Indian-origin Nithya Raman set to win Los Angeles mayoral race

New York: India-born democratic socialist Nithya Raman is projected to win the Los Angeles mayoral election, defeating incumbent Karen Bass and becoming the first mayor of South Asian descent in the US city’s history.

CNN projected Raman, a Los Angeles City Council member, to defeat Bass in the race to lead the country’s second-largest city.

With her projected victory, New York and Los Angeles, two of America’s largest cities, will be led by Indian-origin politicians, following Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York mayor.

“Raman, a city council member, overtook Republican Spencer Pratt in June’s nonpartisan primary to set up what was arguably a tougher race for Bass, a Democratic former congresswoman,” CNN said, adding that she has vowed to cut street homelessness in half before Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Olympics.

According to the latest vote data reported by The New York Times, Raman had secured 51.7 per cent of the 784,262 votes counted, polling 405,193 ballots against Bass’s 379,069 votes, or 48.3 per cent, with 72 per cent of the votes reported.

Raman, a Kerala-born Los Angeles City Council member representing District 4, is an urban planner by training. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

With Raman nearing the finish line, she could join New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is also of South Asian descent, as the first South Asian mayors of two of the largest cities in the US.

She is also among the several Indian-American candidates in the race for public office in the US midterm elections that concluded Tuesday and delivered a significant rebuke to President Donald Trump and the Republicans, with Democrats gaining control of the House and Senate, flipping seats and traditional party strongholds in a massive blue wave across America.

From Florida’s Pia Dandiya to the first Indian-American to represent Arizona in Congress, Amish Shah, several Indian-origin candidates have registered historic wins in the midterms.