LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nithya Raman, a little-known Los Angeles City Council member backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated Mayor Karen Bass, an upset that will change the trajectory of the nation’s second-largest city.
Indian-born Raman’s election campaign marked a generational shift at City Hall as voters followed the lead of New York, where democratic socialists Zohran Mamdani was elected last year. Raman, however, never attracted the same level of national attention and emphasized his desire to break with the Progressive Party at certain times during the campaign.
When she takes office next month, Raman will join the vanguard of democratic socialists in city government. Besides Mamdani, Janeese Lewis George was elected mayor of Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, and Katie Wilson is mayor of Seattle.
Asked about the Democratic Socialists’ success in the mayoral elections, President Donald Trump said “we’ll see what happens” but warned that the impact of the changes they make could be irreversible.
“There will be a point where if people are unhappy, they will change,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “But unfortunately, it usually happens so late that you’ll never be able to bring back a city or a country or a state. You know, when it goes too far.”
Raman endorsed Bass, then shifted gears
Raman’s entry into the race marked a stunning change of heart after she initially supported Bass, once her ally. She said the city had reached a “breaking point” and announced her own candidacy just hours before the filing deadline, setting off a meteoric rise that would take her to mayor.
In a video with the downtown skyline behind her, Raman paid tribute to Bass and thanked her volunteers. She promised to “build affordable housing for people, parks for our children to play in, a transit system that can get people where they need to go, a city that is safe for its workers and families, and a city government that can actually deliver on its promises.”
Bass said in a statement that she called Raman to congratulate her on her victory.
“While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken,” Bass said. “I am committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition. Moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us.”
Bass becomes the first Los Angeles mayor in two decades to lose his re-election bid. His first mandate was canceled by the Deadly palisades firewho caught fire while she was out of the country and caught the firefighters are not prepared. The devastation left many voters with an unshakeable feeling that Bass should be held accountable, and she never recovered.
Raman expressed voters’ frustration with the city
As votes were being counted earlier this week, Raman delivered a campaign speech Tuesday that marked a campaign coda, summarizing voters’ frustration with a city that seemed adrift and his vision for the future.
“For too long, our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best we can do,” she said. “LA stopped being a place where we could build things, where we could open things, where we could film things, where we could create things.”
She said she would restore “this aspirational Los Angeles, this joyful Los Angeles, this creative Los Angeles, this entrepreneurial Los Angeles.”
Raman’s rise came during a year marked by Democratic divisions across the country, with left-wing insurgent candidates challenging their establishment rivals.
Raman vows to oust the police chief, whom she considers too accommodating to federal immigration authorities. She also wants to improve basic services that have deteriorated for years and left neighborhoods with dirty, pothole-filled streets, buckled sidewalks and broken streetlights.
Raman called Bass’ efforts to reduce homelessness ineffective. It promises a new approach to the crisis this would expand the medical teams for people living in camps and on the streets with the aim of building trust and eventually returning them home. Raman also wants to provide more housing to allow homeless people to move out of city-rented hotels.
She said her plans could cut the number of people sleeping in tents and encampments by at least half by 2028, when the city hosts the Olympics. However, the problem has long proven insoluble, despite billions spent in the region.
Raman proposed change
Raman, 45, was the face of change in a year when voters were worried about long-standing problems that persisted under the reign of Bass, 73. A Berkeley IGS/LA Times poll conducted Oct. 19-25 found that about 4 in 10 likely voters said reducing the number of homeless encampments should be a top priority for the next mayor, while about 3 in 10 said it was ensuring public safety or building more affordable housing.
She managed to overcome Bass’s criticism that she was “not ready for prime time” and too inexperienced to lead a city of 3.8 million, and she capitalized on anxiety about the future.
“Our city is in crisis,” she said in an ad. The ad showed a lectern with no people behind it at the site of a massive warehouse fire last summer, the epicenter of Skid Row’s homeless and shuttered malls and storefronts. “Where is our mayor? » asked Raman.
Bass argued that she had made enough progress to deserve a second four-year term, and she called Raman’s views on policing and homelessness “extreme.”
Top Democrats aligned with Bass
Raman’s victory came despite limited support from the Democratic establishment. Bass had the support of Governor Gavin Newsomformer Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as nearly every member of the City Council. Bass served in the state Legislature and Congress before becoming mayor in 2022 and was under study being former President Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020.
In an important signal to the business community, billionaire developer Rick Caruso said he was voting for Bass, but did not formally endorse the candidate he lost to in the 2022 mayoral race.
Raman, urban planner, gained notable support advocacy and political groups, including Our Revolution, founded by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and the Sierra Club. But she lacked support from prominent local politicians.
She landed a widely publicized private meeting with former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was not involved in the race, who hinted at her efforts to expand her circle. Expanding her network of allies could prove crucial as she begins to govern a city that is home to a struggling entertainment industry, a major port, world-class universities and research institutes and is a major tourist destination.
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Associated Press writer Moriah Balingit in Washington contributed.
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