New York has a socialist mayor. Los Angeles may be next
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Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman speaking at Axios/Noticias Telemundo Visionarios on Sept. 30. Photo: Ben Camacho for Axios
LOS ANGELES — Voters could make history next month by giving the two largest U.S. cities something in common: South Asian immigrant democratic socialist mayors.
Why it matters: Such a pairing would capture two forces reshaping urban America — its growing diversity and the Democratic Party's shifting ideological boundaries.
- New York, the nation's largest city, is already led by democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
- The challenger in Los Angeles is Nithya Raman, an Indian-born urban planner and two-term City Council member who is trying to unseat Democratic Mayor Karen Bass on Nov. 3.
- Bass, elected in 2022, is the first woman to serve as mayor of Los Angeles.
State of play: Raman became the first Asian American woman and first South Asian elected to the L.A. City Council in 2020.
- A Harvard and MIT graduate, she entered politics after working on homelessness and neighborhood organizing.
- A September Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll found Raman at 39% among likely voters, Bass at 28% and 33% undecided.
The intrigue: The Berkeley poll had Raman ahead 66%-4% among likely voters under 30, while 56% rated Bass' response to the Palisades Fire poor or very poor.
- It also found an even wider gap among likely Latino voters: Raman led Bass 45%-21%, with 34% undecided.
What they're saying: "I'm getting a little emotional thinking about it," Raman told Axios and Noticias Telemundo on Wednesday at Visionarios when asked what it would mean if she and Mamdani led the country's two largest cities.
- Raman, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child, said her family came to America seeking opportunities they didn't have in India.
- She contrasted the welcome her family received with what she sees as a harsher moment for immigrants today under the Trump administration.
- "The idea of this city welcoming an immigrant as its mayor ... is just so deeply moving to me at this moment."
The other side: Bass strategist Julie Chavez Rodriguez told Axios and Noticias Telemundo that voters are talking about rent, affordable housing, public safety and whether they can afford to raise families in Los Angeles.
- Rodriguez credited Bass with accelerating nearly 47,000 affordable housing units, a figure also cited by the mayor's office for units in the city's pipeline.
- She also defended Bass' response to federal immigration raids, pointing to lawsuits and restrictions on using city property to assist immigration enforcement.
Zoom in: Raman's version of democratic socialism sounds less revolutionary than municipal.
- She told Axios that Americans are pushing back against an establishment they believe favors wealthy and politically connected interests.
- Her alternative: make City Hall deliver basic services and prove government can work for ordinary people.
- Raman called it "sewer socialism" or "pothole politics," adding: "I just want government to work for the people."
Zoom out: Mamdani has made a similar ideological bet in New York, declaring at his inauguration that he was elected as a democratic socialist and would govern as one.
Yes, but: Raman isn't simply the West Coast version of Mamdani.
- She calls herself an independent leader and has repeatedly split with Democratic Socialists of America-LA — accepting a pro-Israel group's endorsement that earned her a DSA censure.
- She also backed Jim McDonnell for LAPD chief over the group's objections and sought changes to L.A.'s voter-approved mansion tax that housing activists opposed.
