Nithya Raman, a candidate backed by democratic socialists, has defeated incumbent Karen Bass in a tightly contested race for mayor of Los Angeles.
Bass conceded on Thursday, becoming the latest centrist politician to lose to a rising wave of democratic socialists and progressives in elections nationwide.
Raman, a Los Angeles city council member, homeless advocate, and former ally of Bass, shocked the political establishment in the nation’s second-largest city by mounting a successful challenge against the sitting mayor. She is the first challenger to defeat a Los Angeles mayoral incumbent since 2005. Born in India, Raman is an urban planner who first won her city council seat in 2020.
Raman has welcomed comparisons to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, elected a year earlier, though she has pushed back against being characterized as merely a West Coast counterpart.
“I am different. I am myself,” she said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
Homelessness emerged as a central issue throughout the campaign.
According to the latest annual count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, approximately 44,000 people were experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles in 2025, with about 27,000 living unsheltered on streets, in vehicles, or in encampments. Nearly 5,000 of them are concentrated in the downtown Skid Row district.
In a video statement thanking voters and volunteers, Raman vowed to “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.”
Raman also praised Bass’s record of public service. Bass, a former six-term congresswoman, nurse, and emergency room physician’s assistant, was the first woman elected mayor of Los Angeles. She made combating homelessness a top priority when she took office four years ago, though many affordable-housing advocates criticized her for insufficient progress.
In a written statement, Bass conceded the race, congratulated Raman, and pledged a smooth transition.
Bass’s standing suffered from criticism of the city’s response to the January 2025 Palisades fire, one of the deadliest and most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles history. The blaze killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 structures.
The concurrent Eaton fire, which swept through Altadena and surrounding neighborhoods east of Los Angeles, killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 homes, businesses, and other structures.
