For the First Time, A Black Woman Is Elected Mayor of San Francisco

For the first time, an African-American woman has been elected mayor of the city of San Francisco.

London Breed reached the milestone on Wednesday, when her opponent conceded a tight mayoral race. Breed will serve until 2020, finishing the term of the late Mayor Ed Lee, who died in December at age 65.

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Leno and Breed, both Democrats, faced off in a primary election held June 5. At one point, Leno pulled ahead in the count, but as more ballots were tallied, Breed took the lead.

With the results neck-and-neck, the San Francisco Department of Elections began counting nearly 14,000 provisional ballots this week. As of Wednesday, it’s still processing approximately 6,700 ballots and Breed held the lead by 2,177 votes.

Breed graduated from the University of California, Davis with a bachelor of arts in political science-public service and a minor in African American studies, according to her bio. She later earned a masters degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco.

In November 2012, she was first elected to the Board of Supervisors — the legislative branch for the county and city of San Francisco — and reelected to the board in November 2016, according to her bio.

After Lee’s death, she became acting mayor, making her the city’s first black female chief executive. But weeks later, the majority of the Board of Supervisors voted to remove Breed from the temporary position in a surprising move that sparked outrage from African American supporters.

Those who voted for Breed’s removal said she wielded too much of an advantage, as both the Board of Supervisors president and acting mayor, while running for the permanent mayoral job.

In January, Breed was ousted and Mark Farrell, a Board of Supervisors member, was appointed acting mayor by fellow board members to serve until the election, CNN affiliate KGO reported.

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