Metropolis Councilwoman Nithya Raman, in yellow, speaks with attendees of her mayoral marketing campaign launch occasion on the Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Recreation Middle on Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Photograph by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
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Metropolis Councilwoman Nithya Raman, in yellow, speaks with attendees of her mayoral marketing campaign launch occasion on the Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Recreation Middle on Sunday, March 8, 2026. (Photograph by Miguel Vasconcellos, Contributing Photographer)
Los Angeles Metropolis Councilwoman Nithya Raman on Sunday formally launched her marketing campaign for mayor, weeks after her shock resolution to enter the race in opposition to incumbent and former political ally Karen Bass.
Raman made the announcement throughout an occasion on the Van Nuys/Sherman Oaks Recreation Middle, the place supporters gathered for a marketing campaign kickoff earlier than volunteers headed into close by neighborhoods for door-to-door outreach.
“I’ve spent the final 5 years in Metropolis Corridor, and I’ve tried so exhausting. My group and I’ve tried so exhausting to intervene aggressively on essentially the most pressing points that this metropolis is going through, our housing and homelessness disaster, constructing a greater security response, getting our fundamental providers to work for folks,” Raman stated on the occasion. “However over and over, within the constructing, in Metropolis Corridor, I discovered myself working right into a wall of reluctance, a reluctance to maneuver ahead with the transformative coverage change that this metropolis wants proper now.”
Raman stated that reluctance, in her view, stems from political warning and a concern of angering voters, which she believes is stopping the town from making wanted modifications. She stated Los Angeles has the power to deal with its greatest challenges.
“I see risk in all places and in everybody on this metropolis. I do know we will construct the housing that we have to make this metropolis reasonably priced, to deliver our neighborhoods again to life,” Raman stated. “We will construct clear, accountable programs for homelessness and public security, and we will present up for folks once they want assist in precisely the way in which that we’d like, and we will help them.”
Raman stated L.A. ought to reprioritize its price range to restore fundamental providers and defend native communities from federal insurance policies she opposes, including that the hassle would require honesty and exhausting work.
The councilwoman filed paperwork final month to run for mayor forward of the June 2 major election. Her resolution to run got here amid a shifting area of potential challengers within the days main as much as the submitting deadline.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath ended weeks of hypothesis a couple of potential run, saying final month that she would as an alternative concentrate on her marketing campaign for a second time period on the Board of Supervisors.
Two different distinguished figures determined in opposition to getting into the race. Former Los Angeles Unified College District Superintendent Austin Beutner withdrew from consideration after the sudden demise of his 22-year-old daughter, Emily, in January. Beutner stated the loss required him to concentrate on his household moderately than the calls for of a mayoral marketing campaign.
Billionaire developer Rick Caruso, who misplaced to Bass within the 2022 mayoral election, additionally dominated out one other run final month after contemplating the likelihood earlier within the 12 months.
Final month, Raman described her relationship with Bass as “sturdy and shut,” constructed over the previous couple of years. She stated she spoke with Bass about her mayoral run however didn’t present additional particulars, saying that she “prefers to keep up that privateness proper now.”
“I do really feel like Angelenos have actually given us lots of religion. Voted for extra taxes to deal with reasonably priced housing points, to deal with homelessness, to deal with a few of our greatest crises, and if we don’t present outcomes to them, I believe we are going to lose them,” Raman stated after saying her candidacy.
“We’re making selections about our price range which are based mostly on political calculations, as opposed to what’s finest for Angelenos and what’s finest for Los Angeles’ center class,” Raman added. “I believe we will change.”
Bass admitted she didn’t anticipate a problem from Raman.
“Properly to begin with, it was a shock,” Bass informed reporters final month. “We’ve been nice allies, particularly on the problem of homelessness. And I’ll let you know that I’ll sit up for working with Nithya Raman in my second time period.”
Douglas Herman, a marketing campaign advisor for Bass, criticized Raman’s mayoral bid.
“The very last thing Los Angeles wants is a politician who opposed cleansing up homeless encampments and efforts to make our metropolis safer,” he stated following Raman’s resolution. “Mayor Bass will proceed altering L.A. by constructing on her observe document delivering L.A.’s first sustained lower in avenue homelessness, a 60-year low in homicides, and essentially the most aggressive agenda our metropolis has ever seen to make our metropolis extra reasonably priced.”
Talking at her formal marketing campaign launch occasion Sunday, Raman mirrored on her private journey and dedication to the town.
“I immigrated to this nation, and I moved as an grownup to this metropolis, and L.A. has given me and my household the whole lot,” Raman stated. “I first ran for workplace with no political connections, no ties to particular pursuits, no different motive than to provide the whole lot I’ve to this metropolis, to delivering a metropolis that works, bringing as many individuals into that work as doable. And I need to make one other dedication to you in the present day. I give myself to the town as soon as once more.”
Different challengers to Bass embody Spencer Pratt, a actuality tv persona and Palisades Fireplace survivor; and Rae Huang, a neighborhood organizer.
Adam Miller, founder and former CEO of workforce schooling agency Cornerstone OnDemand, introduced his bid for mayor final month.
Of the ten Los Angeles mayors to have sought a second time period for the reason that workplace’s time period grew to become 4 years in 1925, solely two have been denied second phrases — John C. Porter in 1929 and James Hahn in 2005.
Raman was elected in 2020 and re-elected in 2024 to characterize the Fourth Council District, representing communities within the southern portion of the San Fernando Valley and jap Santa Monica Mountains comparable to Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio Metropolis and Hollywood Hills, in addition to Griffith Park, Los Feliz and Silver Lake.
Raman’s first profitable council bid was supported by the Democratic Socialists of America — the identical political group that bolstered Zohran Mamdani, who gained his election for mayor of New York Metropolis final 12 months.
She chairs the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee and is a part of the council’s extra left-leaning bloc alongside colleagues Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Ysabel Jurado.
