Nithya Raman defeats Karen Bass to become first South Asian mayor of Los Angeles

Nithya Raman, a progressive member of the Los Angeles City Council, has defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and is on track to become the first South Asian to lead the second-largest city in the United States.

The Associated Press called the race for Raman on Thursday, with the 45-year-old holding 52 percent of the vote. She prevailed despite Bass enjoying the backing of prominent Democrats, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Raman's campaign was supported by the Democratic Socialists of America, and her victory arrived amid a broader surge in visibility and electoral success for the left-wing movement. A record number of candidates backed by or affiliated with the DSA won federal offices in Tuesday's midterm elections. On its website, the group claimed credit for contributing to at least 300 candidacies or ballot referendums during the midterms and said it is on track to count 105 of those as victories.

Among the DSA-linked wins were congressional races in which Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, Melat Kiros and Chris Rabb each secured a first term as a US representative. Raman's triumph in Los Angeles also follows another high-profile democratic socialist victory in a mayor's race, that of Zohran Mamdani in New York City last year.

Born in India, Raman worked as an urban planner before running for office. Once an ally of Bass, she initially endorsed the mayor's re-election campaign but reversed course and entered the race in February, just hours before the filing deadline.

In her victory speech, Raman promised to restore what she described as an ambitious, creative and entrepreneurial Los Angeles. "For too long our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best that we can do," she told the crowd.

Raman pledged to expand affordable housing, improve neglected city services and take a different approach to homelessness by deploying more medical teams to assist people who are unhoused. She also called for replacing the city's police chief over concerns about cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

She now faces the task of delivering on those promises in a city of more than 3.8 million people. Los Angeles is also preparing to host the 2028 Olympic Games, which open in July of that year.

With the result, Bass became the first Los Angeles mayor in more than two decades to lose a re-election bid. Her defeat followed a difficult four years in office, during which her administration drew mounting criticism over the city's homelessness crisis and its response to the deadly Palisades Fire, which broke out while she was overseas and devastated communities across the Los Angeles area.

In a statement on Thursday, Bass congratulated Raman and said she was committed to ensuring a smooth transition. "Four years ago, you elected me as the first Black woman mayor in the history of Los Angeles. You gave me the honor of serving the city that raised me, and every single day since, I have carried that responsibility with me," Bass wrote. "Moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us."