The Democratic Socialists of America’s Los Angeles chapter announced on Wednesday that it had endorsed Nithya Raman, the progressive City Council member challenging Mayor Karen Bass in this year’s election.
The decision came after weeks of heated debate within the chapter. Some had argued that Ms. Raman, herself a member of the group, had recently distanced herself from the organization and broken with it on key issues. Still, more than 60 percent of voting members opted to support her with an endorsement, said Sean Wakasa, co-chair of the Los Angeles D.S.A. chapter.
“We have thousands of members who are ready to organize, talk to their neighbors, knock on doors and build power to shake up Los Angeles and build a brighter future,” Mr. Wakasa said.
Democratic socialists have risen to power in New York, Seattle and other cities around the country, but it was uncertain exactly how the Los Angeles endorsement might land with the city’s voters.
In a city known as a bastion of left-leaning politics, Ms. Raman was the first D.S.A. member elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2020, when she unseated an incumbent. She is now facing Ms. Bass, who is seen as a more mainstream Democrat, trying to win over a range of voters in a city where moderates, homeowners and labor groups have long wielded significant power.
On Wednesday, Ms. Raman responded to the endorsement by thanking the group for “joining our broad coalition of Angelenos.”
She added that her campaign “is bringing together people who may not agree on every issue but share a commitment to making Los Angeles work better.”
Asked about the endorsement, Ms. Bass’s campaign drew attention to positions Ms. Raman has taken, pointing to her opposition to rules that make homeless encampments illegal in certain areas and her stance against budget proposals that would have sent more money to the Los Angeles Police Department.
“Those are positions she now fully owns as she tries to flip-flop and convince voters otherwise,” Ms. Bass’s campaign spokesman, Alex Stack, said in a statement.
Ms. Raman said she has been a Democrat her whole life, and joined the D.S.A.’s Los Angeles chapter in 2019 because it was “one of the few organizations treating housing affordability with the urgency it demands.”
Since Ms. Raman’s election six years ago, several other D.S.A. members have also been elected to the City Council. A bloc of four members has advanced the group’s policy priorities, including increasing protections for renters and a raise in the minimum wage for some workers.
In recent years, though, Ms. Raman has sometimes staked out positions that seemed to distance herself from the D.S.A. She sought to amend a measure backed by D.S.A. colleagues aimed at funding affordable housing programs through a “mansion tax.” Ms. Raman said that the tax had the unintended effect of slowing the development of new, desperately needed apartments. Members of the D.S.A. felt she was caving to developers.
Ms. Raman also clashed with the organization on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, at one point criticizing a D.S.A. statement about the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
In this year’s primary race, the D.S.A. chapter opted against formally endorsing Ms. Raman, though it recommended that voters choose her over Ms. Bass and the former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who ran as a Republican.
“Our endorsement should be earned through a consistent track record of collaboration on working-class issues, not rewarded based on ideological proximity,” members of the D.S.A.’s Los Angeles chapter wrote in an opinion piece for Geese magazine, which describes itself as “a review of American Communism.”
In 2022, Ms. Raman backed Ms. Bass in her run for mayor.
Ms. Bass, a longtime legislator who was on Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s vice-presidential shortlist, ran on what was widely considered a progressive platform, which included strategies for reducing homelessness without incarcerating people. Her opponent was Rick Caruso, a billionaire real developer.
This year, Ms. Raman surprised many political observers by jumping into the mayoral race just minutes before the deadline and breaking with Ms. Bass by promising to make the city’s government work better and more efficiently.
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