Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman ousts embattled Mayor Karen Bass – Spectrum News

Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman ousts embattled Mayor Karen Bass  Spectrum News

Bass becomes the first Los Angeles mayor in two decades to lose a bid for reelection. LOS ANGELES — Nithya Raman, a little-known Los Angeles City Council member backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, has defeated Mayor Karen Bass, an upset that will alter the trajectory of the nation’s second-largest city. The India-born Raman's upstart campaign marked a generational shift at City Hall as voters followed the lead of New York, where democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected last year. Raman, though, never attracted the same level of national attention and stressed her willingness to break with the progressive party at times during the campaign. When she takes office next month, Raman will join the vanguard of democratic socialists in municipal government.

In addition to Mamdani, Janeese Lewis George was elected Tuesday as mayor of Washington, D.C., and Katie Wilson is mayor in Seattle. Asked about the success of democratic socialists in mayoral contests, President Donald Trump said “we’ll see what happens” but warned the impact of the changes they make might be irreversible. “There’ll be a point at which if people are unhappy, they’ll be changed,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “But unfortunately, usually that happens so late that you’ll never be able to bring back a city or a country or a state. You know —