Deep Dive on LA Mayoral Hopeful Rae Chen Huang

Real estate has often sat opposite Rae Chen Huang on key housing issues. Now, as a Los Angeles mayoral hopeful, can the movement organizer and ordained Presbyterian minister bridge the gap with the industry?

Since the dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America and Sawtelle resident announced the launch of her campaign earlier this month at an Arts District brewery, the public has been served broad strokes on a platform. The pledges might sound like familiar fodder from left-of-center, but they take on recent resonance on the heels of winning campaigns by one-time longshots in New York City and Seattle: Affordable housing, free transit, transition to renewable energy and addressing public safety through a boost in mental health services.

“We need a new kind of leadership, free from the tired establishment and the billionaire class,” Huang said in her launch video. “Mayor Bass failed to deliver the housing you need and wasted taxpayer dollars with little to show for it.”

The launch video zeroed in on a particular sore point of commercial real estate, showing the bankruptcy, abandoned and graffiti-scarred towers of the Oceanwide Plaza across the the Los Angeles Convention Center as a knock on Bass’s effectiveness.

Huang currently works as deputy director of Housing Now! California, a Los Angeles organization that calls itself a “movement” pushing for affordable housing. The group is aligned with over 150 other organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, multiple local DSA chapters, the Los Angeles Tenants Union, Eviction Defense Network and other groups.

It’s early for Huang’s campaign and money raised has not yet been reported to the city’s Ethics Committee, according to a check of records Tuesday.

While the immediate reaction to Huang’s bid for mayor was to liken her to New York’s Zohran Mamdani — and there are similarities — others have put a finer point on it. Indeed, some political spectators see Huang as a longshot who nevertheless holds the potential to play a key role in forcing a runoff by keeping Bass from a clear majority in the June primary. Candidates need more than 50 percent of the votes to clinch a victory in the first round, and Huang along with former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent and City Hall veteran Austin Beutner and 11 others could lay the field wide open.

Former Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky pointed out to the Los Angeles Daily News that LA is more diverse when it comes to its voter base than New York or Seattle, both of which voted in so-called “longshot” candidates with Mamdani and Katie Wilson, respectively. Those diverse views could prove to be an uphill battle for Huang if she has to hunt up votes in the San Fernando Valley, which has traditionally been more conservative than the rest of the city.

The mayoral hopeful did not respond to an interview request from The Real Deal Monday, and she has yet to stake a clear position on Measure United to House LA, the city’s so-called mansion tax.

Legislative maneuvering

Huang did tell the Los Angeles Times she supports the 120-unit affordable housing project on Venice Boulevard, known as Venice Dell.

A look back at legislation Housing Now! has supported offers a closer view of her broader outlook, with one clue apparent in the backing Housing Now! gave SB 567, which was authored by longtime labor leader Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) and boosted tenant protections in 2023.

The California Apartment Association, California Association of Realtors, Apartment Association of Orange County, Building Owners and Managers Association of California and Institute of Real Estate Management were among the industry groups opposed to the bill.

The law creates more restrictions in no-fault evictions, where a landlord seeks to end a lease for reasons unrelated to the tenant, such as major remodeling or a decision to take the unit off market.

Huang’s group also backed SB 555, authored by Aisha Wahab (D-Hayward) and signed into law in 2023.

The California Association of Realtors was among SB 555’s opposition.

The bill requires the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development to complete a social housing study. This would map out how to increase social housing for low- to moderate-income residents.

Huang spoke on the concept of “social housing” — which can range from publicly-owned developments to tenants taking ownership cooperatively — during a May panel hosted by affordable housing publication Shelterforce and Nonprofit Quarterly. She said she sees a need for publicly- or community-owned housing when it comes to answers around funding, development and acquisition.

“One of the challenges, and one of the dangers, with [private involvement] is that if we do lean into private funding for social housing, it does then return back into the same old situation that we have, in which case then it becomes another place of profit,” Huang said during the panel.

The state’s Housing and Community Development agency, meanwhile, tapped UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation to handle the SB 555 report, with the study expected to be completed by 2027.

It’s been estimated the study could pave the way for anywhere between 1.2 million and 1.4 million affordable homes. It could also hold implications for cities’ housing elements — the roadmap municipalities are required to create for their long-term housing plans. Those plans must be certified by the state. Notably, an unapproved housing plan paves the way for developers’ use of builder’s remedy, which has been tapped for projects in La Cañada Flintridge and Beverly Hills.

State of play

Huang enters a candidate pool that’s so far stirred little buzz outside of political circles.

First off, there’s incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who has raised $1.6 million, according to city records through June 30. However, Bass has been dogged by the handling of the Palisades Fire leading some calls for her resignation, and a nearly $1 billion budget deficit earlier this year that has since been closed.

A total of 13 challengers to Bass have emerged so far. The biggest name currently is Beutner, a Democrat. There’s also Asaad Alnajjar, a civil engineer and chair of Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council’s Safety and Transit Committee. Alnajjar has raised nearly $39,000 from the CEO of Los Angeles-based Caltron Construction and the head of Hillsborough venture capital firm Andra Capital among others, according to city records.

Another potential candidate is Rick Caruso, with the developer yet to say whether he might make another run for mayor, pursue the governor’s office or sit out electoral politics in 2026.