2018 San Francisco mayoral special election
Ed Lee, who was appointed Mayor of San Francisco in 2011 following Gavin Newsom's election as Lieutenant Governor of California, elected to a full term in 2011, and reelected in 2015, died of cardiac arrest on December 12, 2017. London Breed, the President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, became the city's acting mayor.
Steve Barr (educator)
Barr worked on the presidential campaigns of two Democratic Party candidates in the 1980s and served as Finance Chairman of the California Democratic Party. After having worked on school reform for many years, in June 2016 Steve Barr announced his candidacy for the 2017 Los Angeles mayoral election, challenging incumbent mayor Eric Garcetti. Garcetti won with an overwhelming majority.