Democratic socialist Nithya Raman projected to win Los Angeles mayor race over Karen Bass

A narrow win over an incumbent

Nithya Raman, a 45-year-old progressive councilmember and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been projected by Decision Desk HQ to win the Los Angeles mayoral race over incumbent Karen Bass, who is 73. CNN and CBS projected Raman as the next mayor on Thursday afternoon CET. Returns showed her just over 52% of the vote against 48% for Bass. Bass called Raman to concede on Thursday, 5 November, and Raman will take office in January.

A lead that grew as ballots were counted

Raman led Bass by 26,000 votes as of Wednesday evening, 4 November, and her advantage kept widening as counting continued. Ballots counted after Election Day tend to come from younger and more progressive voters, who had favoured Raman by wide margins in recent polls. Mail ballots, a method used mainly by younger and more left-leaning voters, were being counted at that stage. The timeline of the count is shown below.

Bass's record and Raman's campaign

Bass, the first woman elected mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, faced criticism over the response to the Palisades fire and the slow rebuilding that followed. The fire killed 12 people, destroyed almost 7,000 structures in Pacific Palisades and Malibu, and caused losses of around $25 billion. Coverage also points to her trip to Ghana while part of the city was burning, and to cuts in the city fire department budget. Homelessness, rising living costs and housing shortages added to voter frustration, and her approval ratings were on par with Donald Trump's. Raman, an urban planner who moved to the United States from India at six and has served on the city council since 2020, entered the race hours before the filing deadline, shortly after endorsing Bass for re-election. She pitched herself as the candidate who can meet this moment with honesty and urgency, promising lower rents, better streets, less homelessness and safer neighbourhoods. She promised to cut by at least 50% the number of people sleeping in tents and encampments before the 2028 Olympics. In the primary she was overshadowed by the campaign of Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star and registered Republican who ran after losing his home in the Palisades fire.

Establishment reaction and wider context

Kurt Petersen, co-president of the hospitality union UNITE Here Local 11, one of the few large labor groups to back Raman, described the result in these words: "Pick your descriptor -- it was a monsoon, an earthquake, a leveling, a restructuring. It was all of the above." He said the city's political class had stood with Bass, yet few of the people they represent followed them to the polls. Several outlets and analysts have compared Raman with Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor and fellow democratic socialist, and both were born outside the United States. The result came on the same night that Democrats won control of the House and Senate. In Washington, a DSA success came when Janeese Lewis George was projected as mayor.