(California Globe) Los Angeles voters have ousted incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in favor of City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a Democratic Socialists of America member, in a historic upset that ends more than two decades without an incumbent mayor losing reelection. With roughly 76% of votes counted Thursday, Raman led with about 52% to Bass’s 48%, prompting Bass to concede.
Raman becomes “the city’s first South Asian mayor” and the second woman in the role. Her win pairs Los Angeles with New York City, now led by DSA-aligned Mayor Zohran Mamdani, as two of America’s largest cities under candidates backed by the socialist group and their fellow Democratic comrades. In deep-blue metros, the supposed remedy for progressive failure is simply more of the status quo she campaigned against.
Raman, 45, an urban planner who previously founded the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition and chaired the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, entered the race at the last minute after initially endorsing Bass. She framed the campaign as a rejection of “establishment politics” and the “broken status quo.” Voters apparently agreed the status quo was broken; whether her version of the fix is any better remains an open and expensive rhetorical question.