Democratic socialist Nithya Raman defeats Karen Bass in the L.A. mayor’s race

City Council member Nithya Raman has defeated incumbent Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral race, NBC News projects, capping off a rapid political ascent for a progressive challenger who railed against the “broken status quo” in the country’s second-largest metropolis.

Raman, 45, who is part of the Democratic Socialists of America, unseated Bass, a former six-term congresswoman and a fixture of California’s political scene for decades. The result means three major cities will be led by democratic socialists, with Raman joining New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Janeese Lewis George, who won the mayor’s race in Washington, D.C. this week.

Bass faced intense scrutiny over her response to a January 2025 wildfire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the most destructive in Los Angeles history. The blaze erupted while she was in the West African nation of Ghana attending a presidential inauguration. It went on to destroy thousands of homes and kill 12 people.

Follow live updates on the midterm elections

Raman, a former urban planner and activist, accused Bass of mismanaging the city’s homelessness problem and rising housing prices. She blasted City Hall for what she characterized as “a reluctance to move forward with the transformative policy change that this city needs right now.”

Bass, for her part, argued Raman was “not ready for primetime” after six years on the City Council.

The two Democrats also differed sharply on Israel’s war in Gaza, highlighting a generational split in the party. Speaking at a September forum co-hosted by Jewish Federation Los Angeles, Raman said she agreed with left-wing influencer Hasan Piker that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians; Bass rejected that label.

Raman’s candidacy drew comparisons to that of Mamdani, whose campaign rallied New York City voters dissatisfied with the political establishment. Raman touted her progressive bona fides while stressing her “independence” from the Democratic Socialists of America.

The incoming mayor’s agenda will be defined in part by the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, a complex undertaking that will test the city’s physical infrastructure, public transportation services and security systems.

Raman endorsed Bass at the beginning of the year before she launched a last-minute bid of her own. Bass and Raman took the top two spots in a June 2 primary contest, advancing to a runoff over populist insurgent Spencer Pratt, a former reality television star who blasted the city’s political establishment with provocative social media videos.

On the City Council, Raman represents a district that ranges from the San Fernando Valley to the Santa Monica Mountains. She was born in India and moved to the U.S. with her family as a child, later attending Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.