San Franciscans have three qualified candidates running for Mayor. You should vote for all three of the following candidates, in whatever order you prefer:

• Daniel Lurie
• London Breed
• Mark Farrell

We believe all will do a good job with a newly elected Board of Supervisors. All three of these candidates put forward platforms that focus on building more homes, revitalizing downtown, and improving public safety. They all have relevant experience in government or the private sector, and they share a philosophy on government: that City Hall should be efficient, effective, and accountable.

The differences between them are relatively small, which means that a one-size-fits-all recommendation is more difficult to do than normal. It's absolutely critical that you rank all three of them in some order, but within that, you should make a ranking based on the issues that matter most to you. If you're in a hurry, here's a quick summary:

If your top issue is homelessness, vote: Daniel Lurie as your first choice.

If your top issue is public safety, vote: Mark Farrell as your first choice.

If your top issue is housing, vote: London Breed as your first choice.

Read more about these issues below:

• Building More Homes
• Public Safety
• Addiction & Fentanyl Dealing
• Homelessness
• Public Transit & Bikes
• Small Business

No candidate will win on first-choice votes alone, so the winner will be determined by the second and third choice votes. If voters don’t rank all three of these candidates, we might split the common-sense vote and allow a really bad candidate to win. The other candidates in the race have radically different views on what makes a good city: some want to stop construction of new homes in San Francisco, pick and choose which businesses succeed, or even fight against hiring more police officers. One even sabotaged the power of Mayor's office — the very office they're running for! San Francisco deserves better than this.

San Franciscans are more similar than they are different. We all want a city that's safe, clean, and affordable. We all want a city that's welcoming to everyone, no matter their background. And we all want a city that's a great place to live, work, and raise a family. These three candidates will help us get there, and their opponents won't.

How Ranked Choice Voting works

13 people are running for Mayor. Only one can win. With ranked choice voting, you can vote for several people that you would find acceptable.

Your second, third, and later choices do not hurt your first choice. Your vote will always count for your first-choice vote until (and if) that candidate is in last place in a round of counting. Your vote will only move to your second choice if your first choice is eliminated.

Simply put, you should vote for everyone you can tolerate (even if you don't love them).

We recommend voting for Daniel Lurie, London Breed, and Mark Farrell in any order you prefer. If voters rank these three candidates, we are certain to get one of the three. If voters only rank one candidate, there is a chance that someone who doesn’t represent the majority of San Franciscans wins.

Mayoral polling

Curious how the race is shaping up? Our polls show that it's a statistical tie between London Breed, Mark Farrell, and Daniel Lurie. Check out the latest polling data here.

On the issues

Here's where the top candidates stand on the issues that matter most to San Franciscans:

Keep reading for a detailed explanation on each issue:

Independence

Daniel Lurie is the only candidate for Mayor who is not beholden to any entrenched political interests. Since he has not had to make deals with politicians and interest groups for decades, like the other candidates have, he doesn't owe anyone any favors and will bring an independent team into City Hall. Some may see this as a lack of experience, but we don't think someone needs to be part of the problem before they can fix it.

While he hasn't served in City Hall, Daniel Lurie does bring a ton of experience managing organizations and ensuring subordinates and contracted organizations deliver results. As founder and CEO of Tipping Point Community, which funds a diverse set of organizations who deliver things like pre-natal care to homeless women, help youths escape street homelessness, and help adults find housing, he did what City Hall has failed to do for several decades: he actually measured the performance of these organizations and stopped funding the ineffective ones.

So if you're unhappy with stagnant politics and a calcified City Hall, and willing to bet on an outsider, you might want to rank Lurie first.

Building More Homes

London Breed stands out as the best candidate on this issue. Mayor Breed has been a strong supporter of building more homes for the past several years, but the City has failed to make progress because the oppositional Board of Supervisors actually controls where and how many homes can be built. Breed has supported state-level workarounds for San Francisco's dysfunctional homebuilding approval process, publicly called for upzoning the city to allow many more homes to be built, and has helped root out corruption in the Department of Building Inspection.

It's a close call between Lurie and Farrell for second place, and to be totally honest you could decide the order on your ballot with a coin flip.

They both support necessary reforms to the planning process, like streamlining permitting and reforming Discretionary Review (DR) and Conditional Use (CU). They both support building more homes and more homeless shelters. And they both support upzoning to allow more homes to be built in San Francisco.

The only places they differ are: Lurie actually helped build subsidized low-income housing at 833 Bryant via his Tipping Point philanthropic organization, so he knows what it's like for homebuilders to navigate the SF Planning maze. And Farrell would focus new homebuilding in neighborhoods that are already high density like SoMa, the FiDi, and Mission Bay, while Lurie would spread out new homes across the city.

But the good news is that there's no bad choice. All three candidates will be strong on this issue.

Public Safety

Mark Farrell really stands out on public safety.

