Kenneth Mejia

Mejia was inspired by the 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders to engage more in politics, leading him to become a candidate to the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention.[7][12] Mejia was a write-in Democratic Party candidate in California's 34th congressional district in 2016.[13]

Having grown disenchanted with the Democratic Party, Mejia ran as a US Green Party candidate in the same district in 2017 and 2018.[14][15][3][16][17] His 2017 bid was noted for its reliance on small-dollar donations. Mejia's 2018 bid advanced to the general election and yielded more than 40,000 votes,[18][19][20] setting the record for the highest vote percentage cast for any Green candidate against a Democrat for Congress.[21] Mejia continued to work as an accountant while campaigning.[22]

Mejia announced his candidacy for City Controller, a nonpartisan office, in the 2022 Los Angeles elections.[23] It has been historically uncommon for the city controller to have extensive accounting experience; Mejia claims the office has never been held by a CPA.[24] He was the only city candidate in 2022 position to have received ballot access through signatures alone.[2] During his candidacy, Mejia drew attention to LA fire department employees receiving more than half a million dollars a year, the use of about half of the city's funds from the American Rescue Plan on the LA police department, and the amount of police funding in the budget proposed in 2022 by Mayor Eric Garcetti.[25][26][27][23][28] Mejia's past tweets criticizing Joe Biden generated controversy during the race.[4]