Defund, 'Woke-ism' critic LA County Sheriff Villanueva concedes in election loss

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva conceded his reelection race to retired Long Beach Police Department Chief Robert Luna. 

"We wish Mr. Luna well," Villanueva said Tuesday when he spent most of a 40-minute press conference slamming the political establishment and the media for spreading a "false narrative."

"You have these four years of this false narrative," said Villanueva, who won the office in 2018.

"But throughout this time in office, these four years, we probably met more challenges and were faced with more challenges than probably the previous 50 years of the sheriff's department," such as the pandemic, protests, the defund the police movement and a "very unsupportive political establishment," he said.

Villanueva tenure was also marked by allegations of whistleblower violations corruption and retaliation.

Villanueva lost with 39.99% to Luna's 60.1%, according to official Los Angeles County results, with an estimated 70% of ballots counted. Nearly three-fourths of votes were by mail.

Voters largely considered the race to be a referendum on Villanueva, the LAist reported.

Although the position is non-partisan, Villanueva was the first member of the Democratic Party to be elected sheriff of Los Angeles in more than a century. He argued during his first term that "defunding" the police and other liberal policies have caused higher crime and homelessness rates.

The measure put on the ballot by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors giving them the authority to "remove an elected sheriff for cause," passed by 70.6% to 29.40%.

The initiative was seen as another step to remove Sheriff Villanueva, who had been criticized for not adequately addressing use-of-force complaints.