



It took days, but the majority of the votes have been counted and San Francisco finally has a mayor. Former California State Senatorconceded at a press conference this afternoon, making President of the Board of Supervisorsthe new mayor of San Francisco.Although Leno spent the days immediately following Election Day enjoying a slight lead over Breed thanks to his ranked-choice voting campaign run in tandem with fellow progressive candidate, Breed pulled ahead as the week went on. As of press time, Breed had won 50.42% of the vote against Leno's 49.58%.While Leno previously commented that he would retire from politics if he did not win the election, he declined to answer reporters' questions as to whether he would consider running again in 2019."There's a big and beautiful world out there," he said. "I have the rare opportunity to take a moment and get to decide what I want to be when I grow up."When asked about why he was conceding now rather than waiting for a recount or the Department of Elections to finish counting, he told reporters that the steady erosion of his initial lead in the previous days was evidence enough of defeat."Just doing the math, we don't see that it is likely to change," he said of Breed's lead.The victory makes London Breed the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco. Had Leno won, he would have been the first openly gay mayor of the city.Watch his full concession speech below.