{"id":322827,"date":"2026-05-19T13:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/322827\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T13:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T13:04:08","slug":"city-council-progressives-snub-raman-endorse-bass-in-l-a-mayors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/322827\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council progressives snub Raman, endorse Bass in L.A. mayor’s race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three members of the Los Angeles City Council\u2019s progressive bloc<\/a> are throwing their support to Mayor Karen Bass in her bid for reelection, dealing a blow to challenger Nithya Raman, their progressive ally on the council. <\/p>\n

The council members endorsing Bass \u2014 Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez \u2014 are all members of the Democratic Socialists of America, as is Raman. The four routinely cast dissenting council votes on increased police spending and creation of new anti-encampment zones in the city. <\/p>\n

Hernandez and Jurado planned to announce their endorsements of Bass on Tuesday, with each citing Bass\u2019 handling of the Trump administration\u2019s immigration raids<\/a> over the summer and her work to reduce homelessness<\/a> as significant reasons for their support of the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen immigrant communities across our city came under attack, Karen Bass stood up and spoke out. She showed real leadership and conviction,\u201d Hernandez, who represents a district running from Pico-Union to Highland Park, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Soto-Mart\u00ednez, who endorsed Bass earlier this year<\/a>, joined his DSA colleagues with a statement saying he was caught off-guard by Raman\u2019s surprise decision to challenge Bass, which she announced just before the filing period closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when we disagree, I\u2019ve never doubted Mayor Bass and her long-standing commitment to the community,\u201d Soto-Mart\u00ednez said. <\/p>\n

Raman herself endorsed the mayor\u2019s reelection bid<\/a> two weeks before jumping into the race. Raman said later that her endorsement of the mayor actually came months before it was officially announced.<\/p>\n

Despite being part of the progressive bloc, Raman has tacked more centrist as she runs for citywide office. She now states that that the LAPD should maintain its current sworn officer strength, and said that if elected mayor she wouldn\u2019t block council members from enacting anti-encampment zones in their districts. Previously Raman has sometimes voted against hiring officers and even posted \u201cDefund the police\u201d on X during her first council run.<\/p>\n

She has voted repeatedly against implementing anti-encampment zones during her time on council, saying it just moves the problem somewhere else.<\/p>\n

But she has also promised reforms often considered progressive, such as allowing denser buildings in single-family neighborhoods, releasing a strong climate plan, and calling for the ouster of Bass\u2019 police chief, Jim McDonnell, in favor of a chief committed to protecting immigrants, according to her website. <\/p>\n

Analysts said Tuesday\u2019s planned endorsements are aimed at denting Raman\u2019s appeal to progressives. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major blow to Councilwoman Nithya Raman,\u201d said Mike Trujillo, a Democratic consultant in Los Angeles. \u201cIf the people that sit inches from her are rejecting her candidacy, that should speak volumes to every other voter in the city.\u201d <\/p>\n

Polls show Bass leading all candidates in the June 2 primary, but without the majority support to win outright. That would set up an expected Nov. 3 runoff against Raman or former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, who are running neck-and-neck for a second-place finish. <\/p>\n

Raman didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment on the endorsement. <\/p>\n

Raman has suggested that Bass is seeking to knock her out in the primary because the mayor would prefer to face Pratt in a potential Nov. 3 runoff. Although the race is nonpartisan, Pratt is a Republican in a city where GOP registration is not quite 15%.<\/p>\n

Bass has denied she would rather face Pratt<\/a> than Raman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he is preferable as a competitor. I don\u2019t want any competitors, how about that?\u201d the mayor said during a one-on-one debate with Raman at the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. <\/p>\n

The support for the mayor from the progressive bloc highlighted the fractured nature of the city\u2019s left-leaning voters this cycle.<\/p>\n

Despite making six endorsements in other local races, DSA declined to endorse in the mayoral race in which two candidates \u2014 Raman and community organizer Rae Huang \u2014 are both dues-paying members of the left-wing group. DSA instead said it \u201crecommended\u201d voting for Raman, falling short of a formal endorsement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe progressive electorate is still dancing between Raman and Rae,\u201d said Mike Bonin, a former progressive L.A. City Councilmember who now leads the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA.<\/p>\n

Bass\u2019 announcements of the endorsements is \u201can attempt to chip away at Nithya,\u201d Bonin said, though he added that endorsements for someone with Bass\u2019 level of name recognition are not of utmost important, as voters are already very familiar with her.<\/p>\n

Zev Yaroslavsky, another former L.A. council member who now leads the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, said the endorsements might have less to do with political ideology and more to do with council members wanting to maintain working relationships with the mayor, who is polling ahead of Raman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are people who have worked with Bass and have gotten things from the mayor\u2019s administration and want to keep that going,\u201d Yaroslavsky said.<\/p>\n

Still, the endorsements from the council\u2019s progressive members could reap benefits come election day, Yaroslavsky said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese endorsements give Bass some credibility among a segment of the electorate that might not have necessarily been for her,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three members of the Los Angeles City Council\u2019s progressive bloc are throwing their support to Mayor Karen Bass…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[12858,1610,134485,26686,45533,49479,64873,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,134482,134484,134483,2211,32081,4190,117857],"class_list":["post-322827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bass","tag-city-council","tag-dsa-colleague","tag-endorsement","tag-eunisses-hernandez","tag-hugo-soto-martinez","tag-l-a-mayor","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-new-anti-encampment-zone","tag-other-voter","tag-progressive-bloc","tag-race","tag-raman","tag-support","tag-zev-yaroslavsky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}