Raman’s DSA-backed bid draws on anti-incumbent wave in Los Angeles
Roughly one month before Los Angeles’s mayoral election, several polls show Mayor Karen Bass trailing city council member Nithya Raman — some narrowly, some by wider margins — according to The Guardian. The newspaper reported that Bass’s approval ratings have fallen to levels on par with those of President Donald Trump, and that she faces broad dissatisfaction among Angelenos with the direction of the city amid a wave of anti-establishment sentiment sweeping American politics.
Bass, who has never lost an election in a political career that took her from Sacramento to Washington, faces what The Guardian called “the fight of her political life.” Los Angeles is a deeply blue city, and The Guardian describes the mayor’s race as pitting two progressives who have come to represent the clashing wings of the Democratic Party.
Raman, a progressive urban planner, has served on the Los Angeles City Council since 2020, when she shocked the political establishment by defeating an incumbent Democrat backed by Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. Bass supported Raman’s bid for re-election to the council in 2024, and in 2026 the city councillor backed Bass’s re-election, calling her the most progressive mayor the city had ever seen. Hours before the filing deadline, however, Raman opted to run against Bass, surprising both allies and opponents. She told a reporter she felt the “call from Los Angeles … for change across the entire city.” The Guardian’s request for an interview with the Raman campaign was not returned.
By February, several potential challengers — including the billionaire Rick Caruso, who faced off against Bass during her first run — announced they would not enter the race, easing the mayor’s path. Raman’s bid was initially a long shot, many political analysts agreed, with key portions of the city’s liberal base and large unions already aligned with Bass. The primary was instead reshaped by Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star and registered Republican who decided to run for office after losing his home in the Palisades fire, arguing that Los Angeles leaders were mismanaging the city, had failed to do enough to prepare for the fire, and were falling short in helping residents recover.
Pratt offered raw criticism of Bass, and his ads frequently went viral. His performance in a debate appeared to boost his campaign as he sparred with the mayor while Raman struggled to find her footing and had comparatively little airtime. Donald Trump endorsed Pratt, a development political commentators said would hurt his candidacy in the deeply Democratic city. Bass emerged as the frontrunner, and nearly a week after polls closed it became clear that Raman had narrowly beaten Pratt by about 3.5%. “We had a whole summer where there was, at least to the average person, no campaign out there. Only this last week did advertising start to appear on television,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, director of the Los Angeles initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles, in late September.
Through the primary and into the general election campaign, Bass has faced persistent criticism over the city’s preparation for and response to the January 2025 Palisades fire, including the fact that she was traveling abroad when the disaster began. Her popularity had begun to rebound after the Trump administration’s enforcement actions against anti-ICE protests in the summer of that year and mass immigration raids across the region. Bass spoke out forcefully against the operations, praising the role immigrants from around the world play in Los Angeles, and at one point personally confronted border patrol agents who had deployed to a park in an immigrant neighborhood.
On homelessness, the numbers present a mixed record. There has been a 17.5% reduction in people living on the streets under Bass, but homelessness remains an entrenched problem, with nearly 44,000 unhoused people, and residents are frustrated with the region’s handling of the crisis. Earlier this year, a survey published by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs found that Los Angeles County residents’ satisfaction with their quality of life had reached the lowest levels in more than a decade. The Guardian reported that the region faces real challenges common to major cities across the country, including rising costs and housing affordability, and that the city is one of the most expensive in the US for renters and homebuyers alike.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint agency of the city and county, has come under increased scrutiny in recent months, both locally and from the Trump administration. The county announced this year that it would seek a financial review of the agency over its delayed payments to service providers, and an audit released earlier this year found issues with the agency’s bookkeeping and accounting. The federal government suspended funding to the authority in June. Federal officials also recently arrested two Los Angeles homelessness non-profit workers for allegedly misappropriating millions in taxpayer dollars. Recent years have been particularly difficult, according to The Guardian, with the Trump administration’s deportation campaign hitting the region hard and Hollywood struggling, while the city grapples with a massive budget shortfall.
Raman has argued she is the candidate who can “meet this moment with honesty and urgency” while lowering rents, improving city streets, reducing homelessness and keeping Angelenos safe. “We can fight for a bigger, more joyful future for Los Angeles,” Raman has said. She picked up endorsements in September from the nearly 6,000-member Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and from the Unite Here union. Rae Huang, another DSA member, had run in the primary, and the organization opted in the spring not to support any candidate; the decision to back Raman came after significant debate. The chapter has censured Raman — in 2024, for pursuing an endorsement from a Democrats for Israel group — but praised her for working “tirelessly to lower housing costs and build more housing,” championing tenant protections and reforming how the city responds to homelessness, pointing to the drop in unsheltered homelessness in her district.
