Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will face City Council member Nithya Raman in a runoff election for Bass’ job in November, NBC News projects, teeing up a one-on-one matchup between two Democrats.
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Bass and Raman, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, emerged from a crowded all-party primary field that included former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, a registered Republican who ran an insurgent campaign focused on criticizing Bass for her response to the Los Angeles wildfires last year.
Since no candidate earned more than 50% of the vote, the top two finishers go to a runoff this fall. NBC News previously projected Bass would advance to the general election.
While Pratt was in second place behind Bass on election night, the successive vote tallies have been more Democratic-leaning, allowing Raman to surpass Pratt. It’s part of a pattern all over California in this primary, with late-counted votes leaning more Democratic after a late surge in turnout by party members.
Bass, a former member of Congress, was first elected mayor in 2022, when she defeated real estate developer Rick Caruso in an expensive race. But she faced backlash during and after last year’s destructive wildfires, including for being out of the country when they broke out. The fires burned over 16,000 structures and, at times, fire hydrants and water tanks ran out of water, limiting efforts to fight the blaze.
In March, 56% of respondents in a Los Angeles Times poll of the city said they had an unfavorable view of the mayor.
It was against that backdrop that Raman decided earlier this year to launch a bid for mayor, despite close political ties with Bass. Raman had endorsed the incumbent for re-election prior to entering the race herself, and Bass backed Raman during her contested city council re-election campaign in 2024.
During her campaign launch, Raman told supporters, “My team and I have tried so hard to intervene aggressively on the most urgent issues that this city is facing, our housing and homelessness crisis, building a better safety response, getting our basic services to work for people. But over and over again, in the building, in City Hall, I found myself running into a wall of reluctance, a reluctance to move forward with the transformative policy change that this city needs right now.”
Bass pushed back during the campaign, arguing that Raman failed to use her seat on the council to push the changes she says are necessary. “The problem,” the mayor said at a debate with Raman before the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association in May, “is that for you to act like you’re brand new, or you’ve been on the outside for the last almost six years, is not accurate.”
On the campaign trail, Bass also acknowledged the public’s frustrations on issues like the wildfires and widespread homelessness in Los Angeles, while touting progress her administration has made. And in an election-night speech last week, Bass projected confidence about re-election, though it was not clear at that point whom she would face in the runoff.
“I appreciate you for believing in me. I appreciate you for standing with me when others doubted me, because you know who I am,” Bass said. “I have devoted my entire life to serving the city that I love, where I was born, and I’m going to continue to do that all the way to victory in November.”
Bass’ wobbly standing with voters led to challenges from both the left and the right. Pratt’s presence in the race, from the social media videos he amplified to the broadsides he delivered against Bass, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other prominent state Democrats, drew higher-than-usual levels of national attention to the election. The former star of 2000s MTV show “The Hills” lost his house in last year’s fires.
He not only blamed Bass for the mass destruction from last year’s wildfires, but also pledged to eliminate the city’s homelessness crisis if elected.
President Donald Trump did not issue a formal endorsement in the race, but praised Pratt’s bid, saying, “I’d like to see him do well. He’s a character.”
Raman’s move to the runoff election will create a very different type of race than Bass would have had against Pratt.
Before the primary, a Los Angeles Times poll tested three one-on-one matchups. The survey showed both Bass and Raman with wide leads in potential matchups with Pratt, with the results looking like a more traditional partisan contest.
But the Democrat-versus-Democrat matchup between Bass and Raman was different. Raman took 32% support to Bass’ 28% in that scenario in the poll — a lead within the margin of error — while a whopping 40% of respondents said they weren’t sure or wouldn’t vote, pointing to a more volatile campaign and more voters unsure about what they want to do.