Councilmember Nithya Raman announces run for LA mayor, joins crowded field hours before deadline
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles Councilmember Nithya Raman announced her candidacy for mayor of L.A. on Saturday, joining a crowded field hours before the noon deadline for candidates to file paperwork for the June 2 primary.
Raman says she and Mayor Karen Bass, who is seeking reelection, share many of the same values, but Raman says she's focused on affordability and housing for L.A. residents.
For weeks, it looked like Bass might head into the primary without a major challenge, but just hours before the deadline, one of her own colleagues on the city council jumped in. With the primary just a few months away, candidates have a relatively short window to build support, raise money and win endorsements -- which makes a late entry like this one a much steeper climb.
"There hasn't been a time in modern political history where there's been this much movement around the race so close to the filing deadline," said UC Berkeley political communications lecturer Dan Schnur. "The new revelations about Mayor Bass and her handling of last year's wildfires has completely turned this mayor's race upside down."
Despite Raman working closely with Bass on homelessness and housing, Raman says Los Angeles is reaching a tipping point. Pointing to families being priced out, housing not being built fast enough, and what she describes as a city government that sometimes struggles to deliver on the basics.
"I do feel like Angelenos have really given us a lot of faith -- voted for more taxes to address affordable housing issues, to address homelessness, to address some of our biggest crises, and if we don't show results to them, I think we will lose them," Raman told reporters at a news conference after emerging from the city clerk's office. "We are making decisions about our budget that are based on political calculations, as opposed to what is best for Angelenos and what is best for Los Angeles' middle class. I think we can change."
Raman was elected in 2020 and re-elected in 2024 to represent the 4th Council District, representing communities in the southern portion of the San Fernando Valley and eastern Santa Monica Mountains such as Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City and Hollywood Hills, as well as Griffith Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake.
"Los Angeles is at a breaking point, and people feel it in the most basic ways. Housing costs are forcing families out of the city. A homelessness system that lacks clear ownership and accountability is leaving people stuck in crisis, while the city cycles from emergency to emergency," Raman, who chairs the City Council's Housing and Homelessness Committee, said at the news conference. "Too many people don't feel safe walking down their own blocks at night, even as crime comes down, because broken street lights stay broken, and the city can't seem to manage the basics."
Raman's decision to pursue a mayoral run is the latest twist this week leading up to the filing deadline. After her announcement, a spokesperson for incumbent Bass's campaign released a statement that did not mention Raman by name.
"The last thing Los Angeles needs is a politician who opposed cleaning up homeless encampments and efforts to make our city safer," the statement said. "Mayor Bass will continue changing L.A. by building on her track record delivering L.A.'s first sustained decrease in street homelessness, a 60 year-low in homicides, and the most aggressive agenda our city has ever seen to make our city more affordable."
"Well, first of all, it was a surprise. We have been great allies, especially on the issue of homelessness, and I will tell you that I will look forward to working with Nithya Raman in my second term," Bass later said when asked about the topic at an event on Saturday.
Raman, who endorsed Bass for reelection last month, acknowledged Saturday that her own decision to run came late, and will likely impact her prospects for endorsements from labor groups, political organizations and others.
"It's very late in the process to get in the game," Raman said. "I was an outsider when I first ran, and I think I'll be an outsider in this race, and I'm OK with that."
"While four months is not a long time, it is enough time to mount a credible campaign especially against a battered incumbent," Schnur said.
Raman recently expressed frustration over Bass's approach to Los Angeles Police Department funding as the city faces serious budget issues, and what she described as Bass's focus on hosting major sporting events rather than the city's housing shortage, and the cost of the mayor's Inside Safe program.
Raman's announcement also comes at a sensitive moment for city leadership, after questions were raised this week about a report examining the city's response to the deadly Palisades Fire.
Mayor Bass has strongly denied claims that any report was watered down at her direction, but Raman says the controversy highlights a broader issue about transparency.
"I think that the Palisades Fire and everything surrounding that moment requires openness, honesty and accountability to the public, and I think the report that I read was the series of many instances where the city hasn't delivered that to the public," Raman said.
The race now includes over 40 candidates, with the focus on front-runners like Bass, Raman, community organizer Rae Huang, tech executive Adam Miller, and reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who has gained national attention for his activism surrounding fire relief for victims after his house was lost in the Palisades Fire.
On Friday night, L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath ended weeks of speculation about a potential run after announcing she would, instead, focus on her campaign for a second term on the board of supervisors.
Horvath's announcement came the day before the deadline to file a declaration of intention to be a candidate in the mayor's race in the June 2 primary. She was the third potential candidate in two days to say they won't be challenging Bass.
On Thursday, former L.A. Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner and billionaire developer Rick Caruso both said they also wouldn't be running.
While more than 40 candidates have filed to run, most will not qualify for major debates or meet fundraising thresholds, so the field is expected to narrow quickly in the weeks ahead.
Of the 10 Los Angeles mayors to have sought a second term since the office's term became four years in 1925, only two have been denied second terms -- John C. Porter in 1929 and James Hahn in 2005.
City News Service contributed to this report.
