Raman wins Los Angeles mayoral race

Nithya Raman defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral race, ending Bass's tenure as the leader of the nation's second-largest city. Raman, a 45-year-old urban planner and city council member, secured the victory against the 73-year-old incumbent who had served since 2022. The result marks a sharp leadership change in a city with a population of 3.8 million people.

Bass is the first Los Angeles mayor in two decades to lose a bid for re-election. Her first term was marked by the Palisades fire, a deadly disaster that began while she was traveling internationally. The incident left the fire department unprepared and fostered a strong sentiment among voters that Bass bore responsibility for the devastation. This perception proved difficult for her to overcome during the campaign.

Raman's entry into the race represented a dramatic reversal of her political alliances. She initially endorsed Bass, a former ally, before announcing her own candidacy just before the filing deadline. In a post-election statement, Bass said she called Raman to congratulate her. Bass acknowledged that the outcome was not what she hoped for but noted that the people of Los Angeles had spoken. She committed to ensuring a smooth transition and stated that moving the city forward is a collective need.

Raman campaigned on a platform that included ousting the current police chief, whom she viewed as too accommodating to federal immigration authorities. She also pledged to repair basic infrastructure, citing pothole-ridden streets, buckled sidewalks, and broken streetlights. Raman criticized Bass's efforts to reduce homelessness as ineffective. She proposed expanding medical teams for people in encampments to build trust and eventually bring individuals indoors. Her plan includes providing more housing to move people out of city-rented hotels. Raman stated her strategy could cut the number of people sleeping in tents and encampments by at least half by 2028, the year Los Angeles hosts the Olympic Games.

A Berkeley IGS and Los Angeles Times poll from late October found that about four in ten likely voters prioritized reducing homeless encampments. About three in ten focused on public safety or affordable housing. Raman appealed to voters restless over long-running problems. In one campaign ad, she showed an empty lectern at the site of a massive warehouse fire from last summer, alongside images of Skid Row and shuttered storefronts, and asked viewers, 'Where is our mayor?' Bass countered that she had made enough progress to merit a second term and labeled Raman's views on policing and homelessness as extreme.

Bass received support from California Governor Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and nearly every member of the city council. Billionaire developer Rick Caruso said he was voting for Bass but did not formally endorse her. Raman secured support from advocacy groups such as Our Revolution and the Sierra Club. She recently held a private meeting with former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was not involved in the race. Raman will soon begin governing a city home to a struggling entertainment industry, a major port, world-class universities, and a tourist destination.