More than five years ago, Nithya Raman made history as the first candidate backed by the Democratic Socialists of America to win a City Council seat in Los Angeles, ushering in a wave of other progressive candidates who pushed the council to the left.<\/p>\n
Now, her surprising last-minute entry into the L.A. mayor\u2019s race is prompting inevitable comparisons to Zohran Mamdani, another DSA-backed politician who recently was elected mayor of New York City.<\/p>\n
But Raman\u2019s record as a City Council member hasn\u2019t always aligned with the far left.<\/p>\n
In fact, her stances on issues such as homelessness, transportation and protecting immigrants from the Trump administration are similar to those of her opponent and former ally, Mayor Karen Bass.<\/p>\n
As her campaign moves forward, Raman will have to differentiate herself from Bass \u2014 as well as address the narrative that she betrayed Bass, who offered an important boost to her reelection campaign in 2024.<\/p>\n
On housing, Raman has at times angered progressives<\/a> by aligning with the YIMBY movement, which has pushed for the city to boost housing production and rewrite Measure ULA, the so-called mansion tax, which applies to property sales of $5.3 million or more.<\/p>\n In an interview Monday, she portrayed herself as not beholden to any special interest groups.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I\u2019m a YIMBY,\u201d Raman said, referring to the pro-housing \u201cYes in My Backyard\u201d acronym. \u201cI\u2019m a DSA-endorsed \u2014 multiple times \u2014 candidate.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I feel like I have demonstrated over and over again that my decision-making has been independent. … I stand up and talk about policy change, even when it alienates my allies.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike some other local politicians and mayoral candidates, Raman had not publicly criticized Bass about the Palisades fire. But after filing her candidate paperwork Saturday, she told reporters the city needs a mayor who will \u201cprepare for emergencies before they happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Raman, 44, who lives in Silver Lake and is married with two young children, was born in India and came to the U.S. at age 6. She graduated from Harvard University and earned a master\u2019s degree in urban planning from MIT.<\/p>\n In 2020, she was a leader of Time\u2019s Up, an anti-harassment group born after the #MeToo movement, when she launched a bid to represent a City Council district that stretches from Silver Lake to Sherman Oaks. <\/p>\n Her victory over David Ryu was the first time in 17 years that a challenger ousted a City Council incumbent.<\/p>\n Other progressive candidates followed suit and ran for office. Today, on a 15-seat City Council, Raman is one of four DSA-backed members who have championed policies in favor of renters and pushed back against spending on the Police Department.<\/p>\n But Raman\u2019s late entry into the race, hours before Saturday\u2019s filing deadline, could make it harder for her to amass support and funding.<\/p>\n On Monday, nine of Raman\u2019s City Council colleagues reiterated their endorsements of Bass\u2019 reelection. Raman herself had endorsed Bass.<\/p>\n Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez, one of the DSA-backed council members, said in a statement, \u201cWhile I recognize Nithya\u2019s contributions to the city, I was caught off-guard by her last-minute maneuver, and I continue to strongly support Mayor Bass. Even when we disagree, I\u2019ve never doubted Mayor Bass and her long-standing commitment to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Bass said in a statement: \u201cI\u2019m honored to have the support of these city leaders, and I look forward to continuing working with them to save lives through unprecedented reforms that have resulted in historic drops in both street homelessness and crime.\u201d<\/p>\n Raman, who chairs the council\u2019s Housing and Homelessness committee, has championed some traditionally progressive measures, such as just-cause eviction protections<\/a> and strengthening the city\u2019s rent stabilization ordinance.<\/a> <\/p>\n Under legislation backed by Raman, landlords no longer can evict tenants from any rental property, including single-family homes, unless there is unpaid rent, documented lease violations, owner move-ins or other specific reasons.<\/p>\n Such protections already existed in rent-stabilized units, and making them universal included an additional 400,000 units, according to the city.<\/p>\n