LA Times editorials editor leaves company after owner forbids board from endorsing Harris

The Los Angeles Times' editorials editor Mariel Garza stepped down on Wednesday, after the paper's editorial board was instructed not to make a formal endorsement in next month's presidential election.

The LA Times released its slate of endorsements last week, which included its stances on important state measures and state politicians. It also included its endorsement of Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff, who is running for the Senate, along with other key Democrats in House races. But the presidential election was absent from the list.

Garza said she was leaving the paper because she was not okay with them being silent in the upcoming election. The editor claimed she even had an editorial that formally endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris drafted, before the paper's owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong shut it down.

“In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I'm standing up," Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review. "This is a point in time where you speak your conscience no matter what, and an endorsement was the logical next step after a series of editorials we’ve been writing about how dangerous [former President Donald] Trump is to democracy, about his unfitness to be president, about his threats to jail his enemies. We have made the case in editorial after editorial that he shouldn’t be reelected.”

The paper has a history of endorsing Democratic candidates in recent elections, but previously endorsed Republican presidential contenders until the 1970s. The paper did not endorse anyone in the 2020 Democratic primary, but did endorse President Joe Biden when he became the official nominee.

The LA Times union said that it sent a letter to Soon-Shiong and editor Terry Tang on Wednesday, demanding answers on why the endorsement was withheld this year. It has not received a response so far.

“We believe the company owes the staff an explanation about why this decision was made after years of endorsements in general elections,” the union wrote, according to Semafor.

The decision not to endorse a candidate marks the first time the board has not done so since 2008.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.