WASHINGTON
Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, has defeated Mayor Karen Bass.
“Los Angeles. I’m deeply honored to be your next mayor,” Raman said in a video statement posted on the US social media platform X.
Raman paid tribute to Bass, saying she “has served Los Angeles for so many decades,” adding that many people across the city and the country “are grateful for her dedication to the promise of Los Angeles.”
She pledged to build “housing that people can afford,” more parks, a working transit system, and “a city government that is actually capable of delivering on its promises.”
In a statement, Bass said she called Raman to congratulate her and pledged a “smooth and seamless transition,” saying “the people of Los Angeles have spoken.”
In her election night speech, Raman said Los Angeles had stopped being a place where people could build, open, film and create things, and promised to restore an ambitious and entrepreneurial city.
Bass becomes the first Los Angeles mayor in two decades to lose a reelection bid.
Following Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York mayor a year ago, Raman’s victory on Tuesday puts America’s two largest cities by population in the hands of democratic socialists.
