Nithya Raman has defeated incumbent Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral election, becoming the city’s next mayor and the first challenger to unseat a sitting mayor since Antonio Villaraigosa defeated James Hahn in 2005.
Raman’s victory came as Democrats recorded strong results across the United States on Election Day. Bass conceded on Thursday morning and said she had called Raman to congratulate her.
“While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken,” Bass said in a statement. She added that she was committed to ensuring “a smooth and seamless transition”.
Bass thanked her supporters and the leaders who assisted her campaign, saying she would continue to “ensure the promise of a better life belongs to all of us”.
Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member and Democratic socialist, said in a video statement that she was “deeply honoured” to become the city’s next mayor.
“Thank you to the thousands of people who knocked on doors, sent texts, made phone calls, convinced their neighbours to believe in the promise of this big, beautiful, joyful city that we get to call home,” she said.
Addressing those who voted for Bass or did not vote, Raman said she was “going to City Hall to work every single day to earn your trust, and to earn your trust in this city again”.
She also paid tribute to Bass, thanking her for decades of public service and highlighting her place as Los Angeles’s first woman mayor.
“She has served Los Angeles for so many decades and I know so many people, not just across this city but across this country, are grateful for her dedication to the promise of Los Angeles,” Raman said.
Nithya Raman’s path to Los Angeles City Hall
Raman announced her bid for mayor in February, despite having previously endorsed Bass’s re-election campaign. She described her primary campaign as a “long shot” before overtaking Spencer Pratt to face Bass in the general election.
A poll released shortly before the election showed Bass and Raman tied on 40 per cent support among likely voters. The pair had emerged as the leading candidates after moving ahead of Pratt in the primary.
Before winning a seat on Los Angeles City Council in 2020, Raman co-chaired the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Homelessness Committee and co-founded a homeless advocacy non-profit.
In 2025, she introduced a motion to cap annual rent increases for tenants in rent-stabilised flats built before 1978. The measure passed by 13 votes to two, and Raman said she hoped to pursue similar measures to support small businesses.
Karen Bass concedes Los Angeles mayoral election
Bass, who has spent more than two decades in public office as a congresswoman and as Los Angeles’s 43rd mayor, had said the race would be her final campaign for elected office.
Raised in Los Angeles, Bass began her professional career as a nurse and physician assistant before founding the Community Coalition, which helped underserved residents in South Los Angeles tackle substance abuse, poverty and crime.
She entered politics in 2004 as a member of the California Assembly, becoming the first Black woman to serve as speaker of a state legislative body. She later represented California in Congress for 12 years.
Bass received endorsements from California Governor Gavin Newsom and former vice-president Kamala Harris during the campaign. Rick Caruso, who had been her rival in the 2022 mayoral race, also backed her shortly before the election.
