City Councilmember Nithya Raman is set to become Los Angeles’ next mayor after defeating incumbent Karen Bass by more than five percentage points, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Raman is the latest democratic socialist to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city, following Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City in 2025 and Janeese Lewis George’s in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
Pledging to fix a “broken city,” Raman campaigned on improving basic city services, addressing housing affordability and changing the leadership of the Los Angeles Police Department. She promised to remove LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, who she claimed has made the LAPD more secretive, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“I just think that there needs to be change,” said Edi Ave, a [year] studying intelligence and cyber operations. “Raman is a lot more progressive, and Bass is a lot more of an establishment politician that hasn’t really changed much.”
Raman made addressing homelessness a central part of her work as a city councilmember. Los Angeles County accounts for about 9% of the nation’s total unhoused population, despite representing less than 3% of its population, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
There are roughly 73,000 unhoused people in L.A. County, about 45,000 of whom live in the city, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
Raman has championed a recent rental voucher program projected to cost approximately $30,000 a year per unhoused person, compared with the roughly $82,000 annual cost of Bass’ Inside Safe initiative.
Raman has also run on the slogan “Immigrants in, ICE out.” Her website says she plans to codify and expand bans of Immigration, Customs and Enforcement operations on city properties, a restriction Bass implemented in February.
In the final weeks of the race, Bass voiced her support for McDonnell, telling ABC7 she had full confidence in the chief and no plans to remove him.
Raman’s entry into the mayoral race in February came as a surprise after she endorsed Bass for reelection in January 2026. The two had previously worked together on homelessness and housing issues
Thomas Hammond, president of Trojan Democrats, said the group’s endorsement of Raman came after an open discussion and a vote with “a pretty decisive margin for Nithya.”
Hammond said housing issues and rising prices were among the reasons for the endorsement, but added that dissatisfaction with Bass also played a significant role.
“A lot of it was dissatisfaction with Bass, which I think is another factor that can’t be understated here,” Hammond said.
Recent USC graduate Dara Sadeghi, an economics major and legal studies minor, said she has looked to New York City MayorZohran Mamdani’s administration as an example of the changes she hopes to see.
Mamdani, also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has become a point of comparison for Raman and her supporters.
“If Mamdani had not ended up winning in New York and had not governed as effectively as he has been governing, I don’t know if Nithya would have ended up winning in the end,” Hammond said.
Xara Shaw, an interim leader for USC’s Young DSA chapter, said Raman’s appeal extended beyond her platform.
“What really stands out about Nithya is not even necessarily her platform, I don’t think she’s the most radical candidate,” Shaw said. “I wouldn’t even say she’s quite Zohran Mamdani.”
Sadeghi said that while some of Mamdani’s work is “kind of impossible here,” because of differences between the cities, she hopes to see improvements to public transportation.
Transportation is also a policy that Shaw is excited to see what Raman will be able to accomplish.
“Mayor has a lot of control and sway over the Metro board and what projects go through,” Shaw said.
In a video statement Thursday, Raman said she would work to earn the trust of every non-voter and Bass supporter.
“That work starts now, so that we can build housing that people can afford, 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 working people and its families, and a city government that is actually capable of delivering on its promises,” she said.
While the students who spoke with Annenberg Media welcomed Raman’s victory over Bass, they emphasized that her work was only beginning.
“Job’s not finished,” Shaw said. “We got a lot more organizing to do. We got a lot more pushing on Nithya to do. We got a lot more.”