Unpacking the 2024 Election: Trendlines and Developments in California Politics. A Conversation with Raphael Sonenshein and Zev Yaroslavsky

This week’s episode of then & now is the second in a series exploring the historical backdrop to and consequences of the 2024 election. Joining us are Raphael Sonenshein, a nationally recognized expert on racial and ethnic politics in California and Los Angeles, and Zev Yaroslavsky, one of Los Angeles's best-known public officials. This episode begins by continuing the discussion of historical trendlines on the national level and then moves into an analysis of key developments at the California state, county, and city levels. To understand these developments, Raphe Sonenshein cautions against becoming victims of presentism and instead puts these developments into a global context. Citing factors including race, culture, and gender, he addresses the phenomenon of incumbent parties continuing to suffer defeats in elections worldwide. Zev continues by commenting on voter turnout, the shift in California politics, and examines what democracy will look like four years from now in the wake of efforts to suppress voter turnout. While noting the impossibility of knowing exactly what will happen over the next four years on a national level, they discuss the importance of local government solving city-level problems, much of which relies upon a fiscal partnership with the federal government.

Raphael Sonenshein is the Executive Director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA. His book Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles (Princeton, 1993) won the American Political Science Association’s 1994 Ralph J. Bunche Award. 

Zev Yaroslavsky is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He served as LA City Council Member from 1975 to 1994, and as LA County Supervisor from 1994 to 2014. In his recently released memoir, Zev's Los Angeles: From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power, Zev reflects on his long career in politics.