‘We Need Change’: Left-wing Icon Cenk Uygur Backs Caruso over Bass for L.A. Mayor

Cenk Uygur, founder of The Young Turks, a left-wing media network, came out Wednesday in favor of billionaire businessman Rick Caruso (D) over establishment favorite Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) in the race for mayor of Los Angeles, stunning local observers.

Uygur posted a viral tweet stating that life in L.A. has become intolerable, and that Bass simply offers voters business-as-usual:

Asked by political reporter Elex Michaelson of Fox KTTV-11 whether he backs Caruso’s insurgent campaign, Uygur said yes:

Confronted by critics on the left who accused him of supporting a “billionaire,” Uygur countered that the establishment had failed:

Uygur’s announcement came a day before Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is due to hold a rally for Bass, who is flagging in the polls.

Sanders endorsed Uygur’s campaign for Congresss in a special election in 2019, until Uygur was accused of misogynistic statements.

As Breitbart News noted this week, Caruso has caught up to Bass, and the two are in a statistical tie in the closely-watched race.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.