Jun. 8, 2026, 7:57 PM EDT<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Los Angeles Council member Nithya Raman will advance to the November general election in the mayoral race to face the incumbent, Karen Bass<\/a>after overtaking ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt <\/a>in the primary, The Associated Press projects.<\/p>\n

Raman has steadily trended upward in the vote count since Election Day, and she overtook Pratt on Sunday. Monday’s vote update gives Raman a cushion of more than 20,000 votes, making her position in the top two safe, with an estimated 93% of the vote counted.<\/p>\n

The runoff between Raman, 44, and Bass, 72, is the latest example of<\/a> a younger Democrat trying to oust an older incumbent<\/a>. Raman, a Harvard- and MIT-educated member of the Democratic Socialists of America who has represented LA’s 4th City Council District since 2020, launched her surprise mayoral campaign in February — less than two weeks after she endorsed Bass’ campaign for re-election.<\/p>\n

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The runoff between Raman, 44, and Bass, 72, is the latest example of a younger Democrat trying to oust an older incumbent.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n
She campaigned on a pledge to bring change to the city, but struggled to deliver consistent messaging during debates, where she walked back some of her more left-wing policy stances<\/a>including support for defunding the police and opposing anti-camping zones<\/a> for homeless people.<\/p>\n
Bass previously represented LA in the California Assembly, including as speaker. She has served six terms in the U.S. House and entered the mayor’s race facing extensive criticism from Angelenos over both her handling of last year’s deadly LA wildfires<\/a> — she was in Ghana when the blazes broke out — and her failure to achieve her goal of ending homelessness by the end of her first term.<\/p>\n
She has pledged that, if re-elected, she will deliver on that goal. She has also vowed to continue standing up to the Trump administration, pointing to her confrontation with federal agents when the president deployed<\/a> Immigration and Customs Enforcement to the city last year.<\/p>\n
In a statement provided to MS NOW Monday night, Raman thanked her supporters and sought to cast herself as a change agent, pledging to “fight for a healthier, safer, more affordable, and more joyful Los Angeles.” <\/p>\n
“For too long, City Hall has prioritized giving political advantage to powerful interests that fund elections. Meanwhile, working people pay the price in higher rents, depleted services, and a city that has stopped working for them,” Raman said. “If you’re as frustrated by the broken status quo as I am, I hope you’ll join our movement to build a city that works for everyone.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Bass campaign strategist Douglas Herman said in a statement to MS NOW Monday night: “A campaign against Nithya Raman, who allows encampments near schools and cuts the police force, is one Mayor Bass looks forward to winning.”<\/p>\n
Pratt’s fast rise, social media savvy and massive online audience also seemed to make it more difficult for Raman to break through in the primary. He outraised both Bass and Raman since launching his campaign in January.<\/p>\n
But some strategists predicted<\/a>Pratt’s backing by MAGA, and President Donald Trump himself, would ultimately help catapult Raman to second place in deep-blue LA.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Pratt’s lead over Raman steadily narrowed since primary night as mail-in ballots came in — a fact that Trump and other MAGA allies baselessly alleged proved<\/a> “fraud” in the race. On Tuesday, Pratt led Raman by 9 percentage points; by Sunday night, she had overtaken him by less than 1 percentage point.<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for Pratt’s campaign did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment after the results were called Monday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Jun. 8, 2026, 7:57 PM EDT Los Angeles Council member Nithya Raman will advance to the November general election in the mayoral race to face the incumbent, Karen Bassafter overtaking ex-reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the primary, The Associated Press projects. Raman has steadily trended upward in the vote count since Election Day, and she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}