LOS ANGELES.- Nithya Raman, a 45-year-old city council member and democratic socialist, defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral election, the Associated Press called the race on Thursday, two days after voters went to the polls. Bass conceded just before midday on Thursday, called Raman to congratulate her, and promised a smooth transition.
The latest figures from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk's Office, released on Thursday afternoon, showed Raman with 460,772 votes, or 52.70 percent, against 413,519 votes, or 47.30 percent, for Bass — a lead of 47,253 votes that kept growing with every ballot drop, MyNewsLA reported. The results remain unofficial, pending completion of the count and certification.
Raman will become the first South Asian and the first Asian American mayor in the history of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States. She is also the first mayoral challenger to defeat a sitting Los Angeles mayor since 2005, when then-Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa unseated James K. Hahn, and the first mayor backed by the Democratic Socialists of America to lead the city. Her victory puts democratic socialists in charge of the two largest cities in the country, New York and Los Angeles, the Wall Street Journal noted.
The count that flipped the race
Bass held a narrow lead when the first tally of early ballots was released on Tuesday night, ahead 50.7 percent to 49.3 percent as of 10:48 p.m. Pacific time. But as ballots cast close to or on Election Day were added to the totals, Raman edged in front and extended her lead with each update: by Wednesday night she led by 26,124 votes, by Thursday morning the margin was 34,654 votes, with Raman at 52.1 percent, and by Thursday afternoon it had grown to 47,253.
About 642,000 ballots remained to be counted countywide as of Thursday evening, and it was unclear how many of them were cast by Los Angeles city voters. Raman was widely expected to keep extending her lead, because her main support base — younger, progressive voters — tends to cast ballots later in the cycle, and those are the ballots being tallied now.
The race had been neck-and-neck late in the campaign. A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and released last week, found both candidates at 40 percent support among likely voters, with 19 percent undecided. Bass had closed the gap after a September poll found Raman leading by 11 percentage points. An October poll commissioned by the New York Post found just 25.5 percent of likely voters approved of Bass's job performance, while 71.7 percent disapproved, with Raman leading 46.7 percent to 38.8 percent.
"I'm deeply honored to be your next mayor"
In a video statement after the race was called, Raman thanked the volunteers who knocked on doors, sent texts and made phone calls, and paid tribute to the mayor she defeated.
"Los Angeles, I'm deeply honored to be your next mayor," she said. "I also wanted to pay tribute to Mayor Karen Bass, someone who has given decades of her life to making this city what it is today. To every voter out there who voted for Mayor Bass or who chose not to vote in this election at all, please know this: I am going to City Hall to work every single day to earn your trust, and to earn your trust in this city again. I love this city, and I love its people, and I cannot wait to get started on building a better future together with all of you."
Bass, 73, who in 2022 became the first Black woman elected mayor of Los Angeles, issued her concession shortly before midday on Thursday.
"While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken," Bass said. "I have called Council member Nithya Raman to congratulate her on her victory, and I have committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition. Moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us."
"You gave me the honor of serving the city that raised me, and every single day since, I have carried that responsibility with me," she added. "I love Los Angeles. I believe in Los Angeles. And I will continue to ensure the promise of a better life belongs to all of us."
On election night, Raman told supporters at her party in Griffith Park that voters wanted change. "This election is about change, too, a city that was engineered over the last few decades to resist change, and the people right here who said enough is enough," she said. "Our City Hall became a place where we became so used to saying 'no,' we forgot how to say 'yes.'" Bass, speaking to supporters in Hollywood the same night, touted her work on wildfire recovery, her opposition to federal immigration raids and her efforts to reduce homelessness.
Who is Nithya Raman
Raman was born in Kerala, India, on July 28, 1981, and moved to Louisiana with her family when she was six. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, worked as an urban planner, and was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2020, representing the 4th District. She announced on February 7, 2026, that she would challenge Bass, and advanced to the November 3 runoff after finishing second in the June primary, ahead of reality television personality Spencer Pratt.
Her campaign was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, and her win comes as part of a surge in visibility and electoral wins for the left-wing movement, Al Jazeera reported. Bass, by contrast, had the support of the Democratic establishment, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Raman ran on fixing what she called a "broken city" under Bass. She criticized the billion-dollar police salary agreement Bass signed and the cost of modernizing the downtown convention center, and promised more transparency in the city's homelessness-program spending.
A campaign fought over police, homelessness and the fires
Public safety dominated the final weeks. Bass and the political action committees supporting her focused their attacks on Raman's record on policing, above all her call to remove Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell. Raman faced criticism after saying the LAPD was at a "gold standard" under former Chief Daryl Gates; she later apologized, explaining that she had been referring to Special Order 40, which limits city police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Jamie McBride, a director of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing rank-and-file officers, told NBC4 during the campaign that a Raman victory would have devastating consequences for the department, saying the nation's third-largest police force is already severely understaffed. Bass sought four more years to continue her work on homelessness, housing, affordability and public safety.
Bass's popularity had fallen sharply after the 2025 wildfires that destroyed parts of the city, the Wall Street Journal reported. On Thursday, the police union that had backed Bass and spent millions of dollars to oppose Raman congratulated the mayor-elect and accepted the result. Its president, Ricky Mendoza, reached out to Raman to establish a dialogue, and the union's board said its officers share her stated goal that LAPD staffing levels should not decrease from current levels.
"Los Angeles police officers and others are filled with uncertainty and angst at the prospect of major cuts to the LAPD that will reverse the progress made in reducing crime," the board said. "The campaign is over, the voters have spoken and it is now our job to work with Mayor-elect Raman and her team on governing the city."
City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who served alongside Raman on the council, also congratulated her, saying the city faces "enormous challenges and opportunities" and that Angelenos deserve "nothing less" than a City Hall that makes "housing more affordable, strengthen our neighborhoods, and make City Hall more effective, transparent and accountable." Businessman Rick Caruso, who lost to Bass in the 2022 mayoral race but supported her reelection bid, wished Raman success and cited the same agenda: "rebuilding the communities devastated by the fires, building more housing Angelenos can afford, and preparing to welcome the world for the 2028 Olympics."
What she inherits
Raman will take office on December 14, with the 2028 Summer Olympics looming as a major test of her administration. She inherits a city grappling with a homelessness crisis, a depleted police force and soaring housing costs — the same problems that defined the campaign — and a transition that both sides have pledged to keep smooth.
Her win is part of the same midterm wave in which Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress. Read more: Democrats Win Control of House and Senate in 2026 Midterms, Ending Republican Rule. It also deepened the Republican reckoning over the war with Iran: on Thursday, President Donald Trump admitted the war cost his party the midterms. Read more: Trump Admits Iran War Cost Republicans the Midterms: "Largely True," but Says He Would Do It Again.
What remains to be confirmed is the final certified margin once the remaining ballots are counted, the makeup of Raman's transition team, and how she will handle the police department, the homelessness budget and Olympic preparations in her first weeks in office.
Sources: Associated Press via Al Jazeera, November 5, 2026; MyNewsLA, November 5-6, 2026; The Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2026; Le Monde, November 5, 2026; New York Post, November 5, 2026; Outlook India, November 6, 2026. Vote figures are unofficial, from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, pending certification. All times are local time in Los Angeles. Cover photo: Nithya Raman's official portrait, 2022, public domain photo from the Los Angeles City Council District 4 press kit via Wikimedia Commons, cropped to 1920x1080 with a small flag of the United States added in the top-right corner.