Nithya Raman, a democratic socialist, ousted Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a race that the Associated Press called on Thursday afternoon, well after ballots closed on Nov. 3 in the city.
With 76% of votes counted, Raman, a City Council member, had 429,450 votes, or 52.1%, to 394,796 (47.9%) for Bass, according to the AP. Bass conceded the race and said that it was an honor to serve as the first black female mayor of the city.
The mayor-elect said at a Sept. 29 forum at the Skirball Cultural Center that the movement to boycott Israel was a “legitimate form of peaceful protest” and defended accusing the Jewish state of “genocide” and appearing on the show of antisemitic streamer Hasan Piker.
Bass said at the same event that it is wrong to say that Israel is guilty of “genocide” and that she opposes the movement to boycott the Jewish state.
Jewish Federation Los Angeles and 35 Jewish groups and congregations in the city congratulated Raman on Thursday and “called on her to rebuild trust with Jewish Angelenos that was strained during the campaign, starting with proactive steps against antisemitism.”
The groups noted that she had accused Israel of “genocide” and had an “ambiguous position on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement,” which they said “call into question how she will prioritize the Jewish community’s most pressing concerns.”
“Our community cannot accept continued rhetoric that harms Jews,” stated Rabbi Noah Farkas, president and CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles. “As mayor-elect, she has both an opportunity and a responsibility to address these issues through meaningful engagement and clear commitments.”
“Mayor-elect Raman will take office at a moment when our community is experiencing an unprecedented level of antisemitism,” Farkas stated. “At the Jewish Los Angeles Mayoral Forum in September, she said every Angeleno deserves to feel safe, including Jewish and Israeli-Americans. We call on her to fulfill that commitment.”
Darby Levin, a Democratic political strategist, questioned if Raman’s victory is a sign of a “progressive push” or a referendum on Bass, “who hasn’t met expectations.”
“You’ve got what went on with the fire, and the response to the fire has been underwhelming at best,” Levin, president of Integrated Political Strategies, told JNS of the January 2025 Palisades Fire.
“People are saying that the party, traditionally, is not doing well, that they haven’t been able to stop Trump’s assault on civil rights and civil liberties,” he said. “You have ICE raids on the streets where people in Los Angeles, in particular, feel vulnerable, and they don’t feel like their local government is stepping up and protecting them.”
Levin told JNS that “everybody is looking for these things to be referendums on a bigger picture, but they’re not paying attention to the micro of it and the candidates themselves.”
Voters are saying that “you guys just aren’t doing the job” and don’t want to elect a Republican, according to Levin. They want to “give a different brand of Democrat a chance, and it happens to be this different brand of Democrat is the DSA,” he said.
At an American Friends of Magen David Adom event at a private residence in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Wednesday evening, long before the Associated Press called the race for Raman but when it seemed likely she would win, attendees talked about the race.
“Having her elected is almost like giving permission for people to hate Jews, and that’s a very scary thing,” Tanya Tsikanovsky, a Republican and Zionist, told JNS, of Raman.
“We’re going to see an infinite amount of homeless encampments and horrible policies, and I think the antisemitism especially is going to only increase,” said Tsikanovsky, who ran unsuccessfully for the West Hollywood City Council this cycle.
Rabbi Pini Dunner, senior rabbi of Young Israel of North Beverly Hills, a Modern Orthodox congregation, told JNS that Raman is clearly “an antisemite.”
“She may not admit to it, but she is someone who has no consideration for the feelings of Jews when it comes to Israel,” he told JNS at the American Friends of Magen David Adom event.
“She’s joined the very extreme elements of the progressive movement in its way of dealing with the issues of Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza, the war in Iran,” the rabbi said. “Everything is about pleasing her crowd, not about dealing with the real issues at hand.”
Dunner thinks that Raman will do a “dreadful job” as mayor. “It’s going to be to the detriment of all of us and of California,” he told JNS.
The mayor-elect is likely to focus only on “progressive virtue signaling politics,” which means that she will probably ignore the “crisis” of homeless people and “huge” budgetary issues, according to Dunner.
“There’s corruption that’s going to be overlooked. There’s crime that’s not going to be dealt with,” he told JNS. “The focus is going to be on things which are going to grab headlines, not which are going to solve the problems which are facing the average person living in this city.”
Mitchell Schwartz, who has worked on Democratic presidential and Senate campaigns, told JNS that he’s not scared of Raman as mayor. Schwartz, who founded the nonprofit Jewish Solar Challenge, also thinks that Jews shouldn’t worry, even though she used the “g-word.”
“She did say ‘genocide,’ but I imagine she’ll stick to local issues. I can’t imagine her getting involved in Israel or things like that,” he said. “I certainly hope not.”
“She’s not Mamdani,” he said, of the New York City mayor who campaigned on arresting the Israeli prime minister. “I don’t believe she’s anti-Israel, but I do think she mouths some of the more silly things coming out of the Democratic Socialists of America.”
Schwartz thinks that the result of the mayoral election has more to do with Bass losing than with Raman winning.
“It’s always usually about the incumbent, and people just thought she didn’t do a good job and were willing to take a chance,” he told JNS.
None of Raman’s colleagues on the City Council endorsed her, and she had “very little political support, Schwartz noted. “It is a repudiation of the political elite in this city,” he told JNS.
‘Trend can’t continue’
Levin, the Democratic strategist, noted the results in California’s 34th Congressional District, where Angela Gonzales-Torres, a democratic socialist and academic counselor at Pasadena City College, unseated Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) with 59.7% of the vote, as an example of what he thinks was more of a referendum on the incumbent.
Gonzales-Torres’s campaign website states that “one of the most horrifying atrocities actively happening right now is the genocide in Gaza that the Israeli military is only able to commit with the financial and political support of the U.S. government.”
The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating Gomez for alleged sexual misconduct with an unnamed House staffer. The woman’s attorneys allege that Gomez sexually harassed and assaulted her. The congressman stated that he “made personal mistakes outside my marriage” and “my actions were consensual in nature.”
Levin questioned if Gonzales-Torres’s victory is “really a reflection on a national mood” or “a referendum on some really bad behavior.”
“You see this DSA candidate beat a traditional Democrat, and people go, ‘See, look at the baggage that Jimmy’s carrying,’” he said. (The Democratic Socialists of America backed Gonzales-Torres.)
“This is more about the candidates and their failures than it is the party’s failure,” he told JNS. “But easily, you could look at it and say, ‘Well, this is a party thing, because the party hasn’t been putting up quality candidates or holding their candidates to a standard that they should.’”
Levin thinks that the election results in California should “raise a lot of awareness” in the Jewish community, which needs to figure out “how to navigate this very tricky time where you do see folks who are not pro-Israel, who are pro-Palestine, are being put into these positions.”
“This trend can’t continue,” he said.
