Los Angeles’s Lurch Towards Extreme Left Becomes More Likely After Socialist Enters Mayoral Race

Democratic Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, an avowed socialist, announced Saturday she will challenge her longtime ally, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, who seeks reelection in June.

Raman, an Indian immigrant, has served on the City Council since 2020 after — with backing from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — she defeated an incumbent councilmember in the Democratic primary. Bass, a former congresswoman, has served as Los Angeles’s mayor since 2022. She recently came under scrutiny for her response to both the riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in mid-2025 and the devastating wildfire which engulfed the city’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood in January of that year.

Raman entered the race just hours before Saturday’s 12:00 p.m. PST filing deadline.

She told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Saturday she has “deep respect” for the incumbent left-wing mayor whom she called an “icon” and noted she has “significant alignment” with on some issues. (RELATED: From ‘The Hills’ Villain To Karen Bass’ Nightmare: Inferno Fuels Spencer Pratt’s LA Mayor Bid)

“But over the last few months in particular, I’ve really begun to feel like unless we have some big changes in how we do things in Los Angeles, that the things we count on are not going to function anymore,” Raman told the outlet.

The newly declared candidate also said the city she is running to lead is “at a breaking point,” and that “people feel it in the most basic ways,” The New York Times reported.

Both Raman’s and Bass’s offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Raman notably chairs the Housing and Homelessness Committee on the City Council, as Los Angeles grapples with a notorious homelessness crisis which has intensified during Bass’s term.

Los Angeles will hold its mayoral election June 2, and if no candidate receives a simple majority of the vote, a runoff election will take place in November — the same time as the 2026 general elections for Congress and California governor. The runoff would feature the two top finishers of the June election regardless of party affiliation.

With the filing deadline having passed, the mayoral field is set with the three most well-known candidates in the race being Bass, Raman, and Spencer Pratt, a former star of the reality TV show “The Hills” who lost his home in the Palisades Fire. Pratt, a registered Republican, faces an uphill climb to win election in the deep blue city.

While Raman is not the only socialist candidate in the race, she is the most well known. Rae Huang, a pastor and DSA member, is also mounting a longshot bid to unseat Bass.

Former Democratic Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Austin Beutner was also running for mayor but dropped out of the race after his daughter tragically passed away at the age of 22.

Billionaire businessman Rick Caruso, a Democrat who lost in the 2022 runoff election to Bass, announced he would not seek a rematch against her just two days before the Saturday filing deadline.

In the past year, many socialists have run to lead major cities, mainly as registered Democrats. While some have been successful, such as Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Democratic Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, others, such as Democratic Minnesota State Sen. Omar Fateh, have come up short.

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