During Farrell's time as Supervisor and during his short stint as Mayor, he worked effectively and collaboratively with police. He has a strong track record of supporting the police department and has been a vocal advocate for increasing police staffing to recommended levels. Here's what Farrell said in his questionnaire:

As Mayor, I will aggressively tackle the City’s police staffing crisis through a series of policies that will rapidly get the SFPD up to full operational capacity. I will restore the Deferred Retirement Option Program, which will allow hundreds of experienced officers to return to our neighborhoods on patrol and to train new recruits without affecting their pensions. I will ensure a wave of new recruits by fully funding five police academies a year (the maximum per year and more than Breed’s budget proposal), growing the size of our force back to where it needs to be. I will also immediately outsource the background check process for new recruits to trusted third parties, making the process faster, more efficient, and less opaque. I will increase funding for lateral recruitment from other municipalities, and reallocate any unspent funds for vacant positions for recruitment. More fundamentally, I will make it easier for young people from our diverse communities to envision themselves as San Francisco police officers, including by investing in recruitment drives and mentorship opportunities at San Francisco schools and community events. And I will never support cutting SFPD’s budget or appointing Police Commission members who want our officers to do their jobs with outdated tools, strategies, or technologies.

Mark FarrellSmall Business Owner; former Mayor of San Francisco

Lurie has a similar platform to Farrell on public safety. He also supports increasing police staffing to recommended levels, enhancing police presence in neighborhoods, and leveraging modern technologies to improve law enforcement effectiveness. Farrell has longer experience working this issue, though.

Mayor Breed faced a tumultuous time for the city during Covid, and there were many factors out of her control. The Mayor has less authority over the police than they should: the Mayor lacks the ability to hire a replacement police chief or directly set police policies. Instead, that is reserved for the Police Commission, whose members are handpicked by the Board of Supervisors. But the Mayor can issue directives to the police to prioritize or deprioritize some issues, and the Mayor can use the bully pulpit to advocate for changes to the police department and help recruit new officers. While there's positive change happening over the last few months, it took too long to deploy appropriate resources against the drug markets in the city center and we continue to be disappointed by SFPD's total non-enforcement of traffic laws.

Addiction & Fentanyl Dealing

Mark Farrell has the strongest plan to address the fentanyl overdose and dealing crisis.

There isn't a single right answer to the overdose crisis. Research has shown success in both enforcement-based and harm-reduction-based interventions, so the question voters need to consider is: what have we been doing that isn't working, and what haven't we been doing that we ought to? San Francisco focuses strongly on harm reduction today - with a myriad of nonprofits that focus on giving drug addicts clean paraphernalia (needles, tin foil, pipes) and purity testing kits to help them avoid disease and overdose. We think that this strategy isn't showing the results it needs to for such an important issue.

Farrell is the candidate with the strongest focus on criminal penalties for fentanyl dealers and mandatory treatment for addicts unable to care for themselves. Lurie is a decent choice, but his answers on our questionnaire lack the detail needed to give him the top spot. Mayor Breed has recently upped her efforts to deal with the crisis, including supporting Proposition F in March 2024, which mandated substance abuse treatment for residents seeking certain city services, but it took longer than we would have liked.

Homelessness

Daniel Lurie really shines on addressing homelessness. Lurie is the only candidate in the race who has actual first-hand experience assisting the homeless (via his Tipping Point foundation) as well as building over 140 subsidized low income homes. This real world experience outside of City Hall gives Lurie the perspective and experience to actually understand what's wrong with our homelessness system. Farrell is a solid choice because his plans focus on immediately building more shelters and moving people off the streets and into shelter. However, we're a little concerned that both Farrell and Lurie have a strong affinity for neighborhood engagement rather than just enabling the Department of Homelessness to open shelters wherever they're needed. Under Mayor Breed's tenure, the number of homeless has been too high, although the number of tents is coming down and her emphasis on building more homes will help alleviate homelessness over the next ten years.

Public Transit & Bikes

London Breed takes top marks for public transit and bikes; she really stands out here. Under her administration, the City has expanded its bike lane network by over 300%, created the City's first Slow Streets and car-free streets, helped make JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park into a stellar public space, and ensured MTA survived the pandemic. All that success isn't without some criticism, though: we are disappointed with the state of Market Street and wish the original "Better Market Street" plan had been implemented. And we certainly can't ignore that enforcement of traffic laws fell to nearly zero under her leadership.

Lurie is a solid choice because he supports a protected bike lane network and more red light and speed cameras. Farrell is the weakest, though, as he's a bit wishy-washy on dedicated bus lanes and wants to reopen Market Street to vehicles. We definitely acknowledge that Market Street needs work, but we think that the original "Better Market Street" plan was the right one, so let's just implement that!

Small Business

Mark Farrell is the only candidate in the race with private sector experience and a long track record of supporting small businesses in San Francisco. When he was a Supervisor representing District 2, he passed a small business tax credit plan to help them create more local jobs and helped liberalize zoning restrictions along Union Street which allowed more businesses to get started. Beyond his track record, he also understands the challenges small businesses face in San Francisco today: rampant shoplifting, declining foot traffic, and a lack of support from City Hall. The public safety crisis has hit small businesses particularly hard, and Farrell understands that getting more police officers walking the streets, talking to shopkeepers, and holding criminals accountable is the first step to helping small businesses recover.

Mayor Breed has accomplished a lot in her time in office to help small businesses, but the shoplifting and public safety crises pushed her down from the top spot. In particular, Breed authored Prop H and other small business reforms which have dramatically streamlined the business permitting process. Mayor Breed has had to work with an extremely antagonistic and oppositional Board of Supervisors, and we think that with a better Board, she will be able to deliver even stronger reforms. While Lurie has many good ideas like setting time limits on approvals, we think his biggest ones are too ambitious and disruptive to get done (for example, merging the Department of Building Inspection with other permitting agencies).