The L.A. mayor race has taken a dramatic turn, with progressive Democrat Nithya Raman edging out a celebrity Republican to secure the second runoff slot against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. The contest, called by The Associated Press on Monday, now guarantees Los Angeles its first runoff involving a sitting mayor in two decades.

A Late Comeback That Changed Everything

Raman, a 44-year-old City Council member, didn’t look like a contender when the first results rolled in. She trailed early, but the slow drip of mail-in ballots told a different story by the weekend. As more votes were tallied, she pulled ahead of Spencer Pratt, the reality TV personality and Republican who had lost his Pacific Palisades home in the devastating 2025 wildfires.

Because so many Californians vote by mail, counting often stretches on for days or even weeks. That delay proved decisive here. Pratt had surged to an early lead, helped by Republican voters rallying around him in a city where they make up only about 15 percent of the electorate. But once ballots from late-deciding liberals were processed, his advantage melted away.

When Los Angeles County refreshed its totals on Monday, the standings looked like this:

• Karen Bass led overall with 34.3 percent
• Nithya Raman followed with 28.5 percent
• Spencer Pratt dropped to 25.8 percent

Bass could have avoided a runoff entirely by clinching a majority in this nonpartisan election. Falling short of that mark is a real setback, marking the first time since 2005 that an incumbent L.A. mayor has been forced into a second round.

A Clash Between Generations

This November matchup is shaping up to be more than a personality contest. It pits the center-left Democratic establishment that has steered the city for years against a younger, restless wave of progressives. Many of them argue that decades of housing decisions made by older leaders have effectively shut them out of the city they grew up in.

Analysts note that general election turnout tends to be larger and tilts more progressive than the primary electorate, a dynamic that could work in Raman’s favor. Polls suggest she has energized younger voters and that a one-on-one race against the 72-year-old Bass will be far from easy for the incumbent.

Civic leader Zev Yaroslavsky, who directs the Los Angeles Initiative at UCLA’s Luskin School, framed the stakes plainly. He said Bass will need to keep her liberal base intact while also winning over moderates and conservatives who didn’t back her in the primary. The race, he suggested, will reveal just how progressive the city has truly become.

The Pratt Phenomenon and Its Limits

Pratt’s campaign was loud, online, and impossible to ignore. He launched his bid on the anniversary of the Palisades fire, tapping into the frustration of neighbors who had lost everything. His broadsides against California’s Democratic leadership drew national attention and millions in donations.

Yet his Republican registration was a heavy weight in such a liberal city. He even earned public praise from President Trump, a mixed blessing at best in Los Angeles. As his lead slipped, Pratt suggested without evidence that homeless residents might have cast fraudulent ballots, while Trump claimed the count was “crooked” and posted about “Rigged Elections!” on social media. Election officials had reported Pratt’s early edge before hundreds of thousands of outstanding ballots were even counted.

Eventually Pratt shifted tone, reminding supporters that Raman’s lead was thin and that certified results were still weeks away.

A City Wrestling With New Anxieties

When Bass won handily in 2022, voters were focused on homelessness and a pandemic-era spike in crime. Since then, the picture has changed. Unsheltered homelessness has declined and homicides have dropped to lows not seen since the 1960s. But fresh worries have moved to the forefront.

Survivors of the Palisades fire are still struggling to rebuild after a disaster that claimed 12 lives and thousands of homes. Many have not forgiven Bass for being abroad when the fire ignited in January 2025. On top of that:

• Federal immigration crackdowns have rattled the city’s large foreign-born population
• The entertainment industry, a signature local employer, is shrinking
• Lawsuits over crumbling streets and sidewalks have drained the budget
• Major events loom, including World Cup matches this year and the 2028 Summer Olympics

A hostile White House has painted the city as corrupt and crime-ridden, even as Los Angeles celebrates new cultural institutions and transit lines.

The Case Each Candidate Is Making

Bass, a grandmother and former physician assistant with deep roots in city politics, is asking voters for a second term to finish rebuilding the Palisades, reduce homelessness, and revive the economy. Most major business and labor groups support her, including a police union that backed her opponent last time. Still, her approval cratered after the fire, especially among white voters on the West Side, and recent polls put her support around 30 percent.

Raman, who holds degrees from Harvard and MIT, argues that the city’s recovery has lagged and that basic services have faltered. She has zeroed in on the affordable housing shortage, backlogged repair requests, police spending, and the mayor’s homelessness program.

A mother of young twins, Raman won her council seat in 2020 with backing from the Democratic Socialists of America. Notably, she had supported many of Bass’s proposals and even endorsed her reelection, jumping into the L.A. mayor race only after Pratt emerged as the leading challenger. In recent months she has nudged some of her housing positions toward the center, even as critics call her inexperienced and too far left.

Bass’s camp, meanwhile, has signaled it welcomes the fight, criticizing Raman’s stance on homeless encampments and police staffing. The next several months will test which vision of Los Angeles voters find more convincing.