Tim McOsker is a candidate for Los Angeles City Council District 15 in 2026. (Photo courtesy of Tim McOsker’s campaign)
Jordan Rivers
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Tim McOsker is a candidate for Los Angeles City Council District 15 in 2026. (Photo courtesy of Tim McOsker’s campaign)
Incumbent Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker appeared to have a strong lead in his bid for reelection, according to early returns on Tuesday night, June 2.
The San Pedro attorney had 79% of the vote with his newcomer challenger, community organizer Jordan Rivers garnering 21% of the vote being tabulated, as of about 10:50 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles County registrar’s office.
The initial release included vote-by-mail ballots that arrived before Election Day. The registrar’s office was scheduled to periodically update the results throughout Tuesday night, until all VBMs and Vote Center ballots cast through Election Day are counted.
Both candidates live in San Pedro, one of five communities included in the 15th District. The others are Wilmington, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway and Watts, and McOsker refers to the district as the “One-Five” to emphasize its expanse and diversity.
• Also see: June 2 Primary Election Results
If a candidate receives a majority of the vote in the primary, he will win outright. Otherwise, if no one receives a majority, there will be a runoff in November. City Council seats are limited to two, four-year terms.
The 15th District is the most southern part of L.A., with San Pedro some 25 miles from Downtown Los Angeles, where the City Council meets.
The area was annexed by Los Angeles in 1909 after residents voted to consolidate what was an independent city with L.A., all related to the city’s desire to encompass what was the growing port to the south. To make the acquisition work, the city acquired a 16-mile long strip of land to geographically connect the Harbor Area to the central part of Los Angeles.
Rivers, 22, the founder and chief liaison of the Global Residents Initiative launched in January 2025, is making his first bid for public office.
He said the district’s primary issues — and his top priorities — are social mobility, redevelopment and food security.
McOsker, 63, comes from a well-known family with deep Harbor Area, L.A. City, and union roots.
“I am focused on the greatest challenges facing Los Angeles,” McOsker said. “Supporting our working families, making our neighborhoods healthy and safe, and delivering reliable city services.”
Addressing one of the city’s most persistent and challenging issues, homelessness, Rivers said he would “implement a proposal for mandatory quotas for the existing housing agencies and organizations, such as the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
“We need to have a gradual construction of facilities to house people one at a time,” he said, “to monitor and determine any discrepancies before more funds are added for transitional housing arrangements.”
McOsker, for his part, said housing affordability and homelessness have become “two of the greatest missions we face as a city and it is the moral challenge of our time.”
The incumbent advocates for building more housing “at every income level” and for a process that speeds up approvals to ensure that housing “actually gets delivered efficiently and responsibly.”
“At the same time,” he added, “we must continue bringing people indoors, holding ourselves accountable for results and making sure our neighborhoods remain livable as we tackle this crisis.”
Among Rivers’ ideas are to replace the signs for “Special Enforcement Zones” with “Safe Shelter Zones.”
“Special Enforcement Zones” typically refer to designated areas where the city strictly enforces ordinances banning or restricting sitting, lying or storing personal property while “Safe Shelter Zones” refer to emergency housing and support areas.
“The language surrounding ‘Special Enforcement Zones’ is dehumanizing toward the issue of homelessness,” Rivers said. “Signs stating where homelessness can be moved instead of solved don’t address the issue of homelessness.”