Three high school girls all dressed in pink strut up to the outcast in red flannel and tell her what it takes to be popular. But this isn’t a clip from “Mean Girls” — it’s a campaign video for Los Angeles mayoral candidate Nithya Raman.
The outcast, reminiscent of Lindsay Lohan’s character in the 2004 film, explains how she doesn’t mind being a nonconformist — and then compares herself to Raman and the councilmember’s opposition to raises for Los Angeles Police Department officers.
“I have no problem saying no to systems that don’t serve the people,” the girl in flannel says. “Like Nithya Raman.”
The micro-drama ad, which has racked up more than 200,000 views on social media, is one way Raman is targeting younger voters in her bid to unseat Mayor Karen Bass in Tuesday’s election. Another ad, featuring a young couple pleased with improved public transit under a Raman administration, has 400,000 views.
There’s a logic to the campaign’s focus on younger voters. Raman, 45, is supported by 69% of likely voters between ages 18 and 29, compared with 15% for the 73-year-old Bass, according to the latest Berkeley IGS / Los Angeles Times poll.
Among voters ages 30 to 39, the gap is even wider: 74% for Raman compared with 16% for Bass, the poll found.
Part of Raman’s appeal to younger voters is likely her advocacy for affordable housing and renter protections. Building more affordable housing is a top priority among younger voters surveyed in the September Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll. In the June 2 primary, Raman received 37% of the vote to Bass’ 28% in neighborhoods where at least 80% of households rent, according to a Times analysis of election data.
Brandon Whalen-Castellanos, a 32-year-old urban planner, moved to L.A. from Orange County seven years ago and says he identifies with Raman’s story as someone who moved to L.A. to “aspire toward their dreams.”
Whalen-Castellanos said he voted for Bass in 2022, viewing her as “a seasoned career and coalition builder.”
“But now,” he said. “I’m not seeing it. Establishment politics is not working.”
Bass isn’t ceding the younger cohort to Raman, however. In an interview at a Panorama City campaign event last week, she pointed to her own beginnings as a young organizer, and said she knows what it’s like to go against the status quo.
“I do understand that there is a sector of young people that do not agree with me, and I respect that. I was them,” she said. “I’m not somebody that believes that I go around lecturing young people to tell them the ways to do things. I understand and respect where they’re coming from, and we’ll be here waiting for them after I win.”
Bass said she also believes young people are her best messengers. Her campaign has a surrogate in Youth 4 Bass, run by Sabahat “Sabah” Nabiha, a 22-year-old full-time campaign staffer.
Nabiha, a UC Davis graduate, started the group after volunteering on Bass’ 2022 mayoral campaign. A self-described progressive, Nabiha said the group has about 240 members.
The group holds in-person events, and Nabiha can be spotted on college campuses in a blow-up unicorn costume advocating for Bass. Online, the account posts about phone banking, voting memes, even trends with Bass.
“As a progressive young person myself, who’s very visibly Muslim and unfortunately marginalized in policy, I see a champion for me,” Nabiha said. “I see someone that actually values what young people have to say and gives them an avenue” to make change.
Bass’ path as a young organizer when she started Community Coalition decades ago is a story that resonates with voters like Juan Solorio Jr., president of the San Fernando Valley Young Democrats, a group that endorsed Bass after interviewing both candidates.
“When she connects with young people and talks about that story, it’s really easy to be like yeah, that is someone I should be backing,” the 35-year-old said.
Black voters favor Bass by a wide margin, polls show, but there are exceptions to that trend. The Black L.A. Young Democrats, which Bass helped launch from her living room in 2012, endorsed Raman in this election after backing Bass in 2022.
The group’s board interviewed both candidates, and members found that they were more aligned with Raman’s stance on accountability over the LAPD and the agency’s budget, said Bailey Swain, who is president of the group and previously worked for Bass during her 2022 campaign.
In her interview, Raman spoke about how the city’s housing policies disenfranchise Black residents, Swain said, and pledged to change zoning laws to expand affordable housing across the city.
“Nithya not only was very honest and frank about what we’re facing, she was able to quickly name it and say this was racist,” Swain, 25, said. “It was the ‘yes and’ that really impressed our board.”
The group has about 500 members, Swain said, and the decision to endorse was made by the board.
“People are sick of establishment politics and want to see a change in the status quo,” said Liz Garcia, spokesperson for the Raman campaign. The campaign partners with content creators, providing access to events and interviews with Raman, Garcia said, as a way to introduce Raman in front of their audiences.
While the Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times polls show younger voters favoring Raman by a wide margin, supporting a candidate and actually voting for them are two different things.
Young voters historically cast ballots at rates lower than voters over 65. As of Wednesday, only 13% of eligible voters between ages 18 and 34 have submitted their ballots, compared with 47% of those over 65, according to Political Data Intelligence, a research firm.
Often, the main drivers for higher turnout among younger voters are the competitiveness of the race and the issues dominating the campaign — two things present in the L.A. mayoral race, said Laura Wray-Lake, a professor of social welfare at UCLA with a focus on younger voter engagement.
“They have to feel like their vote is going to go to a candidate who is going to do something that matters,” she said. “Young people have a lot of political power, if they choose to use it.”
“You can’t put them in a box,” Wray-Lake added. “They’re not very predictable in how they’re going to vote, and if they’re going to vote.”
Focusing on issues has been a key to success for City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who won reelection this spring after a competitive primary.
Elected for her first term at age 32, Hernandez, now 36 and the youngest member on City Council, said as she campaigned for a second term she found young people are disillusioned — not apathetic.
“They don’t want to hear the same regurgitated language about being a Democrat, democratic values, and things like that, when they cannot feel those things in their everyday life,” Hernandez said. “What we have seen success in is going directly to young people, talking about the real issues and talking about real, solid solutions that we can move forward.”
Times data reporter Sandhya Kambhampati and Times staff writer Gustavo Arellano contributed to this report.
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