Los Angeles has had mayors for well over a century. It had never had one like Nithya Raman. Born in Kerala, raised in the United States from the age of six, she entered the mayoral race at the last minute — hours before the nomination deadline, despite having endorsed incumbent Karen Bass for re-election weeks earlier — and on 5 November she beat that same incumbent to become the city’s first Asian-American mayor. It is a first for Los Angeles, a first for the Indian diaspora, and, alongside Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York, a moment when two of America’s biggest cities are now led by Indian-origin mayors.
The result
Nithya V Raman defeated incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayoral election, with the win projected on 5 November. The official LA County Registrar figures put Raman at 51.67%, with 405,193 votes, against Bass at 48.33%, with 379,069 votes. Decision Desk HQ’s projection had cited 51.1% — that figure is a projection; the 51.67% figure is the county count, and it is the one used here.
She is LA’s first Asian-American mayor and the first South Asian woman to lead the city, and only the second woman to hold the city’s top office. She entered the race at the last minute, hours before the nomination deadline, despite having endorsed Bass for re-election weeks earlier — a detail that makes the scale of the upset harder to overstate.
From Kerala to Los Angeles
Raman was born on 28 July 1981 in Kerala — she is 45 — and moved to the United States aged 6. She studied Social Studies at Harvard and took a master’s degree in Urban Planning at MIT, before working as an urban planner.
She was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2020, defeating David Ryu — becoming the first South Asian and the first Asian-American woman on the council, and the first challenger in 17 years to unseat a sitting councillor. She was re-elected in 2024.
She is associated with the Democratic Socialists of America, and has been compared with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Her key issues in the campaign were housing affordability, homelessness, public safety and city services.
Why it matters in India
For readers in India, and especially in Kerala, the story lands differently than a routine American election result. Raman’s win comes on the same night that Indian-origin candidates made history across the United States — and it means two of America’s largest cities, New York and Los Angeles, now have Indian-origin mayors.
That is not a policy outcome; it is a representation one. But representation is the part of this story that travels furthest. A woman born in Kerala, who arrived in America as a six-year-old, now leads a city of nearly four million people — and she got there by beating an incumbent mayor, not by inheriting an open seat.
What she does with the office — on housing, on homelessness, on the day-to-day services Angelenos judge a mayor by — is the next chapter, and it will be written in Los Angeles, not in Kerala. The first chapter, though, is already history.
Who is Nithya Raman?
Kerala-born Nithya V Raman, 45, an urban planner and LA City Council member since 2020, who beat incumbent Karen Bass to become mayor of Los Angeles.
What were the vote figures?
Per the LA County Registrar: Raman 51.67% (405,193 votes) to Bass 48.33% (379,069 votes).
What firsts does her win mark?
She is LA’s first Asian-American mayor, the first South Asian woman to lead the city, and only the second woman to hold the office.