Los Angeles elected a new mayor on Thursday, with city council member Nithya Raman defeating incumbent Karen Bass in a runoff that capped one of the most closely watched municipal races in the country this cycle. The Associated Press called the race for Raman, who led roughly 52% to 47.9% as counting continued on ballots postmarked by Tuesday and still arriving under California's seven-day mail deadline.

Raman, a Harvard- and MIT-trained urban planner who has represented a City Council district spanning Silver Lake and Sherman Oaks since 2020, will become Los Angeles's first democratic socialist mayor and the first South Asian American to hold the office. Bass called her opponent Thursday to concede. "The people of Los Angeles have spoken," Bass said, pledging what her office described as a smooth transition before Raman's expected swearing-in.

From third place to the mayor's office

Raman's path to the runoff was itself a comeback. She trailed in third place on primary election night in June before late mail ballots pushed her past businessman Spencer Pratt into second place, setting up the head-to-head against Bass. A September poll from UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies had shown Raman with an 11-point lead, but Bass closed most of that gap by late October before Tuesday's result broke decisively for the challenger.

THE PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES HAVE SPOKEN.

Raman built her campaign around homelessness policy, tenant protections and a critique of Bass's handling of the city's response to this year's wildfire recovery and a strained municipal budget. The Hollywood Reporter noted that her win makes her the first democratic socialist to lead a US city of Los Angeles's size, drawing immediate comparisons to a wave of insurgent progressive mayors elected in other major cities in recent cycles.

What changes at City Hall

Raman has said she will prioritize expanding permanent supportive housing, auditing the Los Angeles Police Department's budget and pushing a faster permitting process for new housing construction. LAist reported that her transition team is expected to begin naming senior staff within days, with a swearing-in ceremony likely in December once the county certifies the final count.

Final certification isn't expected for about a week, as election officials continue tallying ballots that arrive by mail through the state's extended deadline. Bass, a former member of Congress who took office in 2022, is expected to leave City Hall once Raman is sworn in.