Why did the L.A. Times
editorialize against Prop 40?

October 11, 2024. That is where the recent story of the Los Angeles Times editorial board changes. The board had planned to endorse Kamala Harris for president. Owner Patrick Soon-Shiong stopped the endorsement. What followed is documented by the Times itself, the Associated Press, Columbia Journalism Review, and former members of the Opinion staff.

1. February 7, 2018Ownership

   Patrick Soon-Shiong’s purchase is announced.

   Tronc announces an agreement to sell the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune to Soon-Shiong for $500 million. Forbes now lists him as a billionaire. [15] [17]

2. October 11, 2024Owner intervention

   The owner stops a planned presidential endorsement.

   According to CJR and the Times’ own later account, the editorial board intended to endorse Kamala Harris. Soon-Shiong directed that the newspaper make no presidential endorsement. [3] [16]

3. October 23, 2024Protest resignation

   Editorials editor Mariel Garza resigns in protest.

   Garza says she is leaving because she is not willing to stay silent after the owner blocks the endorsement. In her resignation letter, she argues that the non-endorsement undermines the editorial board’s integrity. [3] [16]

4. October 24, 2024Two more protest resignations

   Robert Greene and Karin Klein resign the next day.

   The two editorial writers also leave over the blocked endorsement. Greene says he resigned in response to the refusal to take a stand and rejects the owner’s description that the board itself chose silence. The Los Angeles Times later reports plainly that three members of the editorial board resigned over the move. [4] [16]

5. October 25, 2024Public fallout

   The Times reports the resignations and subscriber backlash itself.

   The newspaper’s own coverage says the owner’s decision prompted the three resignations and thousands of subscription cancellations. Soon-Shiong tells the Times he believed not endorsing was less divisive and says he wanted policy analysis instead; the resigning editorial writers say that was not the choice they had made. [16]

6. December 2024Editorial staff disperses

   Tony Barboza leaves the editorial board for the newsroom.

   CJR later reports that Barboza, who wrote environmental editorials, returned to newsroom reporting in December and subsequently took a buyout. This was not reported as a protest resignation, but it further reduced the editorial staff. [5]

7. December 18, 2024Owner direction

   The Guardian reports that Soon-Shiong asked the editorial board to “take a break” from writing about Trump.

   The Guardian reported that Soon-Shiong had asked the editorial board to pause writing about Donald Trump and described additional owner-directed changes to the Opinion operation. The report followed the earlier blocked presidential endorsement and staff resignations. [24]

8. February 2025Buyout

   Longtime letters editor Paul Thornton takes a buyout.

   Thornton later writes that he left as Soon-Shiong was dismantling the Opinion section and undercutting editorial independence. [6]

9. February 26, 2025Last editorial writer

   Carla Hall, the last remaining editorial writer, announces her buyout.

   CJR describes the sequence after the Harris decision as a staff exodus. Hall says she did not know what the future held for a one-woman editorial board. CJR also reports that deputy editorials editor Kerry Cavanaugh had left for a public-affairs job. [5]

10. March 26, 2025Owner’s direction

    Soon-Shiong publicly describes a different direction for Opinion.

    In an interview covered by POLITICO, Soon-Shiong criticizes the section’s political orientation and its treatment of Donald Trump, while calling for a different approach to opinion and fact. [7]

11. March 30, 2025Last editorial before the gap

    The paper publishes the last editorial Garza identifies before Prop 40.

    Garza identifies a March 30, 2025 homelessness editorial as the last editorial before the Proposition 40 piece. During the next 18 months, many local, state, and national issues arose that could have warranted editorials or endorsements, but the Times did not publish any editorials. [9] [10]

12. August 28, 2026Another newspaper editorial

    The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board also urges a no vote.

    The San Diego Union-Tribune published an editorial opposing Proposition 40 before the Los Angeles Times editorial appeared. This is a separate editorial position and is included here to place the Times editorial in the broader media record. [25]

13. September 6, 2026525 days later

    The Los Angeles Times editorial voice returns—to oppose Prop 40.

    525 days after March 30, 2025, the newspaper breaks its editorial silence and publishes an editorial urging a “no” vote on Proposition 40. Its stated objections concern the measure’s tax design and use of one-time revenue. [8] [9]

14. September 9, 2026Former editor responds

    Garza asks who wrote it and how it was produced.

    Garza writes that the paper has no editorial writer and no functioning editorial board in the form readers previously knew. She says the public board roster contains only Soon-Shiong and Executive Editor Terry Tang. She also reported that Prop 40 proponents told her the Times did not meet with them despite a request for a meeting. [9] [10]

One newspaper doesn’t speak for California. The Yes on 40 campaign lists hundreds of elected officials and community organizations as supporters. Supporters have cited healthcare costs, staffing reductions, service cuts, and access to care among their reasons for backing the measure. The campaign says more community leaders and groups are choosing to vote YES as Californians face sky-high premiums, local hospital service reductions, and longer waits for care. The names below are endorsements of Proposition 40—not endorsements of this article or its interpretation of the L.A. Times. [13] [14]

• ✓

  California Democratic Party

  Published campaign endorsement [13]

• ✓

  Bernie Sanders

  Listed by the campaign as a supporter [13]

• ✓

  Ro Khanna

  Listed by the campaign as a supporter [13]

• ✓

  AFSCME California

  Listed by the campaign as a supporter [13]

• ✓

  SEIU United Healthcare Workers West

  Campaign sponsor and listed supporter [13]

• ✓

  Disability Voices United

  Listed by the campaign as a supporter [13]

See the campaign’s endorsements page ↗

The former L.A. Times journalists in the timeline are not being presented as Prop 40 endorsers.