Voters in the city of peace and love are embracing tough-on-crime policies, a sign conservative policies might be gaining a foothold in some traditionally liberal strongholds. 

Tuesday’s election in San Francisco saw victories for Mayor Breed, a moderate Democrat looking to help the city recover from its post-pandemic lull through conservative ballot measures. Voters comfortably approved all three of her measures to amplify the city’s police presence and to mandate drug-screening and addiction treatment for county welfare recipients.

These policy changes likely would have sparked fury from city residents had they been proposed several years ago, when progressive activists tightly held the reins of San Francisco politics. Since the Covid pandemic, though, a network of centrist groups, powered by millions of dollars from tech leaders, is leading a movement to save San Francisco from its own demise. It doesn’t help that residents are fleeing in droves to red states.  

Loosely-aligned groups with names like Abundant SF, Together SF, and Grow SF are supporting centrist policies to tackle the city’s bureaucracy and restore the quality of life for the residents. “I believe we are on the road to taking back San Francisco,” the chief executive of tech startup accelerator, Y Combinator, and a board member of Grow SF, Garry Tan, said in a statement. “I hope it will spread to the national level of the Democratic party.”

Cities across the country appear to be swinging rightward as rates of homelessness, drug abuse, and crime hit new highs. At New York City, public sentiment is swaying in favor of policies to combat the city’s migrant crisis. As a candidate for city council told the Sun, “the platform of a moderate Republican is what a lot of New Yorkers want — they just don’t hear it enough.”  

The trend is national, a sign of what might come in the 2024 presidential election. Gallup reported in August that more Americans identify as “socially conservative” than at any time in the last decade, as Republicans double down on their conservative identity in what appears to be a backlash to policies of President Biden.