# Karen Bass Democratic Mayor of Los Angeles since December 2022 — the first woman to hold the office — after a long career in the U.S. House and as California Assembly Speaker. She was a finalist in [[Joe Biden]]'s 2020 vice-presidential search. Her mayoralty has been defined by two crises with national, RWKB-relevant dimensions. The catastrophic [[2025 Los Angeles Wildfires]] in January 2025 — which she faced amid criticism over fire-budget decisions and being abroad when they ignited — became a partisan flashpoint over disaster competence. Then in June 2025, [[Donald Trump]] federalized the California [[National Guard]] and deployed Marines to Los Angeles over Bass's and the state's objections during immigration-enforcement protests, making LA the test case for the administration's use of federal force in Democratic cities. ## Related - [[Donald Trump]] — federal-force deployment to LA in June 2025 - [[2025 Los Angeles Wildfires]] — disaster-politics flashpoint of her tenure