Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — City Councilwoman Nithya Raman has ousted Karen Bass as the city’s mayor, making her the first mayoral challenger to defeat an incumbent since 2005.
The latest figures released Nov. 5 by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office showed Raman with 460,772 votes, or 52.70%, while Bass had 413,519 votes, or 47.30%.
Raman is widely expected to continue extending her lead since her main support base — younger, progressive voters — tend to cast their ballots later in the election cycle, and those are the ballots now being tallied by the county.
Raman made brief remarks to reporters Nov. 5 before joining supporters at a private party at the Original Farmers Market in the Fairfax District to celebrate her victory.
“I just wanted to say how grateful I am for the trust that Angelenos have placed in me to be their next mayor,” Raman said. “It was a hard-fought campaign.
“People from across the city welcomed me into their backyards, into their neighborhoods, told me about their hopes and dreams for the future of the city, and trusted me that I would be able to take on the problems that we have,” she added.
Raman also thanked Bass for her public service.
“I also wanted to express my deepest gratitude for Mayor Bass and her decades of service to the city,” Raman said. “We had an opportunity to speak this morning, and we both share a love for Los Angeles.”
Raman, 45, was the face of change in a year when voters were restless over long-running problems that persisted under the 73-year-old Bass.
She was able to overcome criticism from Bass that she was “not ready for primetime” and too inexperienced to run a city with 3.8 million people, and she capitalized on anxiety over the future.
“Our city is in crisis,” she said in one ad. The ad showed a lectern with no one behind it at the site of a massive warehouse fire from last summer, the homeless epicenter of Skid Row and shuttered malls and storefronts. “Where is our mayor?” Raman asked.
Bass argued that she made enough progress to merit a second four-year term, and she branded Raman’s views on policing and homelessness as “extreme.”
Just before midday Nov. 5, Bass issued a statement conceding defeat.
“While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken,” Bass said. “I have called Council member Nithya Raman to congratulate her on her victory, and I have committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition. Moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us.
“Four years ago, you elected me as the first Black woman mayor in the history of Los Angeles. You gave me the honor of serving the city that raised me, and every single day since, I have carried that responsibility with me.
“I love Los Angeles. I believe in Los Angeles. And I will continue to ensure the promise of a better life belongs to all of us. Thank you.”
In 2005, then-City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa defeated James K. Hahn, who was seeking reelection for a second term. Two decades later Raman repeated that feat.
City Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky congratulated Raman on her election.
“Having served alongside Nithya on the City Council, I know how much she cared about our city and the people we represent,” Yaroslavsky said in a statement. “I also want to thank Mayor Karen Bass for her leadership and partnership over the past four years.
“Los Angeles faces enormous challenges and opportunities,” Yaroslavsky added. “Meeting them will require all of us working together. Angelenos deserve nothing less. I look forward to working with the mayor-elect and my colleagues on the City Council to make housing more affordable, strengthen our neighborhoods, and make City Hall more effective, transparent and accountable.”
Bass held a narrow lead over Raman when an initial tally of early balloting was released on election night, but as the counting of ballots cast close to or on election day were added into the totals, Raman edged into the lead, and she has extended it with each ballot drop since.
Speaking at her election night party in Griffith Park, Raman said voters wanted change.
“We have so much to celebrate tonight here in Los Angeles,” she said. “This election is about change, too, a city that was engineered over the last few decades to resist change, and the people right here who said enough is enough, because for too long our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best that we can do,” Raman said.
“Our City Hall became a place where we became so used to saying ‘no,’ we forgot how to say ‘yes.’”
Bass gave an exuberant speech to her supporters on election night in Hollywood, continuing to express optimism about the election, but also touting what she saw as her accomplishments over the past four years.
“I have seen communities come together to stand up for one another, and I have seen people refuse to give up on the city, even when challenges before us seemed overwhelming,” Bass said. “That is the Los Angeles I know. That is the city that I love, and this is the Los Angeles that I will never stop fighting for.”
Bass touted her work on wildfire recovery, opposition to federal immigration raids and efforts to reduce homelessness.
The two candidates had been running neck-and-neck late in the campaign. A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times and released last week, found both with 40% support among likely voters, while 19% remained undecided.
Bass had closed the gap after a September poll found Raman leading by 11 percentage points.
Bass and political action committees that support her focused their late-campaign attacks on Raman’s public-safety record, particularly her call to remove Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. They also portrayed Raman as inexperienced.
Raman faced criticism after saying the LAPD was at a “gold standard” under former Chief Daryl Gates. She later apologized, explaining that she had been referring to Special Order 40, which limits city police cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Jamie McBride, one of the directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD officers, told NBC4 this week a Raman victory would have devastating consequences for the department.
“If Nithya Raman becomes the mayor, the city needs to prepare for Armageddon,” McBride told the station, noting that the nation’s third largest police department is already severely understaffed ahead of the 2028 Olympics. “She won’t have to defund the police; police officers will just leave the department.”
Raman has said she is seeking the mayor’s office to fix what she calls a “broken city” under Bass. She has criticized Bass over a billion-dollar police salary agreement and the cost of a downtown convention center modernization project.
Bass sought four more years to continue work on homelessness, housing, affordability and public safety. The two repeatedly clashed over homelessness, policing and housing policy.
Michael Blood, who writes for the Associated Press, also contributed to this story.
Story updated at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 6.
