Nithya Raman wins Los Angeles mayor race, beats Karen Bass with 52%
Kerala-born Nithya Raman beat Mayor Karen Bass with about 52% of the vote and will be LA's first South Asian mayor. Who she is and what she promised.
Nithya Raman, a Los Angeles city council member born in India’s Kerala state, has won the race for mayor of Los Angeles, beating the sitting mayor, Karen Bass. The Associated Press called the race on Thursday, 5 November, with Raman on about 52% of the vote to Bass’s 48%, and Bass conceded the same day.
Raman, 45, will be the first South Asian to lead America’s second-largest city. With Zohran Mamdani already mayor of New York, both of the country’s biggest cities will now be run by politicians of Indian origin who call themselves democratic socialists.
Who is Nithya Raman?
Raman was born in Kerala and moved to the United States with her family when she was six, according to Al Jazeera. As an adult she went back to India and worked as an urban planner in Chennai. She moved to Los Angeles in 2013, worked in city government and then started a non-profit group helping homeless people.
In 2020 she won a seat on the city council, becoming its first South Asian member. Her campaigns have had the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America.
How did she beat a sitting mayor?
She nearly did not run. Raman first endorsed Bass for a second term, then changed her mind and entered the race in February, hours before the filing deadline. For much of the primary she looked set to finish third, behind reality TV star Spencer Pratt, NBC News reported.
Bass had heavyweight support from Governor Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi. But she was the first Los Angeles mayor in more than two decades to lose a bid for re-election, Al Jazeera noted.
“For too long our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best that we can do,” Raman told supporters. Bass, who was the city’s first Black woman mayor, said in a statement she would ensure a smooth handover.
What did she promise?
- More affordable housing.
- Fixing neglected city services.
- More medical teams for people living on the streets.
- A new police chief, citing concerns about the police department’s cooperation with federal immigration raids.
She also inherits the 2028 Olympic Games, which open in Los Angeles in July 2028.
Why South Asians are celebrating
These elections also produced the first Muslim US senator, Abdul El-Sayed, and for many South Asian families in California, seeing a Kerala-born woman run the city where they live is a first. What to watch next: who she picks for police chief, the first big test of her promises.
