Chávez Rodríguez is also the granddaughter of César Chávez, the labor leader whose legacy has come under renewed scrutiny following allegations of sexual abuse involving female members of the United Farm Workers union.
Julie Chávez Rodríguez is no stranger to political circles — or, more recently, controversy. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has named her campaign manager as she prepares for a November election in which the Latino vote is expected to play a decisive role.
Douglas Herman, who had worked with Bass since 2021, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday that he stepped down from the campaign earlier that day. Chávez Rodríguez, who managed both Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaigns, will now take the reins.
Chávez Rodríguez has spent the last several months leading Unidos Con Karen Bass 2026, an independent expenditure campaign focused on boosting Latino voter turnout during the primary election. The effort appears to have paid off: according to Los Angeles Times projections, Bass won a majority of Latino voters in June’s primary.
Asked about his departure, Herman said he left because of “strategic differences” regarding the direction of the reelection campaign but declined to elaborate.
Bass spokesperson Alex Stack also declined to discuss Herman’s exit.
“Going into the general election, our campaign is proud to announce that Julie Chávez Rodríguez will be leading the team,” Stack said in a statement published by the Times.
The granddaughter of César Chávez, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers union, Chávez Rodríguez served in both the Obama and Biden administrations. She managed President Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign until he withdrew from the race and then went on to lead Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, which ultimately ended in defeat against Donald Trump.
During the Harris campaign, Chávez Rodríguez focused heavily on outreach to Latino and working-class voters in battleground states. The results, however, fell short of expectations, as many Latino voters shifted toward the Republican Party, driven in large part by Trump’s promises to improve the economy.
Chávez Rodríguez is also the granddaughter of César Chávez, the labor leader whose legacy has come under renewed scrutiny following allegations of sexual abuse involving female members of the United Farm Workers union. To date, she has not made any public statement addressing the accusations.
When the New York Times investigation was published in March 2026, the Chávez family released a collective statement.
“The family is not in a position to judge these new revelations,” the statement said. “As a family grounded in the values of equity and justice, we honor the voices of those who feel unheard and who come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct. These accusations are deeply painful for our family.”
Yet Julie Chávez Rodríguez, despite her prominence in national Democratic politics, has remained silent on an issue that many consider particularly sensitive within the Latino community.
“Mayoral candidates who want to win the Latino vote will have to court it and work very hard to earn its trust,” pollster and Latino voter expert Matt Barreto told Parriva.
Bass has chosen Julie Chávez Rodríguez to do exactly that.
In her own words:
Chávez Rodríguez’s own words offer the best perspective. “Growing up in the farmworker movement, I was surrounded by some of the country’s best organizers,” she wrote in a 2014 essay for UC Berkeley’s Center for Latin American Studies.
“I spent my childhood in meetings, at rallies, walking picket lines, and handing out leaflets in front of supermarkets.” By the time she was 12, she said, she could recite some of her grandfather’s most-known quotes and rattle off the names of the five most harmful pesticides.
“I lived a tremendously privileged childhood, not in terms of material wealth since my parents were full-time volunteers for the United Farm Workers, but in terms of experience,” she wrote. “The opportunity to travel with my grandfather, to learn from him, and to see him organizing is one of the most valuable classrooms I have ever been in.” (Published by the Fresno Bee)
