Mayoral candidate Mark Farrell is a white man and a Democrat. This week, he has fully embraced his identity.
“To my fellow white dudes — join me in supporting Vice President Kamala Harris to be our next President,” Farrell wrote in a post on X on Tuesday, nine days after Harris announced she would be accepting the Democratic nomination for president. The accompanying photo shows two trucker-style caps, one that reads “White dudes for Harris” and another worn by Farrell, backwards.
Within the last week, Farrell added coconut and palm tree emojis to his X bio, alluding to Harris’ viral “You think you fell out of a coconut tree?” remarks, which have become a well-worn meme. He also posted a video of himself speaking to his younger daughter Madison, asking about what things are “brat,” another meme that has become associated with Harris.
“So you’re telling me Alcatraz is not brat?” Farrell asked.
The posts were the first indication of Farrell’s support for Harris, and they were also uploaded days after Politico interviewed Farrell for a piece accusing his campaign of Republican dog-whistling during a recent fundraising event. The piece was published on Monday.
Mission Local also reported this week that Harris’ entrance into the presidential race is likely to impact the local race — and stridently anti-San Francisco rhetoric mirroring GOP talking points may no longer carry the same appeal to city voters. Since Farrell launched his campaign in February, his messaging has kept close to the same script: Namely, denouncing the current crime and lack of order in San Francisco, and criticizing Mayor London Breed.
“There’s no coincidence here,” said Eric Jaye, a veteran political consultant working on an independent expenditure campaign for mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin, referring to Farrell’s embrace of Harris. “I see it as damage control.”
Farrell declined to comment regarding his endorsement.
Why Farrell’s team decided to endorse Harris under the “White Dudes for Harris” banner is unclear. On Monday, some 60,000 people joined a video call for the self-professed “White Dudes for Harris,” which was hosted by Democratic Party organizers and is unaffiliated with the Harris campaign.
The post has drawn a slew of negative comments and apparent confusion from some of Farrell’s followers on X and Instagram. “This is super cringe” reads one comment, “Seriously???” reads another.
What’s clear is that Farrell’s negative campaign denouncing the current state of San Francisco may not play well, since it jibes too closely to Trump’s view of the city. On Monday, Politico and Mission Local revealed an intro to a recent Farrell fundraiser in which real estate broker Larry Buck denounced the state of “skyrocketing crime” and “wokeism” in San Francisco during a campaign event. Farrell, who spoke after Buck, complimented Buck’s remarks: “Sometimes, I go through the nasty scenarios on where we are. Honestly, I think Larry did a great job of that,” Farrell replied.
Farrell didn’t think to correct Buck’s remarks, said Jaye. “In a certain way, he amplified them.”
Farrell later told Politico that he disagreed with some of Buck’s statements, and did not think that the fundraiser was the polite place to correct some of them.
Farrell is a lifelong Democrat. Yet, because he is a moderate candidate, Republican voters in San Francisco remain part of his base. Republican mega-donors William Oberndorf and Thomas and Linda Coates have contributed to Farrell’s ballot measure committee in support of TogetherSF’s proposed commission reform: $45,000, and $500,000 respectively. This week, John Josi, a registered Republican, is hosting a meet and greet for Farrell.
On July 21, when Harris officially stepped into the presidential race, a flurry of endorsements followed from politicos working on Harris’ home turf: Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin dug out his grade-school yearbooks, and Mayor Breed resurfaced photos from their years-long friendship. But, at least within those first few days, mayoral candidate Farrell remained silent.
Did anyone on his team suggest that a RED BASEBALL HAT might not send the right signal?
As a former jock, Mark is partial to Giants orange. Orange. Hmmmm. Who else do we think of when we see orange?
Dropping some slang does not erase the recent past where he wouldn’t speak against racist dog-whistles in front of his white male friends, nor the not yet a decade past where he shoved a competent black woman out of the way so he could be mayor after Mayor Lee’s death. Farrell is a fair weather ally at best, and the weather changes often.
“Candidate Mark Farrell is a white man and a Democrat” and for one week only, he’s embracing his white dudery. Then its back to “tough on crime” “lock ‘em up” and crime and punishment and zero tolerance. Heavy on references to his 3 children and Catholic upbringing in nearly every speech. Thin on specifics of policy, vision, programs and solutions.
But why’d he pick orange of all colors? Not a good look Mark. We see you. Clear as day Mr. “small business man” venture capitalist.
Ew, so cringe.
(Not sure how the word vote ended up on the end of my message. Wonder if it will happen again?)
“Vote” has appeared after my posts as well. I thought I did it by mistake.