Raman overtakes Pratt in Los Angeles mayoral primary count

Nithya Raman’s move into second place in Los Angeles’ mayoral primary turned the race into a blunt test of what the city wants now: a candidate with policy credentials, or one with a famous name. With 83.2% of the expected vote counted, Raman held 196,198 votes, or 27.12%, edging Spencer Pratt’s 193,085 votes, or 26.69%, while Mayor Karen Bass led with 250,871 votes, or 34.68%.

The latest tally from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk left the contest unresolved, but it made the stakes clearer. Los Angeles uses an all-party primary system in which the top two finishers advance to a runoff if no one wins a majority, and NBC News projected that Bass would move on to the November runoff. Raman’s 3,113-vote advantage over Pratt came after she was in third place on election night, then narrowed the gap over Friday and Saturday before overtaking him on Sunday.

The result carries unusual political weight in a city where Bass, a former member of Congress, was first elected mayor in 2022 after defeating developer Rick Caruso in an expensive race. NBC Los Angeles reported that this was the first time in 21 years that a sitting Los Angeles mayor would not receive a majority of the vote in the primary, a striking marker of how unsettled the electorate has become.

Bass has been pressed on homelessness, public safety and Los Angeles’ response to last year’s destructive wildfires, while Raman has campaigned to Bass’s left on housing affordability, homelessness and red tape. Raman said she entered the race because she was frustrated that Los Angeles was failing at basic city services. She has pledged to cut street homelessness by at least 50% by the 2028 Olympics, eliminate long-term encampments, streamline housing permits and create an LA Film Office.

Raman’s profile gives that argument unusual force. She was born in India, studied at Harvard and MIT, founded the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition before entering politics and became the first South Asian woman elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2020. Her campaign has tried to turn those credentials into proof that governance competence, not celebrity, is what voters are rewarding.

Pratt, a former reality TV star and Republican, brought his own kind of attention to the race, especially after Donald Trump publicly expressed support for him. But Bass’s campaign was already framing Raman as the mayor’s “general election opponent,” a sign that the city’s political center of gravity may be shifting toward substance, not spectacle, as the runoff takes shape.