Karen Bass

Bass worked with the governor and initiated the California Commission on the 21st-Century Economy to reform California's tax code.

She also fought to repeal the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.

Bass became speaker during a period of severe economic turmoil.

Negotiations over a spending plan to address a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall began the day Bass was sworn in.

She was part of the negotiations that resulted in a comprehensive deal to close most of a $42 billion shortfall.

Before her election to Congress, Bass represented the 47th district in the California State Assembly for six years.

Karen Ruth Bass (born October 3, 1953) is an American politician, social worker and former physician assistant who has served as the 43rd mayor of Los Angeles since 2022.

In the mid-1970s she was an organizer for the Venceremos Brigade, a pro-Cuban group that organized trips by Americans to Cuba.

She visited Cuba eight times in the 1970s.

She was raised in the Venice and Fairfax neighborhoods of Los Angeles and graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School in 1971.

Witnessing the civil rights movement on television with her father as a child sparked her interest in community activism.

While in middle school, Bass began volunteering for Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign.

She went on to study philosophy at San Diego State University from 1971 to 1973, and graduated from the USC Keck School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program in 1982.

In the 1980s, she worked as an emergency medicine physician assistant and a clinical instructor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC Physician Assistant Program.

In the late 1980s, Bass and other local community organizers founded Community Coalition

She then earned a bachelor of science degree in health sciences from California State University, Dominguez Hills in 1990.

In 2004, Bass was elected to represent California's 47th Assembly district.

At her inauguration, she became the only African-American woman serving in the state legislature.

Speaker Fabian Núñez appointed Bass California State Assembly majority whip for the 2005–06 legislative session and majority floor leader for the 2007–08 legislative session.

During her term as majority whip, Bass was vice chair of the Legislative Black Caucus.

As vice chair, she commissioned the first ever "State of Black California" report.

She was reelected in 2006 and 2008 before her term limit expired.

Bass served the cities and communities of Culver City, West Los Angeles, Westwood, Cheviot Hills, Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills, View Park-Windsor Hills, Ladera Heights, the Crenshaw District, Little Ethiopia and portions of Koreatown and South Los Angeles.

Núñez termed out of the Assembly at the end of the 2007–08 session, leaving Bass as the next-highest-ranking Democrat in the Assembly.

In 2008, she was elected to serve as the 67th Speaker of the California State Assembly, becoming the first African-American woman in United States history to serve as a speaker of a state legislative body.

After consolidating the support of a majority of legislators, including some who had previously been planning to run for the speakership themselves, Bass was elected speaker on February 28, 2008, and sworn in on May 13, 2008.

As speaker, Bass promoted numerous laws to improve the state's child welfare system.

During her first year, she ushered through expansion of Healthy Families Insurance Coverage to prevent children from going without health insurance and worked to eliminate bureaucratic impediments to the certification of small businesses.

She also secured more than $2.3 million to help revitalize the historic Vision Theater in Los Angeles and more than $600 million for Los Angeles Unified School District.

Bass was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010.

A member of the Democratic Party, Bass previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2022 and in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010, serving as speaker during her final Assembly term.

A Los Angeles native, Bass attended college at California State University, Dominguez Hills and the University of Southern California.

She spent her career as a physician assistant and community activist before seeking public office.

She chaired the Congressional Black Caucus during the 116th Congress.

Bass won the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election, beginning her term on December 12.

She is the first woman to serve as mayor of Los Angeles and the second Black person to serve in that capacity (the first was Tom Bradley).

Bass was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Wilhelmina (née Duckett) and DeWitt Talmadge Bass.

Her father was a postal letter carrier and her mother was a homemaker.

She represented California's 33rd congressional district during her first term, though redistricting moved her to the 37th district in 2012.

She also received her master's degree in social work from the University of Southern California in 2015.