Councilwoman Nithya Raman has won the Mayorship of Los Angeles by defeating the incumbent councilwoman, Karen Bass, who this Thursday has conceded her defeat. With this, the 45-year-old leader becomes the first democratic socialist to govern the second most populous city in the United States.
With 52% of the vote compared with the 47% won by Bass—also a member of the Democratic Party—Raman takes over from her predecessor after a four-year term marked by strong unpopularity, fueled by devastating wildfires, the destruction of jobs in the film industry, and the persistent crisis of access to housing and homelessness.
After the result was confirmed, the mayor-elect has expressed her "deep honor" and has praised Bass's record, highlighting her decades of public service as a nurse, congresswoman, and the first woman to lead the city.
"The work starts now to build affordable housing, parks for our children, an effective transportation system, a safe city for working families, and a local Government that is truly capable of keeping its promises," she said in a video shared on social media.
Raman's victory adds to the chain of recent successes for progressive candidates in major U.S. cities, following the wins of Zohran Mamdani in New York and Katie Wilson in Seattle.
Despite this, the new mayor takes office with a complex relationship with the Democratic Socialists of America platform (DSA, by its English-language acronym), which helped propel her early political steps and from whose most orthodox sectors she has distanced herself after backing tax incentives for the film sector and questioning certain construction taxes on housing.
Born in India and educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, by its English-language acronym), Raman focused the final stretch of her campaign on the need to restore for Los Angeles its status as a "paradise" for immigrants, artists, and entrepreneurs.