In This Article
4.1 The case against the incumbent
4.2 The establishment backing that was not enough
5.2 Public safety and services
6.1 Two largest cities, two democratic socialists
INTRODUCTION
Los Angeles has a new mayor, and the result is one of the most striking upsets of the 2026 midterm elections. Nithya Raman, a 45-year-old city council member and democratic socialist, defeated the incumbent Karen Bass in the mayoral election held on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and is set to become the first South Asian and first Indian American mayor of the second-largest city in the United States. The Associated Press called the contest for Raman on Thursday, November 5, and Bass conceded the race on Thursday morning, pledging a smooth transition. Raman will also be only the second woman to lead Los Angeles. The result ends Bass’s time in office after a single term and makes Raman the latest in a series of democratic socialist candidates to win high office in the November 3 elections. With her victory, the two largest cities in America, New York and Los Angeles, will both be led by mayors of Indian origin. The count was still unofficial when the race was called, and the final certified margin had not yet been published. This is the story of how Nithya Raman won, who she is, why Karen Bass lost, and what comes next for Los Angeles — Nithya Raman Los Angeles mayor November 2026 Karen Bass.
1. HOW THE RACE WAS CALLED
The Los Angeles mayoral race was decided slowly, in the way California elections usually are, with ballots counted over several days after polling day. Raman pulled ahead in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and her lead grew as more votes were counted. The first projections came on Thursday, and the concession followed within hours.
1.1 The AP call and the count
Decision Desk HQ projected Raman as the winner at 7:49 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday, November 5, putting her at 51.1 per cent of the vote against 48.33 per cent for Bass. The Associated Press then called the contest for Raman on Thursday, with the progressive council member holding about 52 per cent of the vote at that point. Later figures from the Los Angeles County Registrar, updated at 4:34 p.m. local time, put Raman at 460,772 votes, or 52.70 per cent, against 413,519 votes, or 47.30 per cent, for Bass. That gave Raman a lead of 47,253 votes, wider than the 34,654-vote advantage recorded in the morning count. By Thursday morning the Associated Press estimated that about 76 per cent of votes had been counted, according to turnout projections. Ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days will still be counted, so the figures remain provisional and the final certified result has not yet been published. The count, in other words, pointed clearly in one direction, but the official paperwork had not caught up.
1.2 Bass concedes
Bass conceded the race on Thursday morning, after reaching out to her one-time ally to hand over the victory. She pledged a smooth transition, and she will leave office in December. Her concession brought a formal end to a campaign that had already been effectively decided by the count, and it cleared the way for Raman’s team to begin preparing to take over a city of more than 3.8 million people. Bass had been mayor since 2022, when she became the first Black woman to lead Los Angeles, and her defeat makes her the first Los Angeles mayor in more than two decades to lose a re-election bid. The concession was gracious in tone, but it could not hide the scale of the upset: an incumbent mayor, backed by the most prominent Democrats in California, had lost to a challenger who had entered the race at the last possible moment.
2. WHO NITHYA RAMAN IS
Raman’s victory is historic in several ways at once, and her biography explains much of why the result has travelled so far beyond Los Angeles. She is an immigrant, an urban planner, a practising Hindu and a democratic socialist, and she has spent six years on the city council arguing that Los Angeles should build more housing and spend its money differently.
2.1 From Kerala to City Hall
Nithya V. Raman was born on July 28, 1981, in Kerala, India, into a Tamil Iyer family. She moved to the United States and studied at Harvard, and she built her career as an urban planner before entering politics. She is a practising Hindu who hosted Diwali celebrations in City Hall while serving on the council, and her faith has been part of her public life in a city with one of the largest Indian American communities in the country. Her background matters to the story because her win is a first in more than one sense: she is the first Indian American and the first South Asian to be elected mayor of Los Angeles, and the first South Asian woman to lead the city. Her journey from Kerala to City Hall has been described in Indian media as a historic one, and the Malayali community in the United States has celebrated the result as its own. She is 45 years old, and she will take charge of a city far larger than most American states’ biggest cities.
2.2 The council years
Raman was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2020, defeating David Ryu, and in doing so became the first South Asian and the first Asian American woman to sit on the council. She won a renewed mandate in the 2024 electoral cycle. On the council she built a reputation as a progressive voice on housing and homelessness, arguing for more affordable homes and for a different approach to the encampments that have become the most visible symbol of the city’s crisis. Her six years on the council gave her a record to run on and a base of supporters, but they also gave her opponents material: her critics have argued that her approach to homelessness and public safety was too soft for a city where residents say they feel less safe. The council years made her a known figure in Los Angeles politics, but few expected her to turn that profile into a mayoral victory against an incumbent.
