After years of negative headlines and post-pandemic economic woes, San Francisco has named a wealthy Democratic outsider with no government experience as the city's new mayor.

Daniel Lurie, 47, is one of the heirs to the Levi Strauss jeans company and was previously executive director of a San Francisco nonprofit he founded for 15 years. He defeated several Democratic challengers, including current Mayor London Breed, in an election that was expected to break local campaign spending records.

Lurie poured more than $8 million of his own money into his campaign, while his billionaire mother Mimi Haas supported him with another million dollars. He will be the first San Francisco mayor since 1911 to take office without having previously served in government, making him the city's “least experienced mayor in a long time,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

But the Chronicle also ultimately endorsed Lurie, praising the “balance of compassion and toughness” in his planned approach to dealing with San Francisco's people struggling with homelessness and saying the city needed a change in leadership, potentially highlighting Lurie's inexperience make risk worthwhile.

Lurie had cited his experience financing and building affordable housing at the Tipping Point Foundation as evidence that he could lead San Francisco in the right direction.