Photo: Visitor7 / CC BY-SA 3.0
Nithya Raman has defeated Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayor’s race, according to a call by Decision Desk HQ reported Wednesday evening by The Hill and Bloomberg News. The City Council member’s win ends Bass’ bid for a second term and puts a challenger from her own party in charge of City Hall.
The call is a news organization’s determination of the winner, not a certified final result. Ballot counting continues. NBC News’ results page still listed the contest as too early to call when this article was published.
Raman led Bass by about 26,000 votes out of roughly 784,000 counted when Decision Desk HQ called the race, The Hill reported. Those are partial returns, not the final margin.
A change at City Hall
Both candidates are Democrats. Raman ran to the left of Bass, drawing support from the Democratic Socialists of America’s Los Angeles chapter and campaigning on housing affordability, homelessness and making city government work better.
A former Bass ally, Raman entered the race in February. She was first elected to the City Council in 2020, when she defeated incumbent David Ryu, according to The Hill.
Bass’ reelection campaign faced anger over her handling of the 2025 Palisades wildfire, along with persistent pressure over homelessness, public safety and the cost of living. Raman argued that the city needed a different approach.
Housing and Hollywood’s jobs crisis loom
The result matters well beyond City Hall. Los Angeles residents and businesses face high housing costs, rebuilding demands after the fires and a slowdown in film and television production that reaches across the local economy.
During the campaign, both candidates supported stronger film and television tax incentives at the state level and a federal incentive to keep production in the United States, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Raman criticized Bass’ handling of the industry’s concerns.
Raman’s coming term will also overlap with preparations for the 2028 Summer Olympics. For the next mayor, the challenge is turning campaign promises about housing, public services and jobs into results residents can see.
JBizNews Desk | Politics
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