Nithya Raman Elected Los Angeles Mayor, Defeating Incumbent Karen Bass
Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman has been elected mayor, defeating incumbent Karen Bass. The Guardian reported that returns showed Raman with just over 52% of the vote to Bass's 48%, and Bass called Raman on Thursday to concede. NBC News also projected Raman as the winner.
Raman, 45, has served on the City Council since 2020. According to The Guardian, she entered the mayoral race hours before the filing deadline, shortly after endorsing Bass for re-election. She has the backing of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, and she is a longtime member of that group.
The count is not finished. Election Night results are preliminary and will change as more eligible ballots are processed, the county's election office, the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, has said. As of its latest update, 2,389,072 ballots had been counted, a turnout of 40.44%. The office estimated that about 842,000 ballots remained to be processed. Of those, about 800,000 were mail-in ballots, 37,000 were conditional voter registration ballots and 5,000 were provisional ballots.
The office said it was processing ballots around the clock from Election Night through Friday, November 6. Further updates were scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time, and the office said it will keep publishing results throughout the canvass, the official tallying and checking period that runs until the election is certified.
Earlier in the week, Los Angeles Times reporting said Raman had pulled narrowly ahead of Bass in results released early Wednesday. As of Wednesday morning, Bass trailed by just over 16,500 votes, according to the same paper.
In a video statement, Raman said she was deeply honored to become the city's next mayor. She also paid tribute to Bass. Politico reported that Raman is the first Los Angeles mayoral candidate to oust an incumbent in more than two decades, and Fox 5 DC reported that she is set to become the city's 44th mayor.
Raman had narrowly beaten Spencer Pratt in the primary to advance to the November contest.
