Nazarian is taking an early lead in the race for an open L.A. City Council seat in the San Fernando Valley

Former California Assembly member Adrin Nazarian took a wide lead over opponent Jillian Burgos in the early results in the race for Los Angeles City Council District 2.

As of late Tuesday night, Nazarian had about 58% of the vote, compared to Burgos’ 42%. They were the biggest vote getters a busy primary election election for an open seat in this San Fernando Valley district, which spans Toluca Lake, North Hollywood and Van Nuys.

Frontrunner places race in a national context

As his strong early results trickled in, Nazarian quickly pivoted to how he planned to use this office to resist a possible second Trump presidency.

“You better believe that Los Angeles will lead the way to make sure Trump doesn’t keep doing what he did four years ago,” Nazarian told supporters at an election night watch party in Sun Valley.

A progressive underdog

Burgos, an optician who has served on the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council, ran a progressive campaign saying she would expand outreach to unhoused residents and oppose major pay increases for Los Angeles police.

Unlike Burgos, Nazarian expressed support for a city policy banning homeless encampments near schools and parks. He also raised much more money than she did, and received support from Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass.

At her campaign event on election night, Burgos acknowledged she was an underdog. If she won, she said, she would be the only one second tenant to serve on the 15-member city council.

“I have the lived experience,” Burgos said. “I know what it’s like to have to work multiple jobs and live with multiple people just to survive. And we know we need to have diversity on our board.”

Voters want more to be done about homelessness

For many voters in this district, homelessness was a top issue. Just after he finished voting, Dani Torres said he chose Burgos because he liked that she was more of a newcomer to politics. He hoped she would push for more responsibility over homelessness spending.

“All I see is more homelessness,” Torres said. “I still see friends of mine who are a paycheck away from being homeless. I am almost homeless myself.”

At a polling place at the North Hollywood Recreation Center, so many voters showed up that poll workers ran out of “I Voted” stickers. That was a disappointment to Daniella Sherman, who wanted a sticker after casting her first vote in a presidential race since becoming a citizen.

Sherman said she picked Nazarian in the council race in hopes he would do more to remove encampments.

“I feel bad for people that they are homeless,” Sherman said. “But it’s not my fault that I’m attacked at night, or that I have to live with this. I pay a lot of rent.”

Why this chair was up for grabs

This seat in the council district has been occupied for more than 14 years by Paul Krekorian, who was no longer able to run for office because he was excluded.

Before reaching elected office, Nazarian served as Krekorian’s chief of staff. Both are prominent Armenian-American politicians in a district with the city’s largest number of voters of Armenian descent.