LA Protests Give Karen Bass a Second Chance to Lead Her City Through a Crisis

For the past three days, Mayor Karen Bass has been a high-profile figure across Los Angeles.

She turned up at parking lots where federal officials had conducted immigration sweeps. She posted updates on social media seeking to reassure embattled immigrants that the city would fight for them. She held a news conference at City Hall to rally her constituents and assail President Trump for deploying the National Guard.

“It’s the last thing our city needs,” Ms. Bass said. “Our city is still trying to recover from wildfires.”

Six months ago, Ms. Bass appeared to be struggling in the face of widespread criticism of her initial response to the fires that destroyed parts of Los Angeles. Polls showed that a rising number of residents were unhappy with her performance, and she faced the prospect of a challenge in any re-election bid from Rick Caruso, the wealthy developer she defeated to win the mayoralty.

But these past few days have offered Ms. Bass an opportunity, analysts say. She has presented herself as a defender of a city under siege, a Democratic mayor in a Democratic city confronting a Republican president. She has drawn on her years as a community organizer to reassure immigrant families struggling with “fear and terror,” and has walked a line at once defending the rights of constituents to demonstrate and denouncing protesters who are “creating the violence.”

“I do think this goes to her strength,” said Fernando Guerra, the head of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. “She is in complete and total concert with the Democratic office holders across the state and with her constituents. This is the perfect environment to exercise her leadership.”

And several analysts suggested that Ms. Bass, like Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, could be lifted by a rallying of support among normally fractious Democrats, as opposition grows over Mr. Trump’s decision to mobilize the National Guard in Los Angeles.