Since the departure of its two gay members at the end of 2022, the Los Angeles City Council has been without LGBTQ representation. Ysabel Jurado is aiming to change that with her candidacy this year for the 15-member governing body's District 14 seat.
The queer tenants' rights lawyer pulled off an upset in the March 5 primary by placing first in the eight-person race. With little backing from LGBTQ groups and elected officials, she vanquished two state assemblymembers, Democrats Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrillo, who had also sought the council seat.
Jurado, 34, a single mom, also finished ahead of the disgraced incumbent, City Councilmember Kevin de León, by 398 votes. Caught on a secretly recorded tape making racist comments, which was leaked in 2022, de León ignored demands that he resign and saw several attempts to recall him fail.
Nonetheless, roughly 77% of primary voters cast ballots for a new council representative. To Jurado, the results signal there is strong support for a change in leadership. She is hopeful it will usher her into office come Election Day on November 5.
"We didn't have institutional support in the primary. What we were really finding was grassroots support from communities that have been neglected or not just approached in politics," Jurado told the Bay Area Reporter during a phone interview about her candidacy.
That has since changed, with Jurado securing the Los Angeles County Democratic Party's endorsement in the spring. It was a marked turnaround from her fielding questions ahead of the primary about her being a democratic socialist.
"They thought I was some scary dragon lady for sure — she is crazy — I was like a wild card to them," said Jurado, who is self-employed and mounting her first bid for elected office. "Definitely, I was treated like a weirdo, which is fine."
Having been labeled as "other" her whole life, Jurado said she took it in stride. She knocked on doors and talked to voters one-on-one. The conversations made it clear the "core values" she is fighting for are "democratic values," said Jurado.
"I don't think I am as much of a weirdo as they thought," she told the B.A.R. "I think people just got to know me."
In early July, the national LGBTQ+ Victory Fund endorsed Jurado, naming her one of its "Spotlight Candidates," and weeks later statewide LGBTQ advocacy organization Equality California also endorsed her candidacy.
While open about her interest in dating men and women with her family and friends, Jurado wasn't out publicly until after she decided to launch her council bid. As she doesn't identify as gay or bisexual, Jurado told the B.A.R. she wasn't certain about how to explain her sexual orientation.
"Once the campaign started, I was still grappling with feeling like an imposter," she explained, noting that the term queer felt "more relative to me."
Being so open about her private life has been an adjustment, said Jurado, noting she never was very active on social media growing up. She is naturally a "very private person," explained Jurado.
"That part of the campaigning and being a public figure is one I find harder to me. It is not the part I love the most," admitted Jurado, who does have accounts on X, Instagram and TikTok.
She also came out later in life, in 2021, during the second year of the COVID pandemic. As she is a single mom, Jurado said most people assumed she was straight.
"I was on a podcast," recalled Jurado, "and the host said, 'Wait, you are a member of the LGBTQ community? But, you are a mom.' I said, 'Yes,' and explained that gay people can have children and be moms."
She has an entire page on her campaign website devoted to various LGBTQ issues she wants to push for if elected to the City Council. Among them is establishing an LGBTQ advisory council; since 2016 the city has had a Transgender Advisory Council.
"We are needing a leader from our community and allies on the council to push that through," she said.
Jurado also wants to ensure the needs of LGBTQ older adults, youth, business owners, and the unhoused are being addressed by City Hall and city-funded service providers. Asked by the B.A.R. about seeing Los Angeles join West Hollywood and San Francisco in having a drag laureate position to champion LGBTQ nightlife, Jurado replied, "I would love it."
She held a Drag Ball fundraiser that drew more than 120 attendees and netted $20,000 for her campaign coffers. It served as part statement of "being who we are," said Jurado, and also a sly ploy to engage people who are normally apolitical.
"We were bringing in people who wouldn't normally engage in politics and tricking them into doing so by having fun," said Jurado, who has also hosted a fundraiser with burlesque performers.
The 14th Council District includes Downtown Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno, and Northeast Los Angeles neighborhoods such as Eagle Rock where LGBTQ families have moved to in recent years in search of affordable housing. While there are no designated LGBTQ neighborhoods in the district, Jurado noted it has thriving queer communities heavily populated by LGBTQ people of color.
Gay former Los Angeles city councilmember Mike Bonin, who represented the 11th Council District, is supporting Jurado in the race. He had announced in early 2022 he wouldn't seek a third term that year and then learned, due to the leaked recording, that de León had disparaged his family, including he and his husband's adopted Black son.
Also among those endorsing Jurado is District 13 City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez. Two years ago, he defeated the gay incumbent, councilmember Mitch O'Farrell.
Jurado, the daughter of undocumented Filipino immigrants, would be the city council's first Filipina member. A native of Los Angeles, she was raised by her single mom in Highland Park.
As a teenager, Jurado had her daughter, Stella, who is now 15 years old. She put herself through college, first at Pasadena City College then UCLA and went on to earn her law degree from the UCLA School of Law. Her legal work has focused on stopping tenant evictions and fighting for community organizations and small businesses to keep their leases.
She had lost her mom to cancer just weeks prior to starting graduate school. Jurado credits her drive to succeed and work ethic to the seven women, all roughly 4 feet tall in stature, who had a hand in raising her. The list includes her two grandmas, her mother, her mom's three sisters, and Jurado's cousin.
"I grew up in a family of strong, little women," said Jurado, who is herself 4 feet 11 inches tall.
Along the campaign trail Jurado's penchant for wearing "mom jeans" has attracted notice. She told the B.A.R. she buys her denim from the sustainable clothing brand Reformation and unashamedly pairs them with clogs.
"Did I know I wear mom jeans? I thought I was rocking a cute wide leg thing like all the kids are," said Jurado. "On the back label on my butt pocket it says, 'Smart Ass,' so come on!"
Headed into the fall campaign, Jurado is following the same game plan as she had going into the crowded primary where she was seen as an underdog with no shot of winning. Although outraised two to one, she hit the pavement with her supporters, whom she has dubbed her ysabeyhive, and knocked on 85,000 doors of households across the district.
"I am approaching this race like we did before with the same eagerness and work ethic to make sure we win in November," said Jurado. "This election is not about me; it is about us."
Political Notes, the notebook's online companion, returns Monday, August 5.
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