Free Republic

Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman was spotted for the first time since winning the race for Los Angeles mayor, making her the first mayoral challenger to defeat an incumbent since 2005. Raman made her way from her home to a combined yoga studio and workspace in downtown LA. “Los Angeles, I’m deeply honored to be your next mayor,” Raman said in a video statement. “Thank you to the thousands of people who knocked on doors, sent texts, made phone calls, convinced their neighbors to believe in the promise of this big, beautiful, joyful city that we get to call home.

Nithya Raman is projected to become Los Angeles’ next mayor after defeating incumbent Karen Bass, NBC News projects, marking a major political shift in the nation’s second-largest city. Raman, 45, is poised to become the city’s first Indian American mayor, American Bazaar reports. Born in India, she moved to the United States as a young child and attended Harvard and MIT before becoming an urban planner. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Raman campaigned on homelessness, housing affordability and changing how City Hall operates. Her candidacy surprised many. Raman had endorsed Bass for reelection before announcing her own...

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for Los Angeles, they elected a dues-paying Democratic Socialist (Communist) mayor. Socialist candidate Nithya Raman ousted Karen Bass and won the Los Angeles mayoral race. Los Angeles Councilwoman Nithya Raman increased her lead over Karen Bass earlier Wednesday. Raman opened up a two-point lead over incumbent Bass after a Wednesday morning drop. "Raman had 377,458 votes to Bass’ 360,864, the Associated Press reported, a margin of 16,594 votes. Bass had a narrow advantage in the early returns Tuesday evening, but that evaporated overnight," KTLA reported. The Decision Desk called it for...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has signed an ordinance prohibiting new oil and gas drilling throughout the city and establishing a 20-year timetable to phase out existing wells. Under the new ordinance, current drilling sites are designated as "nonconforming uses" and must cease operations within two decades, unless an earlier deadline applies. The ordinance restricts the expansion and redevelopment of existing operations while establishing limited exceptions for work strictly necessary to address public health, safety or environmental threats. Bass, who is running for reelection on Tuesday against Los Angeles City Council member and fellow Democrat Nithya Raman, framed the legislation...

Spencer Pratt lost his home in the Palisades Fire. Then he ran for mayor on one message: Karen Bass failed the Palisades. More than 200,000 voters believed him. Now the mayor’s political life is in their hands. Pratt didn’t mince words. He accused city leaders of “criminal negligence.” He said they “let us burn.” On the debate stage he called Bass “an incredible liar,” and afterward he described standing next to her as being near “a real life monster.” SNIP The new California Post survey, conducted Oct. 15-18 by McLaughlin & Associates among 400 likely voters, has the headline numbers...

Two weeks out from the November 3 election, the Democratic Socialists of America are turning on one of their own. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, the DSA-backed challenger to Mayor Karen Bass, now faces a push from hardline Marxist caucuses that could strip her endorsement or even expel her from the organization. The New York Post reported that Reform & Revolution and Bread & Roses have joined forces to demand Raman answer for her positions on Israel and Palestine. They introduced a resolution to the National Political Committee calling for a members-only meeting by October 25, preferably with Raman...

Earlier, “progressive” LA mayoral candidate Nithya Raman used the "genocide" slur with Hasan Piker.  Appearing on Sep 29, 2026 in a Jewish forum by the Jewish Federation, Raman was asked whether she would appear with someone who was anti-Christian or anti-Muslim, as she had appeared with the antisemitic Hasan Piker. She said yes, explaining that “we need to hear a wide variety of opinions.”  So she was asked about her use of the word “genocide.”  She answered, “I’m not an expert on this term, but I’ve seen experts calling it a genocide. I looked it up, and...

Spencer Pratt didn't make the November runoff, but his warning did. The latest UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll has DSA-backed City Councilmember Nithya Raman at 39 percent and Mayor Karen Bass at 28 percent. The DSA, which has called for defunding the police and abolishing prisons, endorsed Raman's mayoral run earlier this month. Another 33 percent of likely voters haven't chosen either candidate. The online survey of 2,150 likely Los Angeles voters was conducted Sept. 15-20 and has a margin of error of about three percentage points. Pratt had a simple response. And this wasn't Pratt taking a...

Nithya Raman is dominating Karen Bass in the Los Angeles’ mayor’s race, according to a bombshell new poll. The challenger has surged to an 11-point lead with less than six weeks until the vote, according to the UC Berkeley/LA Times survey. Far-left Raman is backed by 39% of likely voters compared with just 28% for Bass, the poll released Wednesday morning shows.But a whopping 33% remain undecided, leaving plenty of room for the race to move before the Nov. 3 election. Bass’ campaign quickly blasted the survey as an “outlier,” saying other recent polls have shown a much tighter contest.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have finally endorsed Nithya Raman for mayor. And notably, she embraced them in return. Raman thanked the DSA for “joining our broad coalition of Angelenos,” and put a DSA logo on her website in the “endorsements” section. In the past, the DSA was reluctant to back Raman, because she pointed out — correctly — that the so-called “mansion tax” was making it hard to build housing in general in LA. But all that is water under the bridge. And though Raman said her supporters “may not agree on every issue,” she didn’t point out...

