The Los Angeles Times dropped its Election 2024 endorsements last week, giving the green light to various propositions, charter amendments, and candidates for local and state offices, including a "yes" for Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff for the US Senate. But despite noting that "this may be the most consequential election in a generation," the biggest endorsement of the bunch was missing from its listings: the paper's presidential pick. Max Tani of Semafor reports that the Times' editorial board had indeed planned on endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Trump, continuing its run of endorsing Democrats for president since 2008.
But sources tell Tani that Terry Tang, the Times' executive editor, instead relayed a message to staff earlier this month from the paper's owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, instructing them to withhold an endorsement for that particular office. It's not clear why—a note at the bottom of the endorsements page reads simply, "The editorial board endorses selectively, choosing the most consequential races in which to make recommendations"—but Soon-Shiong has intervened in such picks before.
In 2020, for example, during the Democratic primary, the editorial board decided to endorse Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but Soon-Shiong overruled that and decided there would be no endorsement in the primary. The paper did go on to endorse Joe Biden in the general election. Semafor notes that the Times had pulled away from presidential endorsements from the mid-'70s to 2008, after the paper endorsed Richard Nixon despite the Watergate break-in, which caused "internal dissent." Before then, the Times, California's largest newspaper, had mainly endorsed GOP candidates for president for nearly a century.
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"We do not comment on internal discussions or decisions about editorials or endorsements" is the paper's official statement on the lack of presidential endorsement this time around, though SFGate notes that despite the glaring omission, "the editorial board has made its preference for Harris obvious." KTLA reached out to both campaigns, and as of press time, the Harris team hadn't commented. The Trump campaign, however, called the lack of endorsement a "humiliating blow" for Harris, adding that "even her fellow Californians know she's not up for the job." (More Los Angeles Times stories.)
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