Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie challenging San Francisco Mayor London Breed

Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie on Tuesday announced he’s challenging San Francisco Mayor London Breed for her seat in 2024. 

“I am running for Mayor of San Francisco to bring a new era of leadership that this moment demands,” Lurie, a Democrat, said on X. He’s the heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and a prominent philanthropist in the Golden State.

He said his experience watching his parents be part of Levi’s taught him to “that you need to take care of the community,” and touted his work with Tipping Point, a 501(c)(3) he founded in 2005 to combat poverty in the Bay Area. 

Breed, the current Democratic mayor, is running for reelection in 2024 — and Lurie’s campaign presents a major challenger. 

“I love this city, but what we are seeing on the streets of San Francisco is not progressive,” Lurie said in a video accompanying his campaign announcement. 

“We have too many people that have been in power for far too long, doing things the same way they’ve always been done. We need the courage to try to do things differently.” He pointed to problems of homelessness, and called for an end to open-air drug dealing.

Housing is a key problem for the Democratic California city, and open-air drug markets have made headlines amid a surge in drug overdose deaths.