Los Angeles 'Mamdani' Nithya Raman launches mayoral bid against Karen Bass

Nithya Raman, a progressive politician who has been compared to socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, launched a last-minute bid to primary LA Mayor Karen Bass on Saturday, filing the paperwork just hours before the deadline. 

Just three hours before the deadline, Raman, who was at one time an ally to Bass, launched her mayoral bid. “Los Angeles is at a breaking point, and people feel it in the most basic ways,” she told the LA Times. Although Raman has dubbed Bass an "icon" previously, she wants to see change. 

“I have deep respect for Mayor Bass. We’ve worked closely together on my biggest priorities and her biggest priorities, and there’s significant alignment there,” Raman, who lives in Silver Lake, told The Times earlier in the day. “But over the last few months in particular, I’ve really begun to feel like unless we have some big changes in how we do things in Los Angeles, that the things we count on are not going to function anymore.”

Raman has not previously been critical of Bass over the Palisades fires, a common talking point for politicians in the city, but that changed on Saturday, when she said that LA needs a mayor who will “prepare for emergencies before they happen.”

Raman, like Mamdani, has the support of the Democratic Socialists of America, the far-left organization that helped Mamdani get elected in New York. Raman also has ties to YIMBY activist organizations, which push for increased housing.

A spokesman for Bass responded in a statement, "The last thing Los Angeles needs is a politician who opposed cleaning up homeless encampments and efforts to make our city safer. Mayor Bass will continue changing L.A. by building on her track record delivering L.A.‘s first sustained decrease in street homelessness, a 60-year low in homicides, and the most aggressive agenda our city has ever seen to make our city more affordable."