DSA's Raman Ousts Karen Bass as Los Angeles Mayor

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass conceded Thursday to City Councilmember Nithya Raman, sealing an upset that will put a Democratic Socialists of America-backed progressive at the helm of the nation’s second-largest city, according to the Los Angeles Times and NBC News.

With roughly 76% of expected ballots counted, Raman led Bass about 52% to 48% — a margin of nearly 35,000 votes — after late-arriving mail ballots flipped an Election Night edge for the incumbent, the Los Angeles Times reported. Bass called Raman on Thursday to congratulate her and pledged a smooth transition, according to statements carried by ABC7 and the Times.

BREAKING: Democratic socialist Nithya Raman defeats Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a stunning political upset, marking another major victory for the socialist movement following the midterm elections.

Raman is poised to become the fourth Democratic Socialists of America member… pic.twitter.com/2UHuSErUIU

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 5, 2026

“Los Angeles, I’m deeply honored to be your next mayor,” Raman, 45, said in a video statement quoted by the Los Angeles Times. “I also wanted to pay tribute to Mayor Karen Bass, someone who has given decades of her life to making this city what it is today.”

Bass, 73, said in a statement reported by ABC7 that the outcome was not what her campaign hoped for but that “the people of Los Angeles have spoken.” She noted she had been the city’s first Black woman mayor and thanked voters for the chance to serve.

Raman’s win makes her the first challenger to defeat an incumbent Los Angeles mayor in more than two decades, the Times reported, dating back to Antonio Villaraigosa’s 2005 victory over James Hahn. NBC News framed the result as part of a broader municipal socialist wave, noting Raman joins New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Washington, D.C., mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George among major-city leaders aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.

That is the story national conservatives should not miss. Los Angeles is preparing to host the 2028 Olympic Games, ABC7 noted, and voters just handed City Hall to a councilmember who ran explicitly against what she called a “broken city” under Bass. Raman entered the race in the final hours before the February filing deadline against a onetime ally, a move that, according to the Times, infuriated elected Democrats who nearly unanimously backed Bass.

None of Raman’s City Council colleagues endorsed her mayoral bid, the Los Angeles Times reported. She cast herself as a technocrat promising “A City That Works” — faster sidewalk and streetlight fixes — while campaigning with DSA-LA support and progressive groups including Our Revolution and the Sierra Club, according to ABC7 and NBC News.

Bass tried a public-safety message aimed at moderates and more conservative Angelenos, the Times reported, and entered the runoff after finishing first in the June primary. Reality-TV figure Spencer Pratt finished third in that primary at about 25.5%, NBC Los Angeles reported, underscoring how unsettled the field was before Raman’s late entry.

Analysts quoted by the Times described the coalition as heavily generational: Raman swept younger, more progressive voters whose late ballots decided the race, while Bass performed better with voters over 50. “I look at this race almost completely through a generational lens,” USC and Pepperdine professor Dan Schnur told the Los Angeles Times.

For Daily Beltway readers, the takeaway is national, not local. A DSA-aligned mayor will soon run the West Coast’s largest city after midterms that already flipped Congress. Housing costs, homelessness policy, policing, and Olympic logistics now sit with a progressive who beat the Democratic establishment’s preferred incumbent — facts confirmed Thursday by Bass’s own concession and by reporting from the Los Angeles Times, NBC News, and ABC7.

Raman is expected to be sworn in in December, according to NBC Los Angeles. Bass has committed publicly to a seamless handoff. What Raman does with the second-largest U.S. city — and how quickly her agenda collides with taxpayers, businesses, and public safety — will be a live test of the socialist municipal project heading into 2028.

Reporting by Daily Beltway.