The results are in.

Rick Caruso: You are not the winner.

Following more than a week of counting ballots and tabulating votes, U.S. Rep Karen Bass was finally projected to win the Los Angeles mayor race and become the first Black woman to ever serve in that role.

The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday night with more than 70% of the votes counted as it became apparent that the electoral math wasn’t in the favor of Bass’ billionaire opponent, Caruso.

“Bass had amassed an insurmountable lead of nearly 47,000 votes,” the AP reported. “She had 53.1%, with Caruso notching 46.9%.”

Last week’s election served as a runoff months after neither Bass nor Caruso eclipsed the 50% mark during the primary in June.

At the time, Bass said she was confident of her chances in November and accurately predicted, “we are going to win.”

Bass, a sitting U.S. Congresswoman who has served California’s 37th Congressional District, which includes Los Angeles, since 2010. But she began gearing up for her mayoral run last year and suggested at the time that she was the right person to address Los Angeles’ “humanitarian crisis in homelessness and a public health crisis” from the pandemic.

Caruso, a wealthy real estate developer who similarly ran on a platform that promised to “clean up” homelessness in Los Angeles, where Black people make up 34% of the city’s homeless population, also placed a heavy emphasis on policing.

In a memorable moment during the campaign, Caruso rejected the notion that he is “a white man” during a debate against Bass last month. Caruso claimed his “Latin” heritage as an Italian precludes him from being described as “a white man.”

Caruso is, of course, a white man.

The victory for Bass — a 69-year-old native Angeleno who Joe Biden seriously considered to be his vice-presidential running mate in 2020 — makes her the latest inductee into a growing club of Black mayors of major cities who have been elected in recent years, at least 11 of whom were sworn in this year alone. She will also become the second-ever Black mayor of the city. Tom Bradley served as Los Angeles’ first Black Mayor from 1973-1993.

The current Mayor Eric Garcetti was forced to leave office because of term limits.

This is a breaking news story that will be updated as additional information becomes available.

SEE ALSO:

Rick Caruso Denies Being ‘A White Man’ During Los Angeles Mayor Debate

Black Republican Who Karen Bass Trounced In Election Refuses To Concede Despite Landslide Loss

The post Karen Bass Wins Election To Become First Black Woman Mayor Of Los Angeles appeared first on NewsOne.