Los Angeles is getting a new mayor — and the way it happened is political drama for the ages. City Councilmember Nithya Raman has defeated Mayor Karen Bass in the 2026 mayoral election, and on Thursday Bass conceded, ending her tenure as the city’s first Black woman mayor after a single term.
The latest figures released Thursday afternoon by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder showed Raman with 460,772 votes, or 52.7%, to Bass’s 413,519 votes, or 47.3% — a lead that kept growing with every new batch of ballots counted. The race was called Thursday afternoon, and just before midday Bass made it official with a concession statement. “While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken,” Bass said. “I have called Council member Nithya Raman to congratulate her on her victory, and I have committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition.”
Here’s the twist nobody in Los Angeles politics will ever forget: at the start of this year, Raman endorsed Bass for a second term. Then, on February 7 — just hours before the filing deadline — she filed papers to run against her. Bass admitted she was “flabbergasted.” Raman called her own bid a long shot, then knocked reality TV personality Spencer Pratt out in the June primary and kept climbing until she stood toe-to-toe with the mayor in November.
Raman, 45, is an urban planner born in India and educated at MIT and Harvard who joined the City Council in 2020. Backed by the Democratic Socialists of America and running on housing affordability and homelessness, she becomes the first challenger to unseat a sitting Los Angeles mayor since 2005 — and the city’s first Indian American mayor. Bass, 73, a former six-term congresswoman once on a presidential vice-presidential shortlist, had the full weight of the party establishment behind her, including endorsements from California’s governor and a former vice president. It wasn’t enough.
In her farewell message to supporters, Bass — who made history in 2022 as the first woman and first Black woman elected mayor of Los Angeles — kept it gracious: “Serving as your mayor has been the honor of my life.” She now hands Raman a city facing a homelessness crisis, soaring housing costs, and the countdown to the 2028 Summer Olympics. A new era in Los Angeles starts now.
Source: Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk results and statements from both campaigns, Nov 5, 2026
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