelenos, she created the Sea Change Leadership PAC to activate, educate, and mobilize voters. She won her next primary with 89.18 percent of the vote and was reelected to a fifth term with 88.2 percent, and later won her primary with 88.1 percent of the vote and was reelected to a sixth term with 85.9 percent.

Within the House, Bass became a key member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and other Democratic caucuses. After Democrats regained the House majority in the 2018 elections, some members, including Representative Seth Moulton, sought to replace Nancy Pelosi as Democratic leader, viewing the existing leadership as too old. Bass was approached as their first choice to challenge Pelosi, but she declined and publicly supported Pelosi’s bid for the speakership; Pelosi was elected speaker on November 28, 2018, by a vote of 203 to 32. During the 116th Congress, Bass served as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, elevating her national profile and positioning her as a leading advocate on racial justice and police reform. Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the ensuing nationwide protests, she co-authored, with Representative Jerry Nadler, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020. The legislation sought to restrict police practices such as chokeholds, carotid holds, and no-knock warrants, increase accountability, and make it easier to prosecute law enforcement officers who violated the law. The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House on a largely party-line vote of 220–212 but failed to advance in the evenly divided Senate, where bipartisan negotiations collapsed in September 2021 amid Republican opposition.

On September 27, 2021, while still serving in Congress, Bass announced her candidacy for mayor of Los Angeles in the 2022 election. Her campaign centered on addressing the root causes of homelessness, expanding services and housing, and ending homeless encampments around elementary schools, public parks, and beaches. She expressed support for increasing the city’s housing supply but opposed broad changes to zoning regulations that would allow significantly denser housing in neighborhoods zoned exclusively for single-family homes; at the time, roughly three-quarters of Los Angeles’s residentially zoned land was limited to single-family use. In the June 7, 2022, primary, she finished as the top vote-getter and advanced to a November runoff against businessman Rick Caruso. On November 16, 2022, the Associated Press declared her the mayor-elect. After winning the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election, Bass became the first woman to serve as mayor of Los Angeles, assuming office as the city’s 43rd mayor and transitioning from her role in the U.S. House of Representatives, which she had held from 2011 until 2023.