Los Angeles, November 6, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Nithya Raman, a Kerala-born urban planner whose political career has centred on housing and homelessness, has been elected mayor of Los Angeles, becoming the first Asian American to lead the second-largest city in the United States.
Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass conceded defeat on Thursday after NBC News projected Raman as the winner. Late results showed Raman securing around 53 per cent of the vote against Bass’ 47 per cent, with approximately 874,000 ballots counted. The result remains unofficial.
“I have called Councilmember Nithya Raman to congratulate her on her victory, and I have committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition,” Bass said in a statement.
Raman, 45, is scheduled to take office in December. Addressing supporters at the Original Farmers Market, she described her victory as particularly significant in a country shaped by immigration.
“The idea that Angelenos voted for an immigrant to be their next mayor at this moment in American history is so deeply moving to me,” she said.
Born in Thrissur in 1981, Raman spent part of her early childhood in Thiruvananthapuram before moving to the United States at around six. Her father, Venkitaraman, worked at KELTRON, while her mother, Sudha Kechery, was employed in banking. She became a naturalised US citizen at 22.
Her interest in housing insecurity and urban governance developed during her education at Harvard University, where she studied Social Studies and participated in a programme offering interest-free loans to tenants facing eviction. She later earned a graduate degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
India also played a significant role in shaping her professional priorities. Raman worked with organisations in Delhi focused on preventing evictions and securing basic services for slum residents. After MIT, she returned to India and established Transparent Chennai, a civic-data initiative examining urban infrastructure and public services.
She moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and worked in the City Administrative Officer’s office, examining municipal spending on homelessness. In 2017, she co-founded the SELAH Neighbourhood Homeless Coalition and subsequently led Time’s Up Entertainment.
Raman entered the Los Angeles City Council in 2020 after defeating incumbent David Ryu, becoming the first challenger in 17 years to unseat a sitting council member. During her tenure, she backed stronger renter protections, including measures extending safeguards against eviction without specific cause to approximately 400,000 additional rental units.
She also supported reducing annual rent-increase limits for rent-stabilised apartments from 3–8 per cent to 1–4 per cent, depending on inflation.
Her record on homelessness, however, became a major point of contention during the mayoral campaign. Critics questioned the pace of implementation of her rental-voucher programme, which had housed only three of its targeted 600 households by July 1, before the number rose to 54 by August 13, according to figures reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Raman defended her approach as an exercise in oversight and accountability, while citing a decline in street homelessness in her council district.
Her campaign also faced opposition from the Los Angeles police union, which spent more than $5 million opposing her candidacy, according to campaign finance records cited by The 19th.
Raman’s victory now places her in charge of a city facing substantial housing and homelessness challenges, with preparations for the 2028 Summer Olympics adding to the demands on its administration. She has also acknowledged the tight transition timeline, describing it as one of the shortest for a city of Los Angeles’ size.
FOLLOW NOW
