India-born Nithya Raman has unseated incumbent Karen Bass to become the next mayor of Los Angeles, after Bass called her on Thursday to concede, The Hindu reported.
The latest figures from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder showed Raman with 429,450 votes, or 52.1%, and Bass with 394,796, or 47.9%, ABC7 reported. Both are Democrats.
"I'm deeply honored to be your next mayor," Raman, 45, said on social media. "The work ahead will be hard, and change will take time."
How she won
Raman campaigned on what she called "pothole politics", treating broken streetlights and jagged pavements as failures of her predecessor, and drew on younger voters' anger over the cost of living.
She was a late entrant who had initially backed Bass's re-election, filing her candidacy in the final hours before the deadline, The Hindu reported. She was the first member of the Democratic Socialists of America to sit on the Los Angeles City Council.
The outgoing mayor
Bass, 73, was elected in 2022 as the city's first Black woman mayor. Her term was dogged by criticism of her handling of the deadly 2025 wildfires, which broke out while she was travelling for the Biden administration.
"While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken," Bass said, committing to a smooth transition.
Why it matters
Raman will lead the second-largest US city as it prepares to host the 2028 Olympics. Her win adds to a run of victories for candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America in US cities and in Congress.