3. A LAST-MINUTE CAMPAIGN
One of the most remarkable parts of this election is how late Raman’s campaign began. She entered the race hours before the nomination deadline, in a move that surprised even seasoned observers of Los Angeles politics, and she did so after having publicly backed the woman she went on to defeat.
3.1 The late entry
Raman entered the mayoral race at the last minute, hours before the nomination deadline closed. The timing meant she had less time than any normal challenger to build a campaign, raise money and introduce herself to voters across a city of more than 3.8 million people. It also meant her candidacy was read, from the start, as a protest as much as a campaign: a progressive challenge to an incumbent who was supposed to be safe. That reading turned out to be wrong, or at least incomplete. The late entry became part of the story of her victory rather than an excuse for a defeat, and it has been cited in reports of the result as evidence of how quickly the race moved once voters began to pay attention. A campaign that began hours before a deadline ended with the incumbent conceding within days of polling day.
3.2 The endorsement reversal
Weeks before she entered the race, Raman had endorsed Bass for re-election. That endorsement makes the reversal one of the strangest details of the campaign: the challenger had publicly supported the incumbent she then decided to run against. The reports do not settle why she changed her mind, and her own explanations have focused on the city’s direction rather than on any single falling-out. What is clear is that the reversal did not hurt her with voters. If anything, it underlined the argument her campaign made throughout: that Los Angeles needed a change of leadership, and that the case for change was strong enough to overcome the awkwardness of running against a candidate she had just endorsed. Bass, for her part, had to run against a former ally who knew the council, knew the city’s problems and could speak about them from the inside.
4. WHY BASS LOST
Incumbents usually win mayoral elections in Los Angeles, and Bass had every apparent advantage: the office, the endorsements and the backing of the state’s most powerful Democrats. Her defeat therefore demands an explanation, and the early accounts point to a combination of the city’s problems and a national mood that punished incumbents.
4.1 The case against the incumbent
Bass took office in 2022 promising to tackle homelessness, and the encampments, the housing shortage and the cost of living remained the defining issues of her term. Voters who had given her a chance in 2022 appear to have judged that progress was too slow, and Raman’s campaign offered a sharper version of the same promise: more housing, faster, and a different set of priorities for the city’s money. Public safety was also a live issue, with residents raising concerns about crime and about the state of municipal services. The election was fought, in the end, on whether the city felt better run than it had four years earlier, and a majority of those who voted appear to have answered no. That is a harsh verdict on a single term, but it is the verdict the count delivered.
4.2 The establishment backing that was not enough
Bass was backed by some of the most prominent Democrats in the country, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, former vice-president Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In a normal year, that kind of backing would be decisive in a Democratic city. In this election it was not enough. The endorsements may even have hurt her, by casting her as the candidate of the establishment in a year when voters were rewarding challengers. Raman, by contrast, had the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America, an organisation that has reported a surge in candidates affiliated with or supported by it winning office in Tuesday’s midterm elections. The contrast between the two campaigns, one backed by the party’s biggest names and the other by its most energetic grassroots movement, became the story of the race, and the grassroots movement won.
5. WHAT RAMAN PROMISED
Raman’s campaign was built on a set of promises about the problems Los Angeles residents talk about most: housing, homelessness and public safety. The details of her programme will now be tested against the reality of running the city, but the broad shape of what she offered is clear from the campaign and from her record on the council.
5.1 Housing and homelessness
Housing and homelessness were the central issues of the campaign, and Raman promised action on both. She has argued for building more affordable homes and for treating homelessness as a housing problem first, with services and support attached to homes rather than offered in place of them. Her incoming administration will take responsibility for a city where encampments are a daily sight and where the cost of renting has put home ownership out of reach for many working people. The scale of the problem is enormous: Los Angeles has one of the largest homeless populations in the United States, and previous mayors have found that promises on the issue are easier to make than to keep. Raman’s supporters argue that her background as an urban planner gives her the tools to do better; her critics will be watching the numbers from her first months in office.
5.2 Public safety and services
Public safety and the delivery of essential municipal services were the other pillars of the campaign. Raman has promised to improve the services residents rely on, from street cleaning to emergency response, and to address the concerns about crime that many voters raised during the campaign. Her critics have questioned whether her approach to public safety is tough enough, and that question will follow her into office. The test will be practical rather than rhetorical: whether residents feel safer, whether services arrive faster and whether the city feels better run. A mayor’s promises are judged quickly in Los Angeles, and Raman will have little time to show results before the next round of scrutiny begins.
