Nithya Raman was one of the curve balls that Mayor Karen Bass didn’t expect for her reelection: hours before a filing deadline, the Los Angeles city councilmember announced her decision to challenge Bass, willing to damage her relationship with the mayor.
Raman told NBC Los Angeles that she decided to run because she has been “very, very frustrated with Los Angeles” as the city was not delivering some of the basic services, such as a broken street light or streets with pot holes.
Despite some calling Raman, a Democratic Socialist, the next Mamdani for the city of Los Angeles, Raman has been trailing Bass and Pratt in the polls.
Who is Nithya Raman?
Raman, born in India, moved to the United States as a child and later earned her degrees at Harvard and MIT.
After moving to Los Angeles, Raman founded SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, a homelessness outreach nonprofit, before entering politics.
She became the first South Asian woman elected to the LA City Council in 2020, defeating an incumbent candidate.
Raman lives in Silver Lake with her movie producer husband and young twins.
What are Nithya Raman’s proposals?
Homelessness is one of the key issues for Raman’s campaign platform. She has already pledged to reduce street homelessness “by at least 50% by the 2028 Olympics.” She also promises to “eliminate long-term encampments.”
Raman has been subtly — or not so subtly — criticizing Bass’ strategies to combat homelessness. The councilmember slammed that the city has spent hundreds of millions of dollars without producing results. Raman claimed on her campaign website under Mayor Bass’ Inside Safe initiative, 40% of people who were moved indoors ended up returning to the streets.
Raman also pledges to cut red tape for permits to build housing in the city and set a deadline for certain construction projects to prevent delays.
And as someone who is married to a Hollywood producer, she may understand the struggles of entertainment employees as the city and the state of California see a declining number of productions. To revive the TV and film industry, Raman promises to create the LA Film Office within the mayor’s purview while expediting permitting process.
Mayor Bass had endorsed Councilmember Raman’s reelection campaign in 2024. Conan Nolan interviews Raman two days after she announced her decision to run.
What are controversies surrounding Raman?
Raman’s seemingly sudden decision to run for LA mayor — after endorsing Bass for reelection — was called political backstabbing by the LA police officers’ union.
She’s also been a target of condemnation by law enforcement as she ran her 2020 city council campaign while using the “defund the police” rhetoric.
Mayor Bass’ campaign slammed Raman for not doing enough to support the TV and film industry and recusing herself from the votes. Raman later explained she had to recuse herself due to a conflict of interest over her husband’s connection to the industry.