Nithya Raman, mayor-elect of Los Angeles, held back tears as the enormity of her victory began to sink in. Raman’s victory means that three of the world’s most influential cities – New York, Los Angeles and London – will now be led by individuals of South Asian descent. A democratic socialist, she also gives the progressive movement another leader in a major US city, after New York and Washington, DC.
The result came amid a dominant showing by Democrats in US midterm elections, in which the party wrested control of both chambers of Congress and scored its biggest landslide victory in half a century. Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which backed Raman’s campaign, also claimed an impressive series of wins, with 105 of its endorsed candidates on track to secure elected office, according to the group. For Raman, the victory provides a bigger platform to address central planks of her political vision for the US’s second-largest city, including tackling its longstanding homelessness crisis and expanding affordable housing.
The Asian Democrats of Los Angeles County (ADLAC) congratulated Raman on becoming the first Asian-American elected to lead Los Angeles and said it looked forward to working with her to “deliver for our communities”. She studied at Harvard University before earning a master’s degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After completing her studies, Raman moved back to India and launched an initiative to improve urban governance in the southern city of Chennai.
In 2013, she moved to Los Angeles, where she co-founded a nonprofit organisation to support people experiencing homelessness. The organisation, SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, stresses that unhoused people are “fellow members of our community worthy of the same dignity, respect and representation afforded to any housed person”. Raman also spent a year as entertainment director of Time’s Up, an organisation founded by Hollywood figures to raise money for legal support for victims of sexual harassment.
Her foray into politics came in 2019, when she shocked Los Angeles’s political establishment by defeating incumbent city councilman David Ryu and becoming the first DSA-backed candidate elected to the council. She credited a major grassroots organising drive for that victory. Raman’s run for mayor this year came as another surprise to the local political scene, as most Democratic Party leadership stuck with incumbent mayor Karen Bass.
Raman entered the race at the 11th hour, reversing her earlier endorsement of one-time ally Bass. She said Los Angeles had reached a “breaking point” and was “no longer a place of opportunity for too many”. Bass was endorsed by prominent Democrats such as California Governor Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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