More than five years ago, Nithya Raman made history as the first candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists of America to win a City Council seat in Los Angeles, ushering in a wave of other progressive candidates who pushed the council to the left.
Now, her surprising last-minute entry into the L.A. mayor’s race is prompting inevitable comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, another DSA-backed politician who recently was elected mayor of New York City.
But Raman’s record as a City Council member hasn’t always aligned with the far left.
In fact, her stances on issues such as homelessness, transportation and protecting immigrants from the Trump administration are similar to those of her opponent and former ally, Mayor Karen Bass.
As her campaign moves forward, Raman will have to differentiate herself from Bass — as well as address the narrative that she betrayed Bass, who offered an important boost to her reelection campaign in 2024.
On housing, Raman has at times angered progressives by aligning with the YIMBY movement, which has pushed for the city to boost housing production and rewrite Measure ULA, the so-called mansion tax, which applies to property sales of $5.3 million or more.
In an interview Monday, she portrayed herself as not beholden to any special interest groups.
“Yes, I’m a YIMBY,” Raman said, referring to the pro-housing “Yes in My Backyard” acronym. “I’m a DSA-endorsed — multiple times — candidate.
“But I feel like I have demonstrated over and over again that my decision-making has been independent. … I stand up and talk about policy change, even when it alienates my allies.”
Unlike some other local politicians and mayoral candidates, Raman had not publicly criticized Bass about the Palisades fire. But after filing her candidate paperwork Saturday, she told reporters the city needs a mayor who will “prepare for emergencies before they happen.”
Raman, 44, who lives in Silver Lake and is married with two young children, was born in India and came to the U.S. at age 6. She graduated from Harvard University and earned a master’s degree in urban planning from MIT.
In 2020, she was a leader of Time’s Up, an anti-harassment group born after the #MeToo movement, when she launched a bid to represent a City Council district that stretches from Silver Lake to Sherman Oaks.
Her victory over David Ryu was the first time in 17 years that a challenger ousted a City Council incumbent.
Other progressive candidates followed suit and ran for office. Today, on a 15-seat City Council, Raman is one of four DSA-backed members who have championed policies in favor of renters and pushed back against spending on the Police Department.
But Raman’s late entry into the race, hours before Saturday’s filing deadline, could make it harder for her to amass support and funding.
On Monday, nine of Raman’s City Council colleagues reiterated their endorsements of Bass’ reelection. Raman herself had endorsed Bass.
Hugo Soto-Martínez, one of the DSA-backed council members, said in a statement, “While I recognize Nithya’s contributions to the city, I was caught off-guard by her last-minute maneuver, and I continue to strongly support Mayor Bass. Even when we disagree, I’ve never doubted Mayor Bass and her long-standing commitment to the community.”
Bass said in a statement: “I’m honored to have the support of these city leaders, and I look forward to continuing working with them to save lives through unprecedented reforms that have resulted in historic drops in both street homelessness and crime.”
Raman, who chairs the council’s Housing and Homelessness committee, has championed some traditionally progressive measures, such as just-cause eviction protections and strengthening the city’s rent stabilization ordinance.
Under legislation backed by Raman, landlords no longer can evict tenants from any rental property, including single-family homes, unless there is unpaid rent, documented lease violations, owner move-ins or other specific reasons.
Such protections already existed in rent-stabilized units, and making them universal included an additional 400,000 units, according to the city.
In 2023, she and other DSA-backed council members voted against a package of police raises, arguing that they would trigger cuts to other core services.
Former City Councilmember Mike Bonin described working with Raman to create a renters registry so the city could track illegal rent hikes. Her proposal for the registration wasn’t attention-grabbing but was vital work because the “city has a horrible track record of enforcing anything,” he said.
“She’s smart and she’s serious,” Bonin said, adding that Raman is about “making systems work.”
Raman also has a record of supporting denser housing and opposing efforts to get involved in legal fights over proposed controversial development.
While the City Council, along with Bass, opposed Senate Bill 79 by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), which allows denser housing near transit stops, Raman didn’t join in the vote.
More recently, Raman attempted to rewrite Measure ULA. She has pointed to evidence that the measure is making it more difficult for developers to earn a profit on new housing developments, killing potential deals and worsening the housing crisis.
Last month, she asked her colleagues to place a measure on the June 2 ballot that would spare the sellers of newer apartment buildings from paying the tax. But council members, faced with an outcry from labor leaders and the many community groups that support Measure ULA, refused to take up Raman’s proposal.
Raman and Bass, 72, face nearly 40 other opponents, the vast majority of them unknowns who pose little threat, though a few have the potential to break through with voters.
Reality TV star Spencer Pratt, a Republican, has focused heavily on the city’s handling of the Palisades fire, which destroyed his home.
Another democratic socialist, Rae Huang, is calling for more public housing and a reduction in the number of police officers, with the cost savings poured into other city services.
Brentwood tech entrepreneur Adam Miller, who has described himself as a lifelong Democrat, said the city is on a downward trajectory and needs stronger management.
Matthew Lewis, director of communications for California YIMBY, said that pro-housing groups around the country “lit up with excitement” after word of Raman’s 11th-hour entry into the mayor’s race.
“She’s giving Mamdani vibes,” Lewis said. “He is also DSA, but he ran on a YIMBY platform.”
But Raman may face a tough audience in parts of the city where she is not well-known, and also in some San Fernando Valley neighborhoods she represents.
A rash of burglaries last summer in and around Encino angered some residents, who view Raman as anti-police and are suspicious of her DSA endorsements.
Rob Glushon, head of the Encino Property Owners Assn., was at a Little League game Saturday when his phone started “blowing up” about Raman’s run.
Glushon balks at many of Raman’s positions, including her opposition to a law that allows the city to ban homeless people from the streets near schools.
“Mayor Karen Bass is looking better and better,” he said.
Although she has yet to outline her campaign goals, Raman said that fiscal issues are stopping the city from being able to manage even basic repairs, such as fixing streetlights.
Her campaign is so new that she hasn’t even built a website trumpeting her priorities. She only started to seriously consider running for mayor in the last week, she said.
“Everyone is free to run,” Bass told The Times. “I am running on my record, running on the collaboration I’ve had with her. I don’t think there are any problems that she is raising about the city of Los Angeles that I’m not concerned about as well.”
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