Meeting Sacramento Mayoral Candidate Maggy Krell

When Maggy Krell fell short nine years ago in a bid to become Sacramento County District Attorney, there was at least one silver lining for her. In reporting about Krell finishing a distant second in the primary to Anne Marie Schubert, below the amount of votes needed to force a November runoff, the Sacramento Bee noted that Krell’s “ability to raise money–$463,000 as of the final week before the campaign–would suggest that Krell might have a future in politics.”

The question is whether that future is now.

In late April, Krell, a special advisor to the California Attorney General, became the second candidate in the Sacramento mayoral race, following Dr. Flojaune Cofer. Two more candidates, Kevin McCarty and Steve Hansen, have also joined the race. Mayor Darrell Steinberg announced on May 25 that he wouldn’t seek a third term.

Politically, Krell is a relative unknown at this point in the race. She’s never held elected office, unlike McCarty, a California Assemblymember and former member of the Sacramento City Council, or Hansen, another past City Councilmember and the first openly gay person to serve on that body. Krell also might not yet have the same local name recognition as Cofer, who’s chaired several city or county commissions.

That being said, Krell has also done a lot in her legal career and opened up in a 25-minute interview with California Local about how she plans to carve a path to victory in the March 2024 primary.

Originally from the Bay Area, Krell moved to Sacramento to attend UC Davis School of Law in the early 2000s. Now in her mid-40s, she lives in Land Park with her husband and two children.

“So many great things have happened to me and for me and my family in this city,” Krell said. “But I also see that a lot of folks here—we don’t feel safe, that the problem of homelessness continues to grow, people continue to struggle on our streets.”

“I’m running for mayor to help with these problems, to make Sacramento a safe and vibrant city that we can all feel proud to call home.”

Defending Women and Chidren

Some people—such as Steinberg, Heather Fargo or the late Joe Serna—run for mayor of Sacramento after successful stints on city council or in other political arenas. Others run after achieving renown in other areas, such as former NBA All Star Kevin Johnson or champion boxer Tony Lopez.

Krell, among other achievements in her legal career, put an end to a notorious website that facilitated sex trafficking.

She chronicled her experience in a 2022 book, “Taking Down Backpage: Fighting the World’s Largest Sex Trafficker,” writing about how through the California Attorney General’s Office she and her team fought what was ostensibly an online classified ads network that catered to adult clientele. An Amazon blurb for the book notes that “many of the people in the [Backpage] advertisements were children, as young as 12, and forced into the commercial sex trade through fear, violence and coercion.”

The book has been well-received, carrying a 3.8-star rating on GoodReads as of this writing. In 2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also honored Krell with a career achievement award, noting:“Maggy has dedicated her career to seeking justice for trafficking victims and survivors.”

Krell reports that she never expected the award, saying of her career, “It’s really been just helping one victim, one survivor at a time, prosecuting one case at a time.”

Her anti-trafficking work also won her the Sherwood Prize in 2016 from the Anti-Defamation League of Los Angeles.

It’s not all she’s done, though. After wrapping up a 13-year stint with the California Department of Justice in March 2018, leaving as supervising deputy attorney general, Krell worked as chief legal counsel for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.

“That was a big step for me and a big change in terms of my legal career,” Krell said "but really along the same thruline of fighting for vulnerable people, fighting for women."

Her bio also notes that after former President Donald Trump’s administration announced in 2018 that it would by policy separate migrant families, “Maggy immediately headed to Texas, and was one of the first attorneys to get inside an ICE detention center and successfully reunite refugee families ripped apart by the policy.”

What Krell Would Do as Mayor

Like every candidate who’s entered the Sacramento mayoral race thus far, Krell discussed homelessness at some length during her interview for this article. She focussed largely on how she would tackle the problem.

“My approach has really been one person at a time,” Krell said. “So when it comes to homelessness, my plan from day one in office is that I as mayor will commit to getting one person off the street each week, one by one by one.”

She added, “And it might not sound like a lot–it’s 52 in a year–but I will also convince my colleagues to do the same. I will ask every leader in this region on all of the city councils and all the board of supervisors up to the state legislature to do the same. And if they do, we will really see a difference.”

Beyond this, Krell also has an interest, among other topics, in creating safe neighborhoods, expanding youth recreational programming and growing the local economy.

“We talk a lot about living wage jobs,” Krell said. “And I think it’s time to start creating more. And do that by really attracting businesses who will want to invest in Sacramento.”

While Krell said she was glad to see a qualified group of people running for the mayor's seat, the array of formidable names she’s facing doesn’t faze her. She said her opponents offer familiar talking points. She also noted the accomplishments from her legal career that voters can see as they weigh her candidacy.

“They’re going to see a real doer who gets things done on issues they care about,” Krell said. “And that’s why they’re gonna vote for me.”

It’s still early in the race to predict who'll be Sacramento’s next mayor, but one skillset—noted by the Bee in June, 2014—could bode well for Krell at this juncture. On May 30, her campaign announced that she’d “raised the maximum amount allowed one month ahead of the legal deadline.”