Nithya Raman Beats Out Spencer Pratt to Advance to L.A. Mayoral Runoff
Incumbent Karen Bass and progressive city Councilwoman Nithya Raman will advance to a November runoff election in the Los Angeles mayoral race after emerging as the top two candidates in the city’s nonpartisan primary.
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Bass, who finished first with 34.3 percent of the vote with an estimated 92.5 percent of votes counted, punched her ticket to the runoff last week, while Raman remained locked in a battle for second place with Republican reality-TV star Spencer Pratt. Raman had secured 28.5 percent of the vote to Pratt’s 25.8 percent when the Associated Press called the race in her favor on Monday evening.
Raman had initially endorsed Bass before entering the race herself just before the deadline in February. Raman, an urban planner by trade, has served on the city council since 2020 and currently chairs the city’s Housing and Homelessness Committee. She was previously endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America.
Bass and Raman emerged from a crowded field of 14 candidates in a race that had whittled down to a contest between Bass, Raman, and Pratt in the final days.
Bass thanked her supporters last week after she became the first candidate to advance to the runoff.
“I appreciate you for standing with me when others doubted me, because you know who I am,” Bass said. “I have devoted my entire life to serving the city that I love, where I was born, and I’m going to continue to do that all the way to victory in November.”
The devastating Palisades fire and homelessness were two of the top points of contention between the candidates on the campaign trail.
Pratt had repeatedly blamed Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom for “letting his neighborhood burn down” in the wildfires.
Bass’s challengers called out her absence from the city during the January 2025 wildfire. Bass left L.A. for Ghana on January 4, 2025, to attend the inauguration of President John Dramani Mahama as part of a presidential delegation.
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“It was one of the worst moments of my life to not be here when my city needed me,” Bass aid during the one and only mayoral debate last month, and she called the fire “horrible.”
“To me, it reminds me of like, if you’re away and a family member is in an accident,” she added, implying that the she had no way to predict that a fire might break out while she was away.
But the makings of a natural disaster were already in place by the time Bass boarded her departing flight. On January 2, 2025, the National Interagency Fire Center issued a warning for “above normal significant fire potential” in Southern California.
And on January 3, the National Weather Service issued a “red flag warning” for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, describing the weather event as a “particularly dangerous situation” owing to anticipated strong winds and low humidity.
Bass also defended her record on homelessness, saying the city has seen a decrease in homelessness under her leadership. However, the city continues to have one of the largest, if not the largest, number of people living on the streets of any city in the country.
Bass, who entered politics in 2004 as a California state assemblywoman, has never lost an election. She ultimately became speaker of the assembly before successfully running for Congress in 2010. After serving six terms in the House, she was elected to lead Los Angeles in 2022.
Polling leading up to the election showed a tight race; Bass led with 26 percent of the vote, following by Raman at 25 percent and Pratt at 22 percent, according to a UC Berkeley–Los Angeles Times poll.
That most recent poll showed Bass dropping 1 percent from March, while Raman and Pratt each gained 8 points.
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