Your Vote Is Not Their Damage Control
Your Vote, Your City. June 2nd.
by Leo Moraes and Andrew Lojero
Tuesday, June 2nd is primary election day in Los Angeles. If you're registered to vote, this is the one. Not just the governor's race, not just the headline names, but all of it. The city council seats, the school board, the judges, the ballot measures. The races that most people skip are often the ones that shape daily life the most directly: who runs your kid's school district, who sits on the bench when someone in your neighborhood needs justice, who controls the budget that decides whether your block gets resources or gets forgotten.
Here's the number that should keep you up at night, and also give you hope: in a typical primary, roughly 21% of registered voters actually show up. That's it. One in five. Which means the outcome isn't being decided by "the public." It's being decided by whoever bothered. And in a race that close to the ground, a mobilized community, people who show up together, who text their neighbors, who walk to the polls and bring someone with them, can swing a result entirely. The math is on our side, if we use it.
We know that life is full and the ballot is long and it can all feel like too much. That's exactly why we put this together. Consider it a playlist from people who did the listening so you don't have to start from zero.
There's something they don't tell you when they hand you the "lesser evil" argument. They don't tell you that it's a trap. Every cycle, the same logic: swallow your beliefs, hold your nose, vote for the safe option because the alternative is 'not viable', or 'too dangerous'. And every cycle, the window of what's possible shrinks a little further. Not because voters failed, but because the system learned it could keep serving the same cold meal as long as it was slightly warmer than the other option on the table.
Damage control is not a strategy for the people. It is a strategy for power. It keeps the floor exactly where it is and calls that progress.
We know this feeling intimately. We've felt it. We've argued about it at the table, on the phone, walking to the car after a show. And we'd be lying if we said we had all the answers.
But New York City has showed us that another way is possible.
Zohran Mamdani didn't run as the lesser evil. He ran as himself. As someone who actually wants to work for the people, who wasn't assembled in a boardroom, who speaks to the community rather than at it. And the community responded. We are watching, in real time, what cracks open when someone refuses to play the game. That crack is the whole point. That crack is where the light gets in.
We've spent the last few months in real conversation with candidates, the kind where you sit across from someone and ask the hard questions and actually listen to the answers. We talked to candidates up and down the ballot. We listened for the ones who weren't performing. And some of them, we believed.
This is our endorsement guide for the June 2026 primary in Los Angeles. We offer it not as a mandate but as an open hand, from our community to yours. You will make your own choice. We trust you to do that. But if you're undecided, or tired, or trying to figure out which race even matters, we hope this helps.
Los Angeles — Primary Voter Guide 2026
Endorsed by ArtDontSleep / Jazz Is Dead / Linear Labs
🏙️ City of Los Angeles
Mayor → Rae Huang
City Attorney → Aida Ashouri
Controller → Kenneth Mejia
Board of Supervisors D1 → Maria Elena Durazo
Board of Supervisors D3 → Lindsey Horvath
Sheriff → Eric Strong
Assessor → Jeffrey Prang
🏛️ City Council
CD1 → Eunisses Hernandez
CD3 → No Endorsement
CD5 → Henry Mantel
CD9 → Estuardo Mazariegos
CD11 → Faiza Malik
CD13 → Hugo Soto-Martinez
CD15 → Tim McOsker
🌴 State
Governor → No Endorsement
Lieutenant Governor → Oliver Ma
Secretary of State → Shirley Weber
State Controller → Meghann Adams
Treasurer → Glenn Turner
Attorney General → Rob Bonta
🏛️ State Senate & Assembly
Senate District 20 → Caroline Menjivar
Senate District 26 → Sarah Rascón
Assembly District 52 → Jessica Caloza
Assembly District 55 → Isaac Bryan
Assembly District 61 → Tina McKinnor
🇺🇸 US Congress
District 23 → Karen Matthews
District 27 → Caleb Norwood
District 28 → Judy Chu
District 29 → Angélica Dueñas
District 30 → Joel Lava
District 34 → Angela Gonzales-Torres
District 38 → Hilda Solis
Seat 2 → Tap Kahn Valbuena
Seat 14 → Angie Christides
Seat 64 → Rhonda Haymon
Seat 65 → Anna Reitano
Seat 66 → Ben Forer
Seat 81 → Dan Kapelovitz
Seat 87 → Anthony Bayne
Seat 116 → Paul Thompson
Seat 131 → David Ross
Seat 176 → Zachary Smith
Seat 181 → Thanayi Lindsey
🎓 LAUSD
District 4 → Ankur Patel
District 6 → Kelly Gonez
🗳️ Ballot Measures
About Rae Huang
Los Angeles needs a mayor who understands the city at street level, not just as a portfolio of real estate interests and donor relationships. Rae Huang has built her political identity around housing, accountability, and the kind of transparency that makes powerful people uncomfortable. She is not the establishment's first choice, and that tells you something. She has shown a willingness to be heard by the community and, more importantly, to hear it back. In a city still finding its footing after years of broken promises, that two-way conversation is not a small thing. It is, in fact, the whole thing.
Vote. Not because it fixes everything. But because the people in these races are real, their policies are real, and the communities they represent are real.
With love,
The ArtDontSleep Family