Kerala-born Nithya Raman has won the Los Angeles mayor’s race. She beat sitting Mayor Karen Bass to become the first South Asian mayor of America’s second-largest city.
The Associated Press called the race for Raman on Thursday, 5 November. Bass conceded the same day and promised a smooth handover of power.
Updated: 6 November 2026, 10:00 IST
Quick Read
- Raman, 45, won 52.70% of the vote (460,772 votes) against Bass’s 47.30% (413,519 votes).
- She is the first South Asian and first Asian-American mayor of Los Angeles, and only its second woman mayor.
- The result is called but not yet certified. Ballot counting is still going on.
The result
The latest figures come from the Los Angeles County election office. They were updated at 4:34 pm local time on Thursday. Raman had 460,772 votes. Bass had 413,519. The gap between them was 47,253 votes.
That is a lead of 5.4 points, out of 874,291 votes counted so far. The lead had grown during the day. In the morning count it was 34,654 votes. By the afternoon it was 47,253.
But the result is not final in the legal sense. The figures are still unofficial. Counting is not complete, and the result has not been certified yet. Bass conceded anyway. She congratulated Raman and promised a smooth transition.
Raman said she was “deeply honoured” in a post on social media after the win, Moneycontrol reported.
Who is Nithya Raman?
Raman was born in Kerala on 28 July 1981. Her family moved to Louisiana in the United States when she was six. She studied at Harvard and then did a graduate degree at MIT. She works as an urban planner. That means she plans how cities grow: homes, roads, parks, and public transport.
She entered politics in 2020. She challenged sitting council member David Ryu for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. She won. That made her the first South Asian person and the first Asian-American woman on the council. She won a second term in 2024, for the city’s Fourth District.
Here is how her rise played out:
- 2020: wins a City Council seat, a first for a South Asian.
- 2024: wins re-election in District 4.
- February 2026: enters the mayor’s race, hours before the deadline.
- June 2026: finishes third in the primary, then passes reality TV star Spencer Pratt on the sixth day of counting to reach the runoff.
- 3 November 2026: election day. She trails in early returns, then pulls ahead as mail ballots are counted.
- 5 November 2026: AP calls the race. Bass concedes.
How she won
Raman had once backed Bass for re-election. In February she changed her mind and entered the race herself. Her campaign had the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). She is the first DSA member to lead Los Angeles.
Bass had big names behind her. California Governor Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi all backed her. It was not enough.
Al Jazeera reported that Bass led when the first results came in on election night. Raman took the lead early on Wednesday as later mail ballots were counted. She never gave it back.
Also read: Pia Dandiya wins Florida seat: Indian-Americans score in US midterms
What it means for Indian-Americans
This is a first on several counts. Raman is the first South Asian to lead Los Angeles. She is the first Asian-American to lead it. She is only the second woman to hold the job. And Bass is the first Los Angeles mayor in more than 20 years to lose a re-election bid. The last one was in 2005.
It is also part of a wider pattern. Last year, Zohran Mamdani won the New York mayor’s race. Now a democratic socialist has won Los Angeles too. Indian-Americans also won seats in Florida in this same election week.
For Indian families in the US, the win is easy to read. A woman born in Kerala, who came to America as a child, now runs a city of nearly four million people. That is the story many will tell their children this week.
Also read: Democrats win US House in midterm wave: full results
What she has promised
Raman campaigned on two big issues: homelessness and affordable housing. Los Angeles has some of the worst homelessness in America. Rents are high. She has promised action on both.
She has also said she would replace the city’s police chief, Jim McDonnell, saying his response to immigration raids had not “met the moment”. That was one of her sharpest campaign lines.
Also read: US midterms: what the Democrat win means for India’s trade deal
What she does first will be watched closely, in Los Angeles and in India. She takes charge once the results are certified. The city will then see if a planner who beat a sitting mayor can run America’s second-largest city.
FAQs
Q: Is Nithya Raman’s win final?
A: The Associated Press has called the race for her, and Karen Bass has conceded. But ballot counting is still going on, and the result has not been certified yet. The figures quoted are unofficial.
Q: Who did Nithya Raman beat?
A: Sitting Mayor Karen Bass. Raman won 52.70% of the vote (460,772 votes) against Bass’s 47.30% (413,519 votes), a lead of 47,253 votes.
Q: What did Nithya Raman do before politics?
A: She is an urban planner by training, with a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a graduate degree from MIT. She has been a Los Angeles City Council member for District 4 since 2020 and won re-election in 2024.
Sources
- Al Jazeera — Nithya Raman wins LA mayoral race, becoming city’s first South Asian mayor (5 Nov 2026)
- The Statesman — Kerala-born Nithya Raman unseats Karen Bass (6 Nov 2026)
- Moneycontrol — Indian-origin Nithya Raman scripts history, wins Los Angeles mayor race (6 Nov 2026)
- American Kahani — In a Historic Win, Indian American Nithya Raman Unseats Karen Bass (5 Nov 2026)
- The Times of India — Nithya Raman: Meet the ‘Daughter of Thiruvananthapuram’ (6 Nov 2026)
Sasanka Sekhar Pradhan is the founder of India Presents, an India-focused news site. He covers daily box-office trackers, India news, economy explainers, sports previews and festival guides — in simple English, so readers across India can follow fast-moving stories without jargon. His focus is what a story means for the reader: the number that matters, the source behind it, and what happens next. India Presents publishes daily, with day-trackers updated as new figures come in.
