Who is Nithya Raman, the democratic socialist who will be Los Angeles’s next mayor?

The Guardian · Lois Beckett · 2026-11-05 19:50 UTC

Urban planner and outsider who bested Karen Bass has close ties to Hollywood progressives – and a complicated relationship with the DSA

Nithya Raman on Thursday unseated Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass after a neck-and-neck race for the leadership for the US’s second largest city.

The young progressive’s victory means that the two largest cities in the US, as well the nation’s capital, Washington DC, have now all elected democratic socialist mayors.

Though Raman’s political ascendance in Los Angeles has sparked many comparisons to New York City’s mayor Zohran Mamdani, her political profile in her home town is very different from Mamdani’s, as is her often tense relationship with the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.

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