Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath is officially running to become the county’s first elected chief executive, opening the race nearly 500 days before voters head to the polls.
Horvath filed paperwork on Monday declaring her candidacy for the newly created position, checking the box for nonpartisan while providing little additional information. She is the first candidate to enter the contest for the primary scheduled for March 7, 2028.
The new executive post will replace the county’s appointed CEO, overseeing a budget of roughly $50 billion and labor relations with more than 100,000 employees. The position was established when voters approved Measure G in 2024, a motion propelled to a 51.6% approval by Horvath and fellow Supervisor Janice Hahn.
“I fight everyday to reform our government because I believe the people of Los Angeles deserve better — a government that works for them, delivers real results and is accountable to the people it serves,” Horvath said in a statement. “That’s why I’m running to become Los Angeles County’s first elected County Executive.”
The campaign is already drawing friction at the Hall of Administration. Supervisor Kathryn Barger advocated for a pause on the implementation of Measure G last month, citing concerns over speed and calling on board members to pledge not to run for the executive post.
“This position is going to change the county. We’re going to become the city of L.A. on steroids,” Barger told the Los Angeles Times. “Once again, we are rushing to put something together, I think maybe in the hopes that no one will peel back the curtain and expose what is going on.”
Barger issued another statement on Monday maintaining that campaigning for the office is premature given questions regarding whether the office is constitutional. She pointed to concerns raised by former federal judge Stephen Larson regarding whether the California Constitution permits an elected executive to veto board decisions, control county contracts, and absorb powers currently held by the Board of Supervisors.
Horvath dismissed those objections last month in an emailed statement to the Los Angeles Times.
“Pressuring others out of an election is political interference, no matter how many times she calls it ethics,” Horvath said.
Other supervisors, including Holly Mitchell and Hilda Solis, have agreed to honor the pledge not to run while implementation is sorted out. Meanwhile, Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School for Public Affairs, said that the field remains wide open.
“We don’t even know who else is running, and there are going to be a lot of people running,” Yaroslavsky told the Los Angeles Times. “There are a lot of big names who are thinking about running.”
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