Nithya Raman (44 years old), an Indian American, narrowly won a place in the runoff elections for the position of mayor of Los Angeles, the second largest American city, on Monday, beating her Republican rival for the opportunity to challenge the city’s current mayor, Karen Bass. Raman, a former urban planner running as a Democrat, initially trailed Republican Spencer Pratt by more than 40,000 votes before gaining more votes as more votes were counted on Sunday and Monday.
If Raman wins the runoff elections, Indian American politicians will run two of America’s largest cities, New York and Los Angeles. Zahran Mamdani pulled off a major electoral upset by defeating New Yorkers last November.
In a post on X, Raman wrote that she was incredibly honored that voters gave her the opportunity to run in the general election for mayor of Los Angeles. “To the thousands of supporters who knocked on doors, made calls, texted, donated, and opened their homes for events across the city, and to everyone who made this moment possible: thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”
Raman promised to change the “broken status quo” and pointed to depleted services, rising rents and the political power of special interest groups as the main problems facing Los Angeles, which is home to about four million people.
She has promised to expand access to affordable housing, protect renters, and end homelessness. Raman’s response to controversial ICE transgressions.
Raman was born to immigrants from Kerala, and holds degrees in urban planning from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, two of America’s elite institutions. After stints in the Los Angeles City Administrative Office and at the nonprofit Time’s Up, Raman launched a bid to unseat a sitting Los Angeles City Council member in 2020. At the time, she was a long-shot candidate. After all, no challenge to defeat an incumbent in Los Angeles for 17 years has been successful. Raman proved the exception.
She mounted a strong organizing campaign with the support of low-income voters to achieve victory, which some viewed as a political earthquake. As a council member, Raman focused on progressive priorities: housing, reducing rent increases, and combating homelessness.
With six years of experience on the City Council, Raman set to pull off another upset by launching her campaign to oust incumbent Bass at the last minute. Bass and Raman are scheduled to face off in the general elections next November.
Many see Raman as a strong contender to unseat Bass, the first mayor in more than 20 years to face a runoff election. Her predecessors won the mayor’s election in the first round of voting, winning by a clear majority. Bass won 34% of the vote, putting her in first place in the first round, but forcing a runoff election. Her mediocre performance has led some to believe that Raman has a real chance of pulling off the second major upset of her political career.
Raman maintains a great connection with India. Before entering politics, she lived in Chennai and ran a non-profit focused on improving access to sanitation and securing greater political rights for underserved communities.
