Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman fired part-time campaign staffer Eric Cheng on the weekend before Tuesday’s election, saying he made “reprehensible” remarks on a video where he was discussing a U.S. Senate race.
On Instagram, Cheng said that Rep. Haley Stevens, the Michigan Democrat who made a surprise endorsement of a Republican in a U.S. Senate race, had been trying to “brainwash a lot of the Black vote” in her state.
Political strategist Michael Trujillo, who is supporting Mayor Karen Bass in Tuesday’s election, said Sunday on X that those remarks were a reflection of the Raman campaign’s “ignorance of the African American community.”
Trujillo called on Raman’s campaign to apologize. Within an hour, Raman’s team did just that, saying in a reply to Trujillo that Cheng was no longer with the campaign.
“We’re aware of a video posted by a part-time staffer on his personal social media account commenting about the Michigan Senate race. The comments in it are reprehensible and do not reflect our campaign. We apologize,” Raman’s team said.
Raman political strategist Jeff Millman told The Times on Monday that Cheng, who served as a liaison between the campaign and various digital content creators, had been terminated. Cheng had no comment when reached by The Times.
The incident was the latest dust-up over social media content during the mayoral campaign. Last month, Raman appeared on video with a social media influencer where she said “only you can stop fascist liars” before denouncing Police Chief Jim McDonnell.
Raman had the video taken down, saying it was edited improperly and that she was referring to Trump and immigration agents, not McDonnell or the mayor. Bass said the video showed Raman is not ready for citywide office.
Bass separately criticized her opponent for saying the LAPD under former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates was the “gold standard” in its approach to immigration enforcement. She said that the statement failed to acknowledge Gates’ mistreatment of Black and Latino residents.
Raman accused Bass of twisting her words, but later apologized for invoking Gates’ name.
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