Adam Miller, a tech entrepreneur running for Los Angeles mayor, said he would give current Mayor Karen Bass an “F” over her handling of the Palisades Fire in January 2025.
“We failed at disaster readiness, we failed at disaster response, and we failed at disaster recovery, so it’s three ‘F’s actually,” Miller said. “It’s like failing the first midterm, the second midterm and the final.”
Miller, a Democrat, who is pitching himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, was the founder and CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, an education technology company. He led Team Rubicon, which sends veterans to assist in disaster response, and founded Better Angels, a nonprofit focused on homelessness prevention.
“I know how great this city can be,” Miller said, “but the city’s broken and it’s broken in multiple dimensions.”
Miller said the top issues he would tackle if elected mayor include homelessness, a lack of housing, infrastructure in need of repair, public safety and boosting economic opportunity while bringing back jobs to L.A.
“It’s physically broken around the streets, the streetlights, the homeless encampments, the security, it’s also figuratively broken,” Miller said. “We have a government that’s just not working. We don’t have transparency, we don’t have accountability, and we need to fix all of it.”
He said he has the experience to help the unhoused in L.A. through his work with Better Angels, bringing resources to them. Miller said the nonprofit is working to create a comprehensive directory of all city shelters, as well as to change how shelters operate to streamline processes and ensure there are no vacancies.
Miller said that there is not enough housing available and that he would streamline processes to allow developers to build in the city.
“The only way we are going to get average rent to come down – as all college students know – is supply and demand,” Miller said. “Demand is fixed. If we want prices to come down, we need more supply, so we have to build more housing to make L.A. a more affordable place to live.”
When asked about Senate Bill 79, which rezoned the entire state to allow for multifamily housing up to seven stories near transit corridors, Miller said that it was “our punishment for not having a plan to build more housing.”
SB 79 was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 10 and faced opposition from Mayor Karen Bass and the L.A.City Council.
“If we’re not building it, then the state is essentially saying we’re gonna do it for you, or we’re gonna make it happen despite you,” Miller said. “That’s not what you want in a city. L.A. has 99 unique neighborhoods. You want to be able to control the look and feel of the neighborhoods and what’s happening where buildings are going, how they’re designed, and rules like SB 79 take away all local control over that process, and we want that local control.”
Other candidates in the race include incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, City Councilmember Nithya Raman, reality television star Spencer Pratt and Reverend Rae Huang.
A poll released April 3 by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs showed that 40% of voters remain undecided. Bass came in first place in the poll with 25%, Pratt with 11%, Raman with 9%, Huang and Miller tied with 3%, and 9% favored a different candidate.
The nonpartisan primary is scheduled for June 2, 2026. If no candidate reaches 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held on November 3, 2026, between the top two vote-getters.