Marissa Roy, a USC alum and former lecturer for the Gould School of Law, is projected to win the Los Angeles City Attorney race, with about double her opponent’s votes, according to returns published by the L.A. County Registrar Thursday night. The race has not been officially called.
Roy, who was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America’s L.A. chapter, graduated from USC in 2013 with a bachelor’s in philosophy, politics and law and a master’s in public diplomacy from Yale University. She defeated L.A. County prosecutor John McKinney, who had received about 33% of the votes counted Thursday night.
“Last night was a really good night for the people who believe that we should take care of one another, that we can stand up for our rights — even in what feels like an increasingly lawless world — and that we will achieve justice when we fight for it,” Roy said in a social media post Wednesday.
The L.A. city attorney is the legal counsel of the mayor, city council and other city boards, according to the city’s website.
Throughout the campaign, Roy has endorsed local unions, including United Faculty-UAW, the faculty-led group that has organized for better wages and working conditions. In early September, Roy attended a rally alongside faculty members and L.A Mayor-elect Nithya Raman.
“For as many things as we do well, there are other issues where faculty don’t have as much power,” said Sanjay Madhav, an organizer with UF-UAW and a professor of technology and applied computing practice.
“Part of [Roy’s] motivation for why she wants to run was making sure that the balance of power shifts more towards the people that are doing the work and not the billionaires that are running everything,” Madhav added.
During her campaign, Roy said she would bring her experience as a civil rights lawyer to attack and fight for the people of Los Angeles by “protecting workers from wage theft, renters from illegal evictions, consumers from fraud, and our environment from polluters.”
In an October interview with Annenberg Media, Roy said she wanted to ensure prosecutors had a variety of tools to use at their discretion to help solve difficult misdemeanor cases.
Roy said her background as a prosecutor would let her leverage connections with prosecutors like California Attorney General Rob Bonta to handle misdemeanor cases, landlord misconduct and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles.
“I think that command of grassroots organizing is really something that is going to make her a great city attorney, because ultimately the power of any progressive public figure comes from the backing of lots and lots of ordinary people in a democracy,” said Ryan Boyd, a UF-UAW union member and an associate teaching professor of writing.
Edited by Miranda Huang and Caitlin Roehmholdt.