Nithya Raman widened her lead over Karen Bass on Wednesday in the Los Angeles mayor’s race — but with only a tiny four percent of the vote counted.
The Democrat Socialists of America-endorsed councilmember pulled a touch further ahead of Bass at 4pm Tuesday, as late-counted inched the ultra progressive challenger closer towards an upset over the incumbent.
The latest Los Angeles County election returns showed Raman with 405,193 votes, or 51.67%, compared with Bass’s 379,069 votes, or 48.33%, a 26,124 vote advantage that further erased the incumbent’s narrow election-night lead.
There is now 67% of the vote counted. At 3am Wednesday, Raman was at 377,458 and Bass was at 360,864, a difference of 18,205 votes, with 63% of the vote counted.
Veteran California political strategist Dan Schnur told the California Post that Raman’s strength with younger voters could make the growing deficit particularly difficult for Bass to overcome.
“Nothing is definite, but because Raman’s voters tend to cast their ballots later, their votes will likely be among the last to be counted,” Schnur, who teaches at USC and UC Berkeley, told The Post.
“So while nothing is guaranteed, she’s probably in a very strong and advantageous position at this point.”
The shift mirrors Raman’s performance in the June primary, when she moved ahead of reality television star Spencer Pratt as more ballots were counted, securing her place in the November contest against Bass.
“Young people vote late, so their votes get counted last,” Schnur explained. “And in a system like California’s, that means we don’t see those results until well after Election Day.”
A Raman victory would represent a major breakthrough for DSA-LA, which endorsed her only in September and could see the left-wing organization move to the center of power in the nation’s second-largest city.
Raman, 45, first entered City Hall in 2020 with DSA backing, defeating incumbent Councilman David Ryu.
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She won re-election in 2024 and has since emerged as a leading figure in Los Angeles’ progressive movement.
But Schnur said Raman’s rise has highlighted a sharp ideological divide between generations across Los Angeles.
“It’s almost as if they were running to be mayor of two different cities,” he told The Post.
“Bass did well with 20th-century Los Angeles, but Raman did well with 21st-century LA.”
Raman has appealed to energized younger voters frustrated by soaring housing costs and diminishing opportunities, while Bass relied heavily on older residents and the city’s political establishment.
“Young people don’t see the kinds of prospects available to them that their parents and grandparents saw,” Schnur said.
“Raman spoke to them in a way that an older candidate didn’t.”
Bass and political action committees supporting her spent the campaign’s final weeks portraying Raman as an inexperienced gamble, targeting her record on homeless encampments and her pledge to replace LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell.
The attacks came as the race tightened. A final UC Berkeley survey showed the candidates tied at 40%, after Raman held an 11-point lead in September.
“If Raman is elected, the overriding message from voters is that they were willing to take a risk,” Schnur told The Post.
Raman is not the only DSA-backed candidate on the verge of winning a powerful Los Angeles city office.
Marissa Roy, the socialist organization’s endorsed candidate for city attorney, has built a commanding 223,000-vote lead over John McKinney, putting her within reach of taking over the city’s top legal post.
