Here's What to Know About the Los Angeles Mayor's Race
The mayor, who is 72, is seeking her second term. The first woman to be elected to the job, she campaigned on a promise to address homelessness quickly and humanely. At the time, the pandemic was winding down, and tent camps spilled across parks, beaches, sidewalks and suburban driveways.
Ms. Bass, a former physician assistant who got into Los Angeles politics during the 1980s crack epidemic, has said she felt called to serve. Los Angeles has one of the largest homeless populations in the nation, but, on her watch, it has declined for two consecutive years.
Initially, it appeared that outrage over the fire would present Ms. Bass with serious competition. But one contender after another dropped out or elected to stay on the sidelines. As Saturday’s noon filing deadline approached, Ms. Bass’s most significant potential challengers appeared to be Spencer Pratt, a Republican millennial reality television villain who lost his home in the Palisades fire; Adam Miller, a tech executive and a founder of an affordable housing nonprofit; and Rae Huang, a community organizer and a progressive advocate for affordable housing.
Then Nithya Raman, a 44-year-old City Council member, entered the race hours before the filing deadline. A pragmatic progressive aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, she ousted an incumbent in 2020 in large part by drawing connections between homelessness and the city’s increasingly dire housing crisis. Harnessing the fury of renters in a city where homeowners have traditionally dominated local politics, she drew comparisons to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York congresswoman, along with a nickname: “The L.A.O.C.”
Ms. Raman, an ally of the mayor — she endorsed Ms. Bass less than two weeks ago — represents less of an ideological contrast to the incumbent than a generational one.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/us/los-angeles-mayor-race.html
