London Breed, 43, has declared victory in the close election to lead San Francisco, making her the second woman and first black woman to hold the post.
She will serve until 2020 to fill the remainder of the term for former mayor Ed Lee, who died in December.
“I am so hopeful about the future of our city, and I am looking forward to serving as your mayor. I am truly humbled and I am truly honored,” she told supporters after her opponent conceded.
The result comes more than a week after the June 5 election, as the vote tally remained too close to call.
Breed, a San Francisco native, earned a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis , according to her bio. She later got her masters degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco.
She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2012 and re-elected in 2016.
After Lee’s death, she became acting mayor, making her the city’s first black female chief executive. But the Board of Supervisors voted to remove Breed from the temporary position because incumbency gave her what some saw as an unfair advantage in the mayoral election to replace Lee.
“I’m a native San Franciscan — I grew up in some of the most challenging of circumstances,” she said in a news conference Wednesday. “I think the message that this sends to the next generation of young people growing up in this city, that no matter where you come from … you can do anything you want to do.”