6. A WIDER POLITICAL MOMENT
Raman’s victory did not happen in isolation. It is part of a wider pattern in the November 3 elections, in which democratic socialist candidates won some of the most prominent offices in the country, and it has been read as a sign of how far the American left has moved into the mainstream of big-city politics.
6.1 Two largest cities, two democratic socialists
With Raman’s win, the two largest cities in the United States will be led by Indian American immigrants. New York City elected Zohran Mamdani as its mayor last year, and Mamdani is also backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. The pairing has been widely noted: the mayors of New York and Los Angeles, the two biggest cities in the country, will both be democratic socialists of Indian origin. That is a remarkable fact about American politics in 2026, and it would have been hard to imagine even a few years ago. It also means the two cities will be watched together, as a test of whether the democratic socialist approach to governing large, complicated cities can deliver results on housing, safety and services.
6.2 The DSA surge
The Democratic Socialists of America has reported a surge in candidates affiliated with or supported by the organisation winning office in Tuesday’s midterm elections, and Raman’s victory is the most prominent example. The organisation helped usher Mamdani to victory in New York last year, and its backing was a visible part of Raman’s campaign. The surge has been described as a stunning victory for the democratic socialists, and it has prompted a debate inside the Democratic Party about the direction of the party after its midterm losses. Some Democrats argue the party should move towards the energy of its progressive wing; others argue that candidates like Raman won local races on local issues and that the lesson should not be overstated. That argument will run for months, and Raman’s time in office will be part of the evidence either side cites.
7. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The transition is already under way, and Raman will take office in December. The months between the election and the handover will set the tone for her administration, and the first big test on the calendar is already fixed: the Olympic Games, which Los Angeles will host in July 2028.
7.1 The transition
Bass has pledged a smooth transition, and Raman’s team will now begin the work of preparing to govern. That means choosing the people who will run the city’s departments, setting the first budget and deciding which of the campaign’s promises become the administration’s first actions. Transitions in Los Angeles are usually orderly, and there is no reason to expect this one to be different, but the change of leadership is real: a new mayor with a different politics will bring a different set of priorities to the city’s government. The details of the transition team and the first appointments have not yet been announced, and they will be among the first signals of how Raman intends to govern.
7.2 The 2028 Olympics clock
The Olympic Games are due to open in Los Angeles in July 2028, less than two years after Raman takes office, and they will dominate her first term. The Games will bring the world’s attention to the city, along with the need to deliver transport, security, housing for visitors and a city that looks its best on television. Previous Olympic hosts have found that the run-up to the Games exposes every weakness in a city’s government, from unfinished building work to overstretched services. Raman will have to manage that preparation while also delivering on her campaign promises on housing and homelessness, and the two tasks will compete for the same money and the same attention. How she handles the Olympics will shape how her mayoralty is remembered.
8. WHAT REMAINS UNCONFIRMED AND WHAT TO WATCH NEXT
The result is clear, but several important things are still unknown. The count is unofficial, the transition has only just begun, and the policies Raman will actually pursue in office have yet to be set out in detail. This section records what is still unconfirmed and what to watch for in the coming days and weeks.
8.1 The final count
The vote figures reported so far are provisional. Ballots postmarked by Election Day and received within seven days will still be counted, and the final certified result has not yet been published. The margin may therefore move from the 47,253-vote lead recorded in the latest county figures, and the final percentages may differ slightly from the 52.70 per cent for Raman and 47.30 per cent for Bass reported in the latest update. The outcome itself is not in doubt, since both the Associated Press and Decision Desk HQ have called the race and Bass has conceded, but the final numbers should be treated as unconfirmed until the Los Angeles County Registrar certifies them. Any reporting that gives a final margin before certification is premature.
8.2 What to watch next
Several things are worth watching in the coming days. First, the certified final result, when the county publishes it. Second, the composition of Raman’s transition team and her first appointments, which will show how she intends to govern. Third, her first detailed statements as mayor-elect on housing, homelessness and public safety, which will show whether the campaign’s promises become a concrete programme. Fourth, the reaction inside the Democratic Party, where the result will feed the argument about the party’s direction after the midterms. And fifth, the early preparations for the 2028 Olympics, which will test the new administration sooner than it might like. The coming weeks will provide the answers.