Fernando Guerra, a professor at Loyola Marymount University and director of the school’s Center for the Study of Los Angeles, told The Guardian that polling indicates the majority of Democrats in the city view DSA positively and that the organization has a large number of committed and experienced field workers. “It’s the political establishment that people are voting against. And of course, [Bass] represents that,” Guerra said.
The DSA operation was on display at a crowded postcarding event at Los Angeles Ale Works in late September and during a canvassing operation in the westside community of Sawtelle. DSA members Patrick Padilla and Keshav Kunsassery said there is excitement around Raman, with unprecedented numbers of people showing up to field training. During canvassing, they said, the organization’s platform has broad appeal, including among many people who do not identify as democratic socialists. “We’re coming to find that the status quo has not been serving everyday working Americans. And when I’m on the doors, I’m talking to people. People are just focused on how they can get by day to day,” Padilla said. On a recent Saturday in Sawtelle, organizers walked two first-time volunteers through training, advising them to “knock friendly” and that the activity was about “talking to your neighbors.” “If they’re a no, don’t push,” one facilitator said.
DSA has made major gains in Los Angeles and across the US, most notably with the victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York. The wave of wins is not just about DSA, Guerra argued — it’s about the anti-incumbent sentiment that has surged in recent years.
To win, Bass will have to appeal to the unusually large share of undecided voters as well as those who supported Pratt, many of whom feel deeply disappointed in their options. “Honestly, I don’t feel like there is a viable choice for a Spencer Pratt voter,” said Nina Madok, who lost her home in the Palisades fire and has worked on recovery efforts. Madok noted that Bass’s staff had been supportive and present for Palisades victims, but said neither candidate appealed to her. It would take commonsense support and a recognition of the issues the city faces to get her backing, she said, adding that it would be a “hold your nose” vote. “I would never say never. But something drastic would have to happen,” she said. Of course, Madok added, “we know that in LA anything could happen – an earthquake, a flood, an El Niño around the corner, another fire. We’d have to see.”
In an interview with The Guardian after an event, Bass said people typically tune in to elections late but are beginning to pay attention. Asked about the wave of wins for progressive candidates, she said she understands that people are demoralized and angry, and described herself as a lifelong progressive “fighting for change and not just blindly following the system.” “[I have] 45 days of making sure that I am visiting all of the places I’ve worked in a good part of my life, reminding people of what we have done and reminding people of what we’re going to do in the future,” she said. “Because an election is about the future, it’s not about the past.”
Yaroslavsky, who served on the Los Angeles City Council and county Board of Supervisors for decades, said Bass needs to articulate her vision for the city to win over voters and distinguish herself from Raman, and that serving as mayor is often thankless. “The mayor gets no credit for the things that go well, gets all the blame for the things that go wrong,” he said.
Bass is hopeful that her decades-long record in the city will propel her campaign forward. She got her start as a physician assistant at LA County general hospital and founded Community Coalition, a nonprofit that built collaborative relationships between the Black and Latino communities to tackle substance abuse and violence prevention. Bass served in the statehouse and Congress and was under consideration to be Joe Biden’s vice-presidential candidate. At Debs Park in September, a line of elected officials and community advocates rallied for the mayor at a Latinos con Bass volunteer appreciation event, while she stood among them wearing a Dodgers jersey and blue-and-white Nikes. “I’ve known her [since] she was an organizer. And she’s always been an organizer. So she’s just organizing in a different place,” said Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (Chirla). “Fighting for LA is not something that is new to her.”
A few hundred people gathered around park tables and food booths to hear Bass and her supporters speak, as families barbecued nearby. Speakers highlighted Bass’s record and criticized Raman, suggesting her decision to run was opportunistic. Bass still has deep pockets of support throughout the city. “She’s trying to make things better for the people, the city. She’s for the community,” said Joe Alcala, who attended the event with his granddaughter. “I’m so busy right now, I don’t even know who her opponent is.”
Both candidates spoke at forums hosted by the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Jewish Federation Los Angeles in September. At the Jewish Federation forum, Bass said she did not believe the term “genocide” was appropriate to describe Israel’s actions during the war in Gaza. Raman, who said she used the term after looking to experts, faced questions about an interview earlier this year with streamer Hasan Piker and her relationship with DSA; she called herself an “independent voice,” pointing to her disagreements and collaboration with DSA and describing it as a big tent organization. The two are tied in fundraising, with each campaign raising about $2.5 million.
With ballots already on their way to voters, Bass is working to shore up her base. On a sunny Sunday afternoon in late September, she was in the middle of a marathon day of campaigning with stops at six churches, a volunteer appreciation event and four more gatherings scheduled for the evening. “I’ll be going until about nine,” she said, seated at a picnic table at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park after spending an hour greeting supporters. Her days are packed with campaign events and mayoral duties, she said, including leading the city’s transportation authority. “I have no idea what being bored is.”