Los Angeles Mayoral Race Heats Up
Left 50%
Center 50%
Right 0%
1 left · 1 center · 0 right
What happened
Los Angeles will hold a mayoral election on November 3 between incumbent Mayor Karen Bass and City Council member Nithya Raman. Bass, a Democrat elected in 2022 as the city's first woman mayor, faces Raman, an Indian-born urban planner who in 2020 became the first Asian American woman and first South Asian elected to the Los Angeles City Council. Raman, a longtime Democratic Socialists of America member, entered the race hours before the filing deadline and advanced from the primary after narrowly finishing ahead of reality-television personality Spencer Pratt. A September Berkeley IGS/Los Angeles Times poll of likely voters put Raman at 39 percent, Bass at 28 percent, and 33 percent undecided. Both campaigns have raised about $2.5 million.
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ONE-SIDED THIS WEEK.
Only left-leaning outlets have covered this story in the last two days;
New York Post reported it on 2026-09-27.
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage frames Los Angeles's mayor's race as a bitter fight between two progressives, lingering on Karen Bass's church stops, her clash with border agents, Nithya Raman's surprise late filing, and a forum split over whether "genocide" describes Gaza. It notes Raman's Democratic Socialists of America endorsement and a volunteer canvassing push aimed at working-class renters. Polls are mentioned only as having Bass behind, sometimes narrowly. That coverage never cites the Berkeley IGS survey putting Raman at 39 percent among likely voters. It also skips her 66 percent support among likely voters under 30. Right-leaning outlets had not covered the contest as of publication, so those readers miss that the second-largest U.S. city could join New York with a democratic socialist mayor.
Would Raman govern as a democratic socialist, or as the independent who backed the LAPD chief and a pro-Israel endorsement her chapter censured?
Bottom line
The Guardian said Bass was trailing only sometimes narrowly, omitting a Berkeley poll that had Raman at 39 percent, and right-leaning outlets have not covered the race.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- A September Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll found Raman at 39 percent among likely voters
- 56 percent rated Bass's response to the Palisades Fire poor or very poor
- Raman led Bass 45 percent to 21 percent among likely Latino voters
- Raman backed Jim McDonnell for LAPD chief over DSA-LA objections
- Bass's team credited her with accelerating nearly 47,000 affordable housing units in the city's pipeline
- DSA-LA censured Raman in 2024 for pursuing a Democrats for Israel endorsement
The Left View
The Guardian frames the race as a bitter contest between two progressives representing clashing wings of the Democratic Party, reporting that Bass has never lost an election but now trails in several polls amid low approval ratings and citywide dissatisfaction. It notes Raman's DSA-LA and Unite Here endorsements, Bass's criticism over the Palisades fire response, and a primary in which Raman beat Pratt by about 3.5 percent after Bass eliminated Pratt from the top two. Axios and NewsNation emphasize that a Raman win would give the two largest U.S. cities South Asian immigrant democratic socialist mayors, following Zohran Mamdani in New York. Axios cites the same Berkeley poll showing Raman ahead 66-4 among likely voters under 30 and 45-21 among Latino likely voters, with 56 percent rating Bass's fire response poor or very poor. Raman has called her approach municipal 'sewer socialism' or 'pothole politics'; Axios also reports she has split with DSA-LA, including a censure over a pro-Israel endorsement, backing Jim McDonnell for LAPD chief, and seeking changes to L.A.'s mansion tax.
Our Take (balanced)
The story is substantive: it is built on named candidates, a set election date, published polling, fundraising totals, primary results, and documented endorsements, not on one party's uncorroborated word. Established facts include the Bass-Raman matchup, Raman's DSA membership and late filing, the September Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times figures, and Raman's recorded disagreements with DSA-LA. Whether she would govern as a socialist in the mold of New York's mayor is a campaign characterization, not a mayoral record. No right-leaning outlet has reported this. Watch for further independent polls, turnout among the large undecided share, campaign-finance filings, and certified results after November 3.
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