Rising Progressive Star Shakes Up Race for Los Angeles Mayor
Nithya Raman, a rising star among West Coast progressives and a Los Angeles City Council member, announced on Saturday that she will run for the city’s top office, shaking up a race in the nation’s second-largest city that had appeared to be all but settled and posing a formidable generational challenge to her former ally, Mayor Karen Bass.
Ms. Raman, 44, who has been compared to New York politicians Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, made her unexpected announcement just hours before the city’s noon filing deadline, saying that while she deeply respected the mayor, fundamental issues from housing costs to broken streetlights had made the city increasingly unlivable for families.
“Los Angeles is at a breaking point,” said Ms. Raman, who first won office with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, which helped elect Mr. Mamdani on a similar platform. “And people feel it in the most basic ways.”
Her entry capped a week in which several serious contenders dropped from the race or announced that they would remain on the sidelines.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/us/nithya-raman-los-angeles-mayor.html
