In a Historic Win, Indian American Nithya Raman Unseats Karen Bass to Become Los Angeles Mayor

Nithya Raman, a Kerala-born urban planner and two-term City Council member, will be the next mayor of Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass conceded on Thursday, Nov. 5, after major news sources projected that Raman had unseated her.

“The people of Los Angeles have spoken,” Bass said in a statement. She said she had called Raman to congratulate her and promised a smooth transition.

Raman, 45, will be the city’s first Asian American mayor. She will also be the first member of the Democratic Socialists of America to lead the nation’s second-largest city. With her win, democratic socialists now hold or have won the mayor’s office in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Seattle. Ballots are still being counted, and results are not yet certified.

How She Won

A late, long-shot entry. Raman had endorsed Bass for reelection. She reversed course in February, filing just hours before the deadline, a move LAist said shocked the city. On primary night in June she was in third place. As late ballots were counted, she passed reality TV personality Spencer Pratt on the sixth day of the count to reach the runoff, LAist reported.

An unpopular incumbent. A Berkeley IGS/Los Angeles Times poll found that 65% of likely voters viewed Bass unfavorably, The Washington Post reported. Many voters turned against her after the January 2025 Palisades Fire, which began while she was abroad. Raman campaigned on that response, on broken streets and sidewalks, on the uneven results of Bass’s Inside Safe homelessness program, and on housing costs. Bass countered that Raman had opposed police funding and encampment cleanups and was “not ready for primetime.”

A changed electorate and an unusual coalition. Since Los Angeles moved city elections to even-numbered years, turnout has risen, and the electorate has grown younger and more heavily renters, the Post reported. Polls showed young voters overwhelmingly backing Raman. Her coalition ran from democratic socialists to some housing developers. It included billionaire Aaron Sosnick, who gave $7 million to committees supporting her, and unions such as Unite Here Local 11 and the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters. Most public employee unions backed Bass. The Los Angeles Police Protective League spent more than $5 million against Raman, and 13 of her 14 council colleagues endorsed Bass.

A close count. Bass led when the first returns came in on election night. Raman took the lead early Wednesday as later mail ballots were counted, LAist reported, and was ahead 51.67% to 48.33% by Wednesday afternoon. Raman told supporters at the Greek Theatre that the campaign had refused to accept the city’s status quo, saying, “Hopelessness can be fatal for a city.”

From Kerala to City Hall

Raman was born in Kerala, India, in 1981 and came to the United States at age 6. Her family eventually settled outside Boston, according to the Post. She graduated from Harvard in 2003 and returned to India. There she worked with nonprofits advocating for the rights of slum residents in Delhi, then did similar work in Chennai. She later earned a master’s in urban planning from MIT.

She graduated from Harvard in 2003 and returned to India. There she worked with nonprofits advocating for the rights of slum residents in Delhi, then did similar work in Chennai. She later earned a master’s in urban planning from MIT.

She moved to Los Angeles in 2013 with her husband, television writer Vali Chandrasekaran, and worked for the city administrative officer. In 2017 she co-founded the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition. She also worked at Time’s Up, the entertainment-industry women’s advocacy group. In 2020 she unseated Councilmember David Ryu in the 4th District. That made her the first South Asian elected to the City Council and the first DSA member to hold elected office in Los Angeles. She won reelection in 2024.

Raman is a practicing Hindu.

A Democratic Socialist Who OftenBreaks with the DSA

Raman is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and campaigned to the left of Bass. She told the Post that the DSA is among the city’s strongest voices for renters. Her record, though, has often diverged from the organization’s platform.

Housing. Raman aligns with the pro-building “YIMBY” wing of urbanists, according to the Post, a stance that puts her at odds with DSA-LA’s call to take housing out of private ownership. She promised to strengthen tenant protections while speeding up apartment construction, and pledged to cut street homelessness in half before the 2028 Olympics, CNN reported.

Policing and shifting positions. The Los Angeles Times reported that Raman has reversed course on several central issues, according to the Post. She called for defunding the police in 2020, then voted two years later to increase LAPD spending. She opposed encampment sweeps, then said she would let them proceed as mayor. She backed the city’s “mansion tax” on high-value real estate sales, then argued for changing it, saying it had slowed housing construction. Supporters see independence; critics, including Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, call it tailoring her views to her audience. Raman said she would replace Police Chief Jim McDonnell.

Israel and Gaza. Raman has called Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide. She has also condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack and criticized the national DSA’s statement on it as lacking empathy. She has described the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as a legitimate form of peaceful protest but has stopped short of advocating it, the Post reported. DSA-LA censured her in 2024 for accepting an endorsement from Democrats for Israel–Los Angeles. The national DSA later threatened to expel her over BDS before backing down, the Forward reported.