Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has accomplished a couple of important firsts in her career. She is the first woman to lead her native Los Angeles and the first African American woman to ever lead a state legislative body.
This accomplished leader, who also served in Congress and once was an AFSCME member herself, addressed the 46th AFSCME International Convention on Wednesday.
She said she worked with AFSCME on police reform, foster care and other issues when she was in Congress and will work with AFSCME again to prepare Los Angeles to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
“I will always stand with AFSCME,” Bass declared.
She urged AFSCME members to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying, “We know what would happen to public service workers” if Donald Trump and JD Vance are elected.
“They have spent decades attacking public service, decades attacking government, saying that they want to shrink government so that it could fit in the size of a bathtub,” Bass said. “We are never going to let them destroy the organizations for working people because we are going to elect President Harris and Vice President Walz!”
Bass started off her career as a nurse and a physician assistant. She founded the Community Coalition to organize the predominantly Black and Latino residents of South LA.
When she was a state lawmaker, Bass and other legislative leaders were awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for preventing California from bankruptcy while protecting vital services during the largest economic decline since the Great Depression.
Bass is the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest city. In addition to being the first woman to hold that post, she is also only the second African American to be elected LA mayor.
LA Mayor Karen Bass, a former AFSCME member, pledged to always stand with our union. Photo by Brenda Bravo
