The numbers from the June 2 Los Angeles mayoral primary are a useful document. Incumbent mayor Karen Bass received 34.68 percent of the vote. Three in five voters, per CNN, expressed a desire to oust her. She is going to the November runoff anyway because nobody got above 50 percent.
Her opponent in November will be Nithya Raman, a City Council member and Democratic Socialists of America member who received 27.12 percent, edging out Spencer Pratt, the former MTV reality villain who lost his Palisades home in the January 2025 fire and ran a campaign based primarily on calling the city leadership negligent and corrupt. Pratt finished with 26.69 percent. He has not yet conceded. He noted that counting continues until July 6.
Bass’s victory speech included a promise to build 42,000 affordable housing units by the end of her second term, which would be a significant departure from her first term. She noted progress on homelessness, improved streetlights, and public safety investments. She said the city everyone deserves is still achievable.
The city that everyone who voted has is one that had a catastrophic wildfire, a mayor who was reportedly out of the country at the time, allegations of a covered-up after-action report, and an election where the candidate best positioned to survive the night was the one who lost her own party’s left flank to a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
The runoff in November is Karen Bass, the incumbent who was in Africa when the fires started, against Nithya Raman, whose political home is the DSA. These are the two surviving options in America’s second-largest city.
When a sitting mayor wins a primary by alienating three in five voters, and her opponent is a democratic socialist, what does that say about who is left in the tent?
Sources
Breitbart: Bass, Raman Projected Winners in L.A. Mayoral Race as Pratt Falls
