Councilmember Nithya Raman is projected to oust incumbent Mayor Karen Bass for Los Angeles’ top leadership position with the latest ballot count drop on Thursday.
The District 4 councilmember took 52.1% of the vote with the incumbent falling just 4.2% behind with 47.9%. AP reported 76% of the votes have been counted as of Thursday morning at the time of this publication. The next ballot count will be reported around 4 p.m. PT.
Raman, who initially endorsed Bass for mayor, entered the race hours before the deadline in February and still came out on top.
The mayor-elect will be the first Asian-American mayor elected to lead L.A. and the second woman elected to the highest citywide office. She is also an affiliated member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Her election follows in the footsteps of New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Raman’s advantage of 405,193 to 379,069 votes Wednesday night expanded Thursday morning to 429,450 to 394,796 votes, according to figures from county elections officials.
Raman gathered with suporters at The Greek Theater in Los Feliz. Raman was across town at The Greek Theater in Los Feliz. She was joined by Dropout star Brennan Lee Mulligan, LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia and Lindsey Horvath, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
“Thank you to every single one of you for believing in the promise of this beautiful, weird, magical place that we get to call home,” Raman told her event attendees. “There are still a lot of ballots to count, and we’re going to let that count finish. I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful. I’m very hopeful. But I’m also really superstitious. So we’re all just going to be cool, okay?”
The District 4 Councilmember has always said Hollywood is personal for her. The councilmember’s husband is a TV writer-producer, working on “Modern Family,” “30 Rock” and “The Four Seasons,” to name a few.
The projected mayor complained that under the current leadership, city permitting is slow and unpredictable, departments contradict each other and fees rack up even on the smallest shoots. If elected, she said that she will staff the L.A. Film Office with individuals with industry experience.
Raman stated they would advocate for an uncapped film tax credit program at the state level. The candidates have also stated that they would advocate for a federal film tax credit program, which lawmakers are hoping to push through this year.
Raman was endorsed by the Writers Guild Association.
As of Wednesday evening, Bass had not reached out to Raman to concede the race, and the mayor’s campaign team said that they wanted to let the ballot counting process play out, according to the L.A. Times.
The progressive candidate ran a campaign staunchly against establishment Democrat Bass.
More to come…
