Los Angeles elects first democratic socialist mayor

Los Angeles residents voted to replace incumbent Mayor Karen Bass with Nithya Raman, a former city council member and democratic socialist. This outcome places a democratic socialist in the highest executive office of the city for the first time. With this result, the two largest cities in the United States will now be led by mayors who identify with the democratic socialist movement.

Raman’s victory was part of a wider sweep of elections across the city. Voters backed multiple candidates endorsed by the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. Marissa Roy won the race for city attorney, and Angela Gonzales-Torres secured a United States House seat. The organization also recorded wins on local school boards and the Burbank city council. According to the chapter, these results give Burbank the first socialist-majority council on the West Coast.

In the city attorney race, Roy received 67.39 percent of the vote. She has stated her intention to restructure the office into the largest public interest law firm in the city, with a focus on representing working people, immigrants, and renters. In the congressional race, Gonzales-Torres defeated incumbent Jimmy Gomez with 60.6 percent of the vote. Gomez served in Congress for nearly a decade and received support from Aipac, which spent $2.7 million on his campaign. Gonzales-Torres campaigned on the position that the war in Gaza constitutes a genocide enabled by US financial and political support.

The organization credited its success to a large-scale grassroots campaign. Volunteers knocked on more than 110,000 doors during the election season. Anna Gross, a steering member of the Los Angeles chapter, said the results show that residents want an alternative to politicians influenced by corporate interests. She expressed confidence that the new representatives would show what democratic socialist leadership can achieve for the county.

Political analysts pointed to specific local events that shaped voter sentiment. Zev Yaroslavsky, a political analyst at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA, identified the Palisades fire in January 2025 as a key factor. He noted that the fire became a symbol of frustration among many residents. Yaroslavsky argued that without the fire, Raman might not have run for mayor, and Bass might have kept her seat.

The chapter’s influence in local politics has grown in recent years. As of October 2026, the organization counted more than 6,000 members. An additional 2,000 people joined in the week following the election. Raman joined the group in 2019 and won her first council seat in 2020. Since then, three other candidates from the organization have been elected to the 14-member city council, expanding the group’s presence in local government.

Raman’s path to the mayoral nomination involved internal debate within the chapter. She entered the race late, after some affiliated colleagues had already supported Bass. The chapter had censured Raman in 2024 for seeking an endorsement from a Democrats for Israel group. National leaders considered rescinding their support until she clarified her stance on the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. A vote to withdraw support ultimately failed. The chapter publicly celebrated her victory on social media.

Raman acknowledged the challenge of building trust with voters who supported Bass or did not vote. In a statement, she promised to work daily to earn the city’s confidence. She outlined plans for affordable housing, accessible parks, and a reliable transit system. She described a goal of creating a government that can effectively deliver on its promises to working families.