As progressive, left-wing, and pro-Palestine candidate Nithya Raman advances in Los Angeles’s mayoral primary, is this part of a larger trend of a shift to the left in US politics?
For the first few days after the election, Republican candidate Spencer Pratt, endorsed by US President Donald Trump, was in second place in the vote count. On Monday, nearly a week after election day, Raman had sufficiently surpassed