Head Of LA Times Editorial Board Quits After Paper Declines To Endorse Kamala

The head of the Los Angeles Times editorial board quit Wednesday after the paper declined to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. 

Editorials editor Mariel Garza resigned in protest from the paper, claiming that she was blocked by the paper’s ownership from endorsing Harris. The paper had endorsed every Democratic presidential candidate since 2008. 

“I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent,” Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review. “In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”

“I didn’t think we were going to change our readers’ minds—our readers, for the most part, are Harris supporters,” Garza added. “We’re a very liberal paper. I didn’t think we were going to change the outcome of the election in California.”

Garza said that she was informed that LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong did not want the paper to make any presidential endorsements in this year’s contest. She claimed the decision not to back Harris would make the outlet look sexist. 

“It makes us look craven and hypocritical, maybe even a bit sexist and racist,” she said in her resignation letter. “How could we spend eight years railing against Trump and the danger his leadership poses to the country and then fail to endorse the perfectly decent Democrat challenger—who we previously endorsed for the US Senate?”

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In a post on X, Soon-Shiong, who bought the paper in 2018, said he asked the editorial board to compare the policies of both Harris and former President Donald Trump. He said that they chose to be “silent” instead. 

“The Editorial Board was provided the opportunity to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation,” Soon-Shiong wrote. “In addition, the Board was asked to provide their understanding of the policies and plans enunciated by the candidates during this campaign and its potential effect on the nation in the next four years. In this way, with this clear and non-partisan information side-by-side, our readers could decide who would be worthy of being President for the next four years.”

The decision not to endorse Harris was celebrated by the Trump campaign, which pointed to previous races when the paper had backed her candidacy. 

“In Kamala’s own home state, the Los Angeles Times — the state’s largest newspaper — has declined to endorse the Harris-Walz ticket, despite endorsing the Democrat nominees in every election for decades,” the Trump campaign said. “Even her fellow Californians know she’s not up for the job.”