Councilman Eric Garcetti won the election for mayor of Los Angeles with almost 54 percent of the vote, the election office of the second most populated city in the United States said today in a an official statement.
Garcetti received 181,995 votes, or 53.92 percent, while his rival Wendy Greuel, received 155,497 votes, or 46 percent. His campaign received endorsements from a wide array of organizations in the Latino community, including the Latino Coalition of Los Angeles and the Mexican-American Bar Association.
Garcetti thanked the voters in a short message posted on Twitter on the evening of his election.
Garcetti, who will take office on July 1 when Antonio Villaraigosa's mandate comes to an end, is the first Jewish person to be elected for a mayoral post in Los Angeles, and at age 42 will also be the youngest mayor that the city has seen in over a century.
Garcetti shares a Latino cultural heritage with the outgoing mayor, which he has repeatedly said makes him very proud. He has Italian and Mexican roots on his father's side but has a very different family history from that of Villaraigosa, who has shared that he comes from a broken home in the tough streets of East Los Angeles.
Garcetti is the son of a former district attorney who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, studied at Columbia University and who enjoys playing jazz on the piano.
"The hard work begins now and I am honored to be in charge of this city for the next four years," Garcetti wrote online.
"Let's make this a great city again."
The defeated candidate called to congratulate the winner, the Los Angeles Time reports.
"Congratulations. Garcetti did a phenomenal job and I'll admit my defeat tomorrow, but the results have come in and they are more than obvious," Greuel said.
Citizen participation in the election was only 25 percent in the second most populous city in the United States, even though the candidates spent more than $30 million on the campaign, ABC's local television station in Los Angeles reports.
Prior to being elected to the City Council, Garcetti worked mostly as a college professor at the University of Southern California and Occidental College. He has also served on the California Board of Human Rights Watch.
Garcetti lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles with his wife Amy Elaine Wakeland and his daughter Maya Juanita.