Councilmember Nithya Raman defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral race, marking a significant shift in leadership for the nation’s second-largest city, according to The Guardian.
Raman Leads in Vote Count
As of Thursday, November 5, 2026, the latest results from the L.A. County Register-Recorder/County Clerk show Nithya Raman leading with 429,450 votes to Karen Bass’ 394,796, according to CBS News. With approximately 72% of the expected vote counted, Raman holds 52.10% of the vote compared to Bass’ 47.90%. It took several days of vote counting for Raman’s lead to grow.
The 45-year-old councilmember, associated with the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated Bass, a former congresswoman who was Los Angeles’ first female mayor and second Black mayor. Raman’s win reflects a trend of progressive victories in major U.S. cities, including New York and Washington, D.C., where democratic socialists have recently secured mayoral seats.
From immigrant roots to the Mayor's Office of Los Angeles! Nithya Raman's journey is a powerful American story. Born in Kerala, India, she came to America, studied at Harvard and MIT, and dedicated her career to fighting homelessness, housing insecurity, and inequality. From… pic.twitter.com/2pBJo1zqgw
Contrasting Visions for City Hall
The two Democrats offered fundamentally different approaches to the city’s most pressing challenges. Raman specifically attacked “Inside Safe,” Bass’s signature initiative, which the city has funded with over $300 million. According to reports cited by 19th News, 40 percent of those housed through the program returned to the streets.
Bass defended her record by highlighting the thousands of encampments cleared and Angelenos brought into shelter during her term. She argued that Raman lacked the necessary experience for the role. Bass famously stated that her challenger was not ready for primetime
after only six years on the City Council.
The campaign also became a referendum on leadership during crises. Bass faced significant backlash regarding her presence in Ghana during the January 2025 Pacific Palisades wildfire, which destroyed thousands of homes and resulted in 12 deaths. Irene Randall, a Crenshaw native and voter, noted:
Everybody needs a second chance. They’ve all done something underneath the covers where we cannot see, and hers just so happened to be a little open. I believe in second chances.
Endorsements and Political Alignments
The race drew heavy involvement from established political figures and labor organizations. Ernesto Medrano, executive secretary of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, spoke on her behalf at the LA County Democratic Party election night event.
Nithya Raman winning the Mayor's office in the second largest city in the U. S. is IMO the most important election of this season. just the ground shifting on housing, transit, bicycles, and walkable urbanism.
Raman’s insurgent campaign gained momentum with the backing of UNITE Here Local 11 and the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Kurt Petersen, co-president of UNITE Here Local 11, described the result as a monsoon, an earthquake, a leveling, a restructuring
of the city’s political establishment. The Writers Guild of America West supported Raman, a group whose membership includes her husband. The Hollywood Teamsters, IATSE and the American Federation of Musicians Local 47 all supported Bass.
Despite the tension, some former rivals moved to consolidate support. Billionaire Rick Caruso, who ran against Bass in 2022, publicly endorsed her in the final days of the campaign, stating:
For the love of LA, I must put the past behind me because this election must be about our future.
Tight Matchup Defines Race Among Voters
The race was a tight matchup from the start. A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/LA Times poll released late in the campaign showed the race had become a neck-and-neck matchup, after polling had placed Bass far behind Raman a month earlier. The candidates vied for the 218,000 voters who rallied behind third-place candidate Spencer Pratt during the primary. While Bass had an edge among Pratt voters in one poll, the survey showed that 63% of those voters weren’t sure who they would support.
Raman’s election-night event, held in the plaza of L.A.’s Greek Theatre, was filled with an upbeat atmosphere. As Mark Ramos, chair of the Los Angeles Democratic Party, entered the hall he yelled to an expectant line of camera people, It’s a good day to be a Democrat!
The Kalshi odds, which had been slightly favoring Bass before the first ballots were counted, tipped heavily in Raman’s favor afterward.
Raman told a crowd of supporters gathered at her election night party that she was very hopeful
about the vote count, adding she was really superstitious, so we’re all just going to be cool.
She stated, Today all across America, voters demanded change.
Incoming Mayor Faces Olympic Logistical Demands
The incoming mayor will immediately face the logistical demands of preparing the city for the 2028 Summer Olympics. The event is expected to test the city’s aging infrastructure, public transit, and security capabilities. Raman has vowed to cut street homelessness in half before the games begin. She has also championed the creation of a Recovery District
to coordinate the recovery across jurisdictions, bring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Palisades, and ensure that local residents are at the table when decisions are made.
The Raman campaign believes young people are drawn to her for two reasons: an extension of this movement that was fed up with the political establishment
and a desire for a current change to make living more affordable and government more responsive. With 2028’s Los Angeles Summer Olympics fast approaching, the city’s shrinking police force is another major challenge. The Los Angeles Police Department has fewer than 8,700 officers now, having fallen from 10,000 in recent years.
Election officials continued to count ballots over the coming weeks. The L.A.
Earlier coverage: Karen Bass and Nithya Raman lock horns in L.A. mayor's race
