Raman ousts Bass as Los Angeles mayor

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman (D) is projected to become the next mayor of Los Angeles after ousting embattled Mayor Karen Bass (D) after one term, according to Decision Desk HQ.

The race was called Wednesday evening with Raman leading by about 26,000 votes—roughly 3 percent—out of 784,262 votes cast, per DDHQ.

Raman defeated Bass after the two advanced from the June 2 nonpartisan jungle primary, ousting former reality TV star Spencer Pratt from the race.

The council member was a late entry to the mayoral race in February. A former Bass ally, she differentiated her campaign from the mayor’s incumbency by focusing on her handling of several issues, including fallout from 2025’s devastating Palisades and Eaton fires, homelessness, reform of the Los Angeles Police Department and affordable housing, and what she would do differently.

Raman was first elected in 2020, defeating incumbent City Council member David Ryu. She secured several endorsements in her mayoral campaign, including from the Sierra Club, Unite Here Local 11, LA Forward, the Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Los Angeles chapter, of which she is a member.

Though she campaigned on being independent from DSA in her decisionmaking on the City Council, her political affiliation makes her the city’s first socialist mayor. It also gives the organization another victory with a democratic socialist leading a major American city, following New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D) victory last year.

Long before the primary, when Raman faced off against democratic socialist the Rev. Rae Huang, lawyer Job Harriman was the last Socialist Party candidate in the City of Angels to run for mayor in 1911.

Harriman lost support before the election following the bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, which was linked to two union members whom Harriman represented in court, according to the Museum of the New Llano Colony.