She's Got the Right Moves, Right Timing, or Both — And She's About to Become Mayor Raman

Nithya Raman is about to become the next mayor of Los Angeles. She won a tough election against current Mayor Karen Bass, even though many people in city government didn't support her. Voters across L.A. said they wanted a change after years of rising homelessness and streets that need repair. Raman's win surprised a lot of people, but it also made sense to many who were tired of the way things were going.

Robert Martinez, a retired IT worker, voted at the Eagle Rock Rec Center on Tuesday. He said he voted for Raman, not because he was totally excited about her, but because he wanted something different. 'I saw what happened these last four years,' he said, pointing to homelessness and the city's broken-down streets. 'I'm hoping something different goes on this time.' Many other voters felt exactly the same way.

Raman also gained strong support from young, progressive voters — people who believed in her ideas and voted for her because they liked her, not just because they disliked Bass. Some votes are still being counted, but it is now clear that Raman will lead the city. Her win is both surprising and interesting for many reasons.

One big reason her win is surprising is that every single one of her fellow City Council members backed Mayor Bass instead of her. That is a bit like the least popular kid in class winning the election for school president. Raman also changed her position on some important issues, including Bass's main plan for dealing with homelessness, which Raman had supported until recently. She also surprised people by taking back her endorsement of Bass — something that made many at City Hall wonder if they could trust her.

Even the Democratic Socialists of America, the group that helped Raman get started in politics, did not fully support her this time. Still, she found a way to win. Raman is either very smart about politics, or she had great timing, or maybe both. Everyone in L.A. knew that Bass was struggling and could be beaten — but it was Raman who went for it.

Mayor Bass had made some big mistakes. She left the city in January 2025 during conditions that led to the destruction of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in a terrible fire. She had also made solving homelessness her biggest promise, but after spending billions of dollars, the number of people living on the streets barely went down. Her approval ratings dropped very low as a result.

Winning the election, though, may turn out to be much easier than actually fixing Los Angeles. The city has many serious problems — roads and sidewalks are crumbling, more than 40,000 people are unhoused, building new homes takes too long, and the cost of living keeps going up. The city's budget is tight, and the 2028 Olympics are coming to L.A., which will bring even more pressure on the new mayor.

Raman will not face these challenges alone. She will have support from City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who watches over how the city spends money, and County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who believes in Raman's approach. Horvath said Raman's campaign worked because it spoke directly to frustrated voters instead of just trying to build alliances with powerful political groups. 'When people are able to accomplish change that the public is longing for, everybody wants to be a part of that win,' Horvath said.

Not everyone is fully on board with Raman's ideas. She supports building more housing in many neighborhoods, which some residents oppose, and she does not favor banning homeless people from public spaces — she wants to solve the problem, not just move it. Those positions worry some voters, and the fairly close election showed that nearly half of L.A. voters are still unsure about her direction. The question going forward is whether she can bring the whole city along with her.