Nithya Raman, a liberal Los Angeles City council member, will head to a runoff with Mayor Karen Bass (D) to lead America’s second-most-populous city, the Associated Press projected Monday.
Raman edged out Spencer Pratt, a Republican reality TV star, for the chance to go head-to-head with Bass in November. Because Bass fell short of the majority vote required to avoid a runoff in the nominally nonpartisan contest, the top two vote-getters face off again in the fall.
Raman was once an ally of Bass and endorsed her for a second term. But the council member decided to challenge Bass at the last minute, saying voters are eager for change and the city is failing on “the basics.”
Pratt’s loss in the primary is likely to fan GOP outrage at California’s unusually slow process for counting votes. Pratt pulled well ahead of Raman after the polls closed on Tuesday before his lead eroded.
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Political observers cautioned that mail-in votes counted later on could tilt Democratic and improve Raman’s position. But some in the GOP have suggested, without evidence, that late shifts toward Democrats are evidence of election fraud – echoing President Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election.
Pratt – who rose to fame as a self-described “villain” on the MTV show “The Hills” – tapped into frustration with the status quo in Los Angeles and anger over the Palisades fire that destroyed his home and thousands of others last year.
He called Bass “Karen Basura” – using the Spanish word for garbage – and referred to homeless people with drug addictions as “zombies,” advocating mandatory medical treatment and arrests to help clear them off the streets.
Raman, first elected to City Council in 2020, challenged Bass from the left. She was the first candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists of America to win a seat on the council. But she has broken with DSA at times, and DSA-LA did not make an endorsement in the mayoral primary.
An urban planner, Raman has championed a “YIMBY,” or “Yes in my backyard,” push for more housing. She has also criticized Bass’s “Inside Safe” homeless program as too costly. Bass has emphasized that Raman is no outsider to city politics, despite her pitch for change.
The fact that Bass has been forced into a runoff – the first for an L.A. mayor in two decades – nods to many voters’ frustration.
Bass, a former congresswoman and State Assembly speaker, has defended her first-term record, pointing to decreases in the city’s homeless population and efforts to build new housing.
She faced fierce criticism last year for her handling of the wildfire in Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood that left 12 people dead. Bass was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana when the blaze exploded – “one of the worst moments of my life,” she said at a mayoral debate.