The debate for the Los Angeles mayoral race is off to a fiery start after incumbent Karen Bass told her opponent, Nithya Raman, that she was lazy. 'I did the first tax credit when I was Speaker of the House. You were nowhere,' Bass said with Raman sitting next to her. 'Even when it came time to vote for the entertainment industry, you walked on votes. As a matter of fact, I believe you have missed several thousand votes because you don't show up to work.' The incumbent mayor's fierce words came Wednesday night in Sherman Oaks as Election Day...

Mayor Karen Bass conspired with a political ally to push rival Nithya Raman out as chair of LA’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, the councilwoman alleged. Raman, who is challenging Bass in November, blasted the shake-up in a video posted to X Monday after the California Post first reported that she was being removed as chair of the committee. “Mayor Bass’ top City Council ally removed me as Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee,” Raman said. “The Mayor may be trying to punish me for challenging her, but Angelenos are the ones who pay the price for these political games.”...

Spencer Pratt did not hold back in a new social media video post, commenting on problems in the city and the remaining Los Angeles mayoral candidates following his loss in the primary. The former mayoral candidate and reality TV star titled the video, "Saving LA – Phase III," and vowed that his fight to save the city is not over, claiming, "It's war." He said he is moving on to "the next, more interesting phase …now that my campaign portion mission to save Los Angeles is coming to a close." After placing third in the June 2 primary election, with...

The Los Angeles mayoral race just got a little more interesting. It’s already been a wild ride, where wildfire victim Spencer Pratt seemed to be a shoo-in for the second spot the night the polls closed, only to see his lead slowly erode over the days as mail-in ballots continue to be counted in an excruciatingly slow fashion. Somehow, LA Councilwoman Nithya Raman, who tanked in the May debate and was a consistent third in the polls, is now seemingly destined to take the number two position and head to the November general election to face the failed incumbent, Karen...

California Democrats have rigged another election, and outsider Spencer Pratt has been bumped from the Los Angeles mayoral race. On Election Day, Pratt’s lead over third-place Nithya Raman was so large that she publicly cried over her loss. After a week of mail-in-ballot shenanigans, Raman has surged to secure a coveted spot on the November ballot — a statistical improbability in any jurisdiction familiar with arithmetic and basic ethics. This “come from behind victory” has made it difficult for the usual election-fraud-deniers to pretend that California’s elections are free, fair, legal, or remotely based in reality. I noticed that National...

Nithya Raman even LOST her own district (CD-4) to Spencer Pratt and Karan Bass, but you expect us to believe she beat them BOTH by winning 40% of the vote in the rest of the city by mail-in ballots?

* Nithya Raman is now in second place in the mayor’s race, with 27.1% of the votes counted so far compared to 26.7% for Spencer Pratt. * Mail-in ballots will continue to be accepted through Tuesday, but analysts say the trend favors Raman moving into a Nov. 3 runoff with incumbent Karen Bass. Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman surged past reality television personality Spencer Pratt in the city’s mayoral primary election Sunday, capping off a five-day turnaround after she fell behind Pratt on election night. Raman now sits in second place with Pratt in third, according to the latest...

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt’s lead over Nithya Raman continued to shrink Friday with the latest ballot drop. Councilwoman Raman scored a major boost, cutting Pratt’s lead by about 13,000 votes from Thursday’s drop. Mayor Karen Bass remained in first place at 35% of the vote, while Pratt held onto second with 28.4% of the vote, down from 29.35% on Thursday. Pratt added just 10,651 votes in the latest count. Raman, meanwhile, surged from 23.42% to 24.89%, picking up 23,115 votes. The latest results keep Raman within striking distance as hundreds of thousands of ballots remain uncounted. 71% of...

Former reality TV star Spencer Pratt will advance into the November general election runoff for Los Angeles mayor. With roughly 50 percent of the expected vote counted early Wednesday morning, Bass led with approximately 36-37 percent while Pratt pulled in a strong 29.2 percent. Progressive City Councilmember Nithya Raman trailed far behind in third at 21.4 percent. Under California’s top-two primary system, Bass and Pratt will face off in November, giving Pratt five more months to campaign. Pratt decided to run on cleaning up the city after becoming fed up with rampant crime, homelessness, and losing his home in the...

Los Angeles voters are heading to the polls Tuesday to elect their next mayor, a race that has put all eyes on the nation's second-largest city. But if no one reaches more than 50% of the vote after all the ballots are counted, the top-two vote getters will head to a November runoff. Traders on prediction market platform Kalshi think the incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and insurgent former reality TV star Spencer Pratt are most likely to advance to the second round. Traders are fairly certain Bass will make it to the second round, giving her 93% odds. Bass has...