On a night Democrats swept the midterms, Los Angeles moved further left than anyone in the party establishment wanted. Decision Desk HQ projected Wednesday evening that City Councilmember Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has unseated Mayor Karen Bass, which would make her the first socialist elected mayor of the nation’s second-largest city.
Decision Desk HQ projects Nithya Raman wins the CA Los Angeles Mayor Nonpartisan General Election#DecisionMade: 7:49 PM EST
Follow live results here: https://t.co/1kpbRZUYUv pic.twitter.com/LHwjhhfjjz
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 5, 2026
In the county registrar’s Wednesday afternoon update, Raman led 405,193 votes (51.7%) to 379,069 (48.3%), a margin of 26,124, according to NBC Los Angeles. Every update since the polls closed has moved her way. Bass led by about 10,600 votes at 9 p.m. Tuesday; by the 3:11 a.m. count Raman was ahead by 16,594.
It isn’t final. The Associated Press has not called the race, and with roughly two-thirds of the expected vote counted, about 842,000 ballots remain to be tallied countywide, most of them by mail. Bass has not conceded; her campaign declined to comment Wednesday. The registrar will post updates daily through Nov. 13, and the county certifies by Nov. 27.
Raman claimed the mood of the night from a stage outside the Greek Theatre on Tuesday. “Today all across America, voters demanded change,” she said. “For too long our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best that we can do.”
Nithya Raman takes the stage outside the Greek Theatre, saying, “I’m hopeful. I’m very hopeful. But I’m also very superstitious so we’re going to stay cool.” pic.twitter.com/hXIbNVSD3c
— Louis Keene (@thislouis) November 4, 2026
Bass, at her own party at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, told supporters, “This is the Los Angeles that I will never stop fighting for.”
From Ally To Challenger
Raman won her Council District 4 seat in 2020 by unseating incumbent David Ryu. She had endorsed Bass for reelection, then filed to run against her on Feb. 7, hours before the deadline.Â
“I love this city so much and I think it needs a fighter,” she said at the time, according to Fox News.
Her path to the runoff ran through Spencer Pratt. In the June 2 primary Bass finished first with 34.3%, and Pratt, the Republican former star of The Hills, held second on election night before late ballots pushed Raman past him, as we reported at the time. She finished with 29.0% to his 25.5%.
Her ties to the DSA have not been smooth. Its Los Angeles chapter endorsed her in 2020, censured her in 2024 over her acceptance of an endorsement from Democrats for Israel-LA and disagreements over Gaza, and endorsed her again this cycle. She says she makes her council decisions independently of the group.
A Term Defined By The Fires
Bass ran on the endorsements of Gov. Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and major unions, and all 14 of her council colleagues backed her. She also ran on a record dominated by the January 2025 fires, which broke out while she was on a trip to Africa. “It was a mistake to travel, but I will tell you that we need to evaluate everything,” she said during the campaign.
Raman made that the center of her closing argument:
Mayor Bass has shown she is not capable of leading our city through disaster.
In LA’s darkest moments, she’s been missing in action. Our communities have already paid too high a price for her failures.
Four more years is a risk Los Angeles cannot afford. pic.twitter.com/yK0iWpdVM5
— Nithya Raman (@nithyavraman) October 30, 2026
What Comes Next
Raman has campaigned on building housing faster, cutting homelessness, bringing back entertainment jobs and better city services. She has also said she plans to fire LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, and the police union is already sounding the alarm.
“If Nithya Raman becomes the mayor, the city needs to prepare for Armageddon,” said Jamie McBride, a leader of the LAPD officers’ union. “She won’t have to defund the police; police officers will just leave the department.”
Conservatives weren’t waiting for the AP:
Los Angeles just Elected Nithya Raman, a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, to be their next Mayor.
Raman oversaw all fraud as the chair of the homelessness committee and despite having a $1 billion budget, homelessness rose. She is directly responsible… pic.twitter.com/JVSc96LysL
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 5, 2026
If the count holds, the two largest cities in America will both be run by members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and Los Angeles will get to find out whether it goes better than it has in Zohran Mamdani’s New York.
