Who is Nithya Raman, the democratic socialist who will be Los Angeles’s next mayor?

Nithya Raman defeated incumbent Karen Bass in a close race to become Los Angeles’s next mayor, making her one of a growing number of democratic socialist mayors leading major US cities. An urban planner who entered politics as an outsider, Raman has a different political profile from New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and has had a sometimes tense relationship with Los Angeles’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter.

Raman first won office in 2020, unseating a sitting city council member for the first time in 17 years, after a campaign that she said involved 80,000 door knocks and 2,000 volunteers. Her priorities include housing, homelessness and tenants’ rights; she aims to triple annual housing construction across affordable, market-rate and social housing, as well as shelters. Before entering politics, she co-founded a volunteer group supporting unhoused people in north-east Los Angeles, which now says it has 800 volunteers.