Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles and her onetime ally, Nithya Raman, vied hopefully for a trove of undecided voters on Tuesday as the rival Democrats entered the homestretch in a fierce generational contest for the city’s top political job.
With ballots set to be mailed Oct. 1, the appearances in a candidate forum by Ms. Bass and Ms. Raman were their first in a major venue since last week, when a Berkeley IGS/Los Angeles Times poll showed Ms. Raman, 45, significantly ahead of the 72-year-old incumbent.
The poll, which Ms. Bass’s campaign dismissed as an “outlier,” showed Ms. Raman with a lead of 39 percent to 28 percent and support from large majorities of younger voters. But roughly one likely voter in three was undecided — a stunningly high figure with only about a month to go before the general election on Nov. 3. The survey was conducted two weeks ago.
“I know that there are a lot of voters out there who are undecided,” Ms. Raman said, making the case that she understood the frustration and distrust in government of many Angelenos.
Ms. Bass also appealed to the undecided, saying: “I do understand that Angelenos, and people all around them, are very upset. Life is too unaffordable. People are not feeling safe.”
Paul Mitchell, a Democratic consultant and political data expert who has been tracking the mayoral race, said that those uncommitted voters were both a reflection of voter dismay and a wild card in the race.
“I think the deciding vote in this mayor’s race could be the people who decide not to vote,” Mr. Mitchell said.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Jewish Federation Los Angeles and several other Jewish community groups, the candidates also vowed to combat antisemitism in the city, with Ms. Bass declaring as she left the stage, “I will always fight to protect the Jewish community.”
For more than a year, Ms. Bass has faced an uphill battle for re-election. Her approval ratings have slumped badly since Jan. 7, 2025, when catastrophic wildfires erupted across Southern California while she was out of the country.
Crime rates are down, homelessness has been declining for the first time in years, and the city is preparing for the 2028 Olympics. The mayor has been steadfast in her defense of immigrants who have been targeted by Trump administration crackdowns.
But her absence at the start of the fires remains unforgiven by many voters in the affluent neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, where 12 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. Good will was further eroded this summer when cleanup after an industrial fire at a cold storage facility took weeks longer than expected, blanketing a working-class East Los Angeles neighborhood in the stench of rotten, burned meat.
Ms. Raman, a city councilwoman, endorsed the mayor less than two weeks before jumping into the race in February after it appeared that Ms. Bass might have no serious opposition. A working mother of two with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, she has presented herself as an alternative who features all of the mayor’s progressive views and less political baggage. She is known nationally mainly for her support among the Democratic Socialists of America.
Charging that the city is “broken,” Ms. Raman has focused on affordability issues such as soaring rents and crippling home prices, and on bread-and-butter concerns such as streetlights and potholes.
Her endorsement from the D.S.A., which helped carry her onto the City Council in 2020, has invited comparisons to New York’s democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. But in a sprawling, majority-minority city where coalition politics typically determine mayoral elections, the association has been double-edged.
Ms. Raman’s candidacy has excited some young and progressive voters, but it has also unsettled critical blocs, such as Jewish voters, who have taken issue with the D.S.A.’s pro-Palestinian activism and criticism of Israel.
Hours before the candidate interviews, which were conducted back-to-back before an audience in the San Fernando Valley, Ms. Bass’s campaign issued a news release reminding voters that Ms. Raman had skipped a city celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month earlier this year to appear on a livestream hosted by the far-left Twitch and YouTube firebrand Hasan Piker.
During that interview, Ms. Raman said that Israel has a “right to exist,” but she also replied “yes” when asked if she believed Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, in its response to the October 2023 attacks that were led by the militant organization Hamas.
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide from scholars and human rights groups, saying it respected international law and had a right to defend itself. At the forum, Ms. Raman did not reverse her stance when pressed to explain her thinking.
“I have recognized that the word ‘genocide’ is a deeply painful word,” Ms. Raman told the gathering. But, she added, “other experts have used it to describe what’s happening,” and she felt compelled to speak out about “the targeting of hospitals, the deaths of children.”
Ms. Raman also defended her association with the D.S.A., saying she agreed with some parts of the group’s platform, such as tenant protections, and disagreed with others, such as revising the city’s “mansion tax” to rectify the accidental inclusion of apartment complexes.
“I think I’ve proven myself to be an independent voice,” she said.
Ms. Raman is a political unknown compared with Ms. Bass, whose public service as a community organizer, legislator, congresswoman and mayor in Los Angeles dates back to the 1990s. During the primary campaign, Ms. Raman struggled to edge the Republican reality television figure Spencer Pratt out of the runoff, eventually placing second to Ms. Bass.
Mr. Pratt garnered about 25 percent of the vote in the primary election, and it has been unclear whether his supporters will shift to the mayor or Ms. Raman. On social media, Mr. Pratt has urged voters to skip voting in the mayor’s race entirely.
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