Breed officially launches reelection campaign, vowing to 'do the work'

For the first time in a long time, San Francisco Mayor London Breed might have momentum.

Fresh off her strongest poll numbers in recent memory, Breed formally kicked off her reelection campaign in front of throngs of supporters at the Fillmore Auditorium on Saturday.

Breed rejected the “doom loop” narrative that has clouded The City in recent years, instead painting a picture of progress on The City’s most pressing problems, including homelessness and crime.

“People want you to think that those things aren’t turning around,” Breed said. “People want you to think that all of a sudden we cleaned up The City for APEC , or we cleaned up The City for an election. You don’t just snap your fingers and black magic happens. You do the work.”

She all but dared her opponents to run negative campaigns, promising to run an uplifting race and encouraging her supporters to join her on the “roller coaster.” It’s a position that might have been harder to take had she faced reelection a year ago, but now Breed happily pointed to statistics showing crime on the decline and unsheltered homelessness dropping .

Breed, who is hoping to win a second full term in office, faces an array of challengers from inside and outside City Hall. And despite suffering from wildly low approval ratings in poll after poll for months, Breed is still clearly a contender — if not the front-runner.

Earlier this week, political advocacy group GrowSF released a new poll that showed Breed narrowly winning reelection in a ranked-choice-voting scenario that mimicked San Francisco’s actual election process.

The same survey found that, in relation to previous polls, fewer San Franciscans view The City as heading in the wrong direction, which could be an important improvement for a mayor seeking to win reelection.

Of course, there are reasons for skepticism. The poll had only 412 respondents. Ranked-choice voting is notoriously complex, and many survey respondents declined to even name their second or third choices for mayor — which could change by Election Day.

Such caveats be damned, Breed was triumphant on Saturday. She used the event to not only demonstrate her gravitational pull as a leader, but the connections she has forged across The City.

Speakers at the event included representatives from labor, a drag queen, a Mission district community leader, a safe streets advocate, and beloved San Franciscan and actor Danny Glover.

“We need someone who loves this city, was born in this city, raised in this city, who has worked in this city,” Glover said.

Breed, too, pointed to her experience as a young woman raised in San Francisco .

“When you live over 20 years of your life in conditions that you have no control over, in poverty, those experiences — you never forget,” Breed said.

Breed’s opponents include Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin , who is challenging her from the political left. Supervisor Ahsha Safai , who has served two terms, is also running, as is former interim Mayor Mark Farrell , who held the post for about six months following the death of former Mayor Ed Lee and is now seeking to regain it. Tipping Point co-founder Daniel Lurie is making the argument that San Francisco could use a fresh set of eyes.

Breed is making the argument that she has led The City through challenging times and is poised to lead its resurgence. While her opponents are focused on what’s wrong with The City, Breed has highlighted everything that has gone right under her leadership.

That includes her move early in the COVID-19 pandemic to make San Francisco the first major city in the United States to shut down, a decision that multiple speakers at Saturday’s rally referenced.

She also referenced her controversial attempts to rein in the opioid overdose epidemic with a more law-enforcement-centric approach. Detractors have decried her strategy as a return to failed War on Drugs policies, but she defended them as being forged in concert with people who have lived through it.

“We have not abandoned our values,” Breed promised.

The mayor outlined a second term that includes facilitating downtown’s recovery through encouraging more students to live and attend school there, improving The City’s transportation infrastructure, and leading the push to build more than 80,000 new homes .

All of that will happen despite the naysaying, Breed said.

“We don’t have time for folks who have no idea what it means to actually run a city,” Breed said.