Former state legislator Kevin de León plans to run for City Councilman José Huízar’s seat at City Hall in 2020, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
De León, who was elected to the State Senate in 2010 and served as President until last year, ran an unsuccessful campaign to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the U.S. Senate in November.
He will run to lead City Council District 14 — which includes Boyle Heights
— after Huízar, who has held the seat since 2005, reaches his term limit in 2020.
“In early November, I made a commitment to my fellow Democrats, Angelenos, and Californians that I would continue on a path of public service, to focus on building coalitions in our communities to achieve our common goals,” de León said, according to City News Service. “Today, I am fulfilling that promise by announcing my candidacy for the Los Angeles City Council.”
The 52-year-old has already been endorsed by “nearly two dozen” elected officials in the L.A. area, the Times reported, including City Council members Curren Price, Paul Koretz and Mitch O’Farrell.
Several others have filed to run in the March 2020 election, according to City News Service. Huízar’s wife Richelle Huízar announced her campaign for the seat in last year but dropped out in November after FBI agents raided her home and her husband’s offices. Officials have not disclosed the reason for the investigation, and Huízar remains in office despite calls for his resignation.
De León recently moved to Eagle Rock from his home in Mt. Washington, and accepted a position with the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs as a policymaker-in-residence and senior analyst.
Photo above: Kevin de León at the Boyle Heights Holiday Parade in December.
