Los Angeles still doesn’t know who its next mayor will be. Incumbent Karen Bass and City Councilmember Nithya Raman remained locked in an extraordinarily close race Wednesday morning, with tens of thousands of ballots still to be counted and a contest that could take days – possibly longer – to settle.
As of the Los Angeles County vote count early Wednesday, Bass held approximately 51% of the vote to Raman’s 49%, a margin of fewer than 10,000 votes in one update. Other overnight counts briefly showed Raman moving ahead, underscoring just how fluid the race remains.
No major news organization had called the race.
The result represents a remarkable political predicament for Bass, who entered office in 2022 as one of Los Angeles’ most established political figures and is now fighting for her political survival against a former ally from a younger and more progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Raman, 45, entered the race unexpectedly in February after having supported Bass only weeks earlier.
By Election Day, what initially looked like an uphill challenge had turned into a dead heat.
A final UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll had Bass and Raman tied at 40% among likely voters, with another 11% undecided.
From allies to rivals
The race has been unusual from the beginning because both candidates occupy different parts of the same broad political coalition.
Bass, 73, is a longtime Democratic establishment figure who served in the California Assembly and Congress before becoming mayor.
Raman entered City Hall through Los Angeles’ progressive movement and became the first candidate endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America to win a seat on the L.A. City Council.
Their split has produced something closer to an ideological family argument than a conventional Democrat-versus-Republican election.
Bass has argued that Los Angeles is moving in the right direction and that her administration deserves more time to continue reducing homelessness, lowering crime and preparing the city for major events including the 2028 Olympic Games.
Raman has made essentially the opposite case: that incremental improvement is not enough.
“We cannot keep asking people to pay more and expect less,” Raman says in her campaign messaging.
Homelessness hangs over everything
Perhaps no issue has defined the campaign more than homelessness.
Bass has made her Inside Safe program a centerpiece of her administration, emphasizing the removal of encampments and moving unhoused Angelenos into temporary and permanent housing.
Raman argues that the city’s response remains too slow and fragmented.
She has proposed dramatically expanding street-based medical teams, accelerating housing production and cutting the number of people living in encampments by half by 2028.
Both candidates acknowledge that Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis remains severe.
Their disagreement centers on whether Bass’ existing strategy needs more time or whether the city needs a fundamental change in approach.
Then came the Palisades fire
Bass’ political position changed dramatically following the devastating 2025 Palisades fire.
Her handling of the disaster became a central issue in the reelection campaign, providing Raman with an opening to question the mayor’s management and preparedness.
Bass has defended the city’s response and pushed back against criticism of her leadership.
But politically, the fire helped turn a reelection campaign that once appeared relatively safe into what the Associated Press described as the toughest fight of Bass’ career.
Policing becomes another dividing line
Public safety has also produced one of the clearest contrasts.
Bass supports expanding the Los Angeles Police Department and has defended LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.
Raman has pledged to replace McDonnell and has argued for shifting more calls involving homelessness and mental health away from armed officers and toward civilian response teams.
At the same time, Raman has moderated several of the policing positions she held when she first entered politics, including earlier opposition to certain anti-camping restrictions.
Her pledge to replace McDonnell became one of the campaign’s sharpest flashpoints and helped drive substantial outside spending in the race.
The Spencer Pratt factor
There is another reason this race became so unpredictable.
Spencer Pratt.
Yes, that Spencer Pratt.
The reality television personality finished third in the June primary with 25.5% of the vote — approximately 218,000 ballots – behind Bass at 34.3% and Raman at 29%.
That left an enormous bloc of voters up for grabs.
Pratt performed particularly well in the West Valley, including Woodland Hills, Encino, Granada Hills, West Hills, Chatsworth, Northridge and Tarzana, along with Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and San Pedro.
His primary vote was nearly five times larger than the roughly 45,000-vote gap separating Bass and Raman.
Where those voters ultimately landed could help determine who occupies City Hall.
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Why the count could take a while
Anyone expecting an election-night resolution may need to be patient.
California allows vote-by-mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive for seven days afterward, meaning many ballots can still enter the count after polls close.
That matters particularly for Raman.
During the June primary, she sat in third place on election night before gaining ground as later ballots were counted, eventually passing Pratt and advancing to face Bass.
A similar pattern is one reason neither campaign can draw firm conclusions from Wednesday morning’s totals.
Bass led early Tuesday night.
Then Raman began gaining.
At one point overnight, Raman moved ahead with 338,740 votes to Bass’ 334,762 — 50.3% to 49.7%.
Later reporting showed the margin shifting again.
In other words, Los Angeles may be watching this scoreboard for a while.
An establishment-versus-change election
Bass has assembled a formidable group of supporters, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, organized labor and much of Los Angeles’ Democratic establishment.
Raman has drawn support from progressive organizations including the Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution and the Sierra Club.
But reducing the contest to “moderate versus progressive” misses what is happening.
It is also generational.
Bass represents decades of political experience and argues that governing Los Angeles requires relationships, institutional knowledge and patience.
Raman’s campaign asks whether those same institutions are precisely why the city has struggled to solve problems residents have been hearing about for years.
Housing.
Homelessness.
Traffic.
Public safety.
Basic city services.
And looming over everything is 2028.
The next mayor of Los Angeles will lead the city through the Olympic Games, oversee major transportation and infrastructure projects, and become one of the world’s most visible municipal leaders.
Bass thought that mayor would be her.
Raman thinks Los Angeles is ready for someone else.
As of Wednesday morning, the voters still haven’t told us which one.
