Ysabel Jurado marched into hipster Highland Park bar Block Party on election night, dressed to impress her cheering supporters.

Hot pink suit and heels. Fuschia satin blouse. Hoop earrings. Hair tied back with a clip. A smile as wide as the double-digit lead he had over the incumbent, Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León, in the early going.

My eyes went to Jurado’s neck. In an Instagram video the day before, she wore a red and silver Archangel Michael pendant with his wings outstretched in triumph, a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. He wore it again.

In the Book of Revelation, Michael and his army of angels cast Satan and his minions out of heaven. I couldn’t think of a better metaphor for the battle in District 14 ending that night.

For a year and a half, De León — “that old serpent,” as Revelation 12:9 would call him — fended off opponents who called for him to resign from his east-side seat for his role in a secretly recorded racist conversation. which scandalized the city in 2022.

Then came Jurado, a Highland Park native and first-time candidate who stunned the LA political establishment by ranking first in the March primary before De León and two Eastside Latino assembly members. If Tuesday’s results hold, she will be the city’s first Filipino American council member, surpassing a Latino politician who has served as an assemblyman and state senate leader.

De León’s camp dismissed the primary victory as an anomaly and Jurado as an unprepared prime-time joke. In tense debatesthe incumbent has repeatedly called her challenger a liar and a complainer and has openly theorized that she faked a COVID diagnosis in order to get a debate rescheduled. His supporters spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on negative emails and ads casting Jurado as everything from a puppet with outside interests to a usurper who would end nearly 40 years of Latino representation in the district.

Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon speaks to supporters as election results are seen on a screen during an election watch party in Los Angeles.

(Ryan Sun/For The Times)

In the last two weeks of the campaign, the Los Angeles Police Protective League contributed $445,000 to De León’s team after Jurado quoted a song with the lyrics “F— the police” in response to a student’s question, who also turned out to be Councilor De Leónabout the financing of law enforcement.

Archangel Michael is the patron saint of police officers, so I wanted to ask Jurado if her pendant was a trick on her antagonists.

I didn’t stand a chance: the Block Party crowd flocked to it.

The 34-year-old single mother hugged everyone in the cramped bar area as she made her way to the terrace, where the cheers grew even louder. A volunteer presented her with a bouquet of white orchids – the official flower of her campaign – and red roses, the emblem of the Democratic Socialists of America, who supported his campaign.

“More people!” she proclaimed in blissful disbelief.

One of those people was Nithya Raman, a member of the council’s progressive bloc that will grow to four if Jurado retains his leadership.

“You did it!” Raman said to Jurado. “Awesome. Now the real work begins.”

Next up was former Councilman Mike Bonin. He and his young son, who is black, have been the subject of some of the nastiest attacks on leaked audio.

“God,” exclaimed Bonin, “you are the only bright spot in my evening.” At that point, Donald Trump already had a commanding lead over Kamala Harris.

LA Unified board member Rocio Rivas was there, along with Councilman Eunisses Hernandez and City Comptroller Kenneth Mejia, who wore a warm-up jacket dressed as the Philippine flag.

Nearby was Councilor Hugo Soto-Martínez, Jurado’s DSA-LA colleague. I asked him how he felt about the residents of the 14th District doubling down on progressive politicians on a night when Trump was on the brink of the presidency and The Republicans were taking the Senate.

Ysabel Jurado gives an upbeat speech to supporters at her election night party in Highland Park.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

“This shows that LA needs to take the lead on how to win with a multiracial coalition on issues that matter and fight like hell,” Soto-Martínez responded. “She was able to talk about issues that Latinos care about, like housing and wages. And people were looking for hope. She was able to give that.”

For every chosen one present, there were much more ordinary people, like Rose Hills residents Naida Serak and Roxanna Stroska. They showed me photos of destroyed sidewalks in their neighborhood and elderly people forced to use wheelchairs on bike lanes. The two said they invited De León and Jurado to a neighborhood meeting and only Jurado showed up.

“I felt that if Ysabel could do something, she would do it, even though she wasn’t even in office,” Serak, 38, said.

“Kevin didn’t do anything in his time to fix our problems,” Stroska, 53, added. She mentioned that food gifts that De León moved up through District 14 after the audio leak. “Instead, it played into voters’ needs to survive.”

Axel Orozco said he knocked on doors in his hometown of Boyle Heights and asked residents what they wanted from a council member. When the majority cited safety, he organized a meeting with Jurado and other local mothers at the Wabash Recreation Center.

“They liked it so much that many of them said, ‘Even if I can’t vote, I’ll tell my sisters or my daughters who can vote for her,'” said Orozco, 24. “I did it. so much of it. Our legs may be tired, but those muscles have tightened up!”

Ysabel Jurado receives flowers from a supporter as she arrives at her election night party in Highland Park.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Memphis Perez, a Lincoln Heights resident and business owner, did not vote in the primary. About three months ago, he reached out to Jurado’s campaign after the rent on his corner store went up dramatically. He said they connected him with the Legal Aid Foundation in Los Angeles along with business grant applications.

“Man, that did it all for me,” the 44-year-old said. “If Ysabel can do this for me without power, imagine what she can do for anyone Tienda when he’s at the town hall.”

Jurado tried to make her way to a podium to address the jubilant crowd, but well-wishers kept pulling her aside for selfies or just to stand in her presence. When he finally got there, chants of “Ysabel!” she choked out her voice, inspiring Jurado to do a quick, happy dance on the spot.

“My father dropped me off,” she began, “and said, ‘Watch your language.’

The audience laughed. Then she got serious.

Speaking without a microphone in a soft but direct voice, Jurado said in a prepared speech that what motivated her to run was the audio leak.

“Once again, my community has been betrayed by our leadership,” she said — a reference to the parade of District 14 council members that have brought scandal to the Eastside over the decades.

“They ridiculed us and belittled us,” she said of her opponents, adding that they called her “every depraved insult in the book.”

Jurado cited the left’s oft-repeated axiom: They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.

“And here we are,” she exclaimed, to roars of approval. “Unbroken, unrelenting, unapologetic and present and thriving.

“They want to say it was just luck or it was a fluke,” she continued. “I say we’ve earned every step of our journey.”

She credited her team with knocking on 170,000 doors, shouting, “Put respect on my team name!”

“We are the orchids that grew out of concrete,” she concluded. “And no matter how much they trample us, we will rise brighter than ever. Here’s to all of us, so let’s party!”

I pulled Jurado aside for a quick interview and immediately asked him about the Archangel Michael pendant.

“My father gave it to me a few weeks ago,” she replied, adding that he is the patron saint of her hometown in the Philippines. “He and his friend said the St. Michael’s prayer every night so that I would be unharmed and brave. Things got tough eventually.”

How did he get ahead of De León? I asked.

“It’s like an extension of the family parties we used to have every week” growing up in Highland Park, she said, gesturing around us.

People ate from a buffet at The Park’s Finest, the delicious filipino barbecue place driven by a friend of hers. A DJ made remixes that spanned the ages, from “Stayin’ Alive” to reggaetón.

“That’s why we have music and food,” she said. “All these people are characters in my life, where we know each other and help each other. We’re bigger now.”

Is he done quoting song lyrics in response to policy questions?

“No! Music is a different language and a way to access it. Yes! I don’t think I’ll ever give it up.”

She then recited Nicki Minaj’s “Moment 4 Life” in her goofy but charming motherly way:

Cheer for the heavyweight champion, me/ But we couldn’t do it all alone …

Then the would-be Eastside Archangel flew off into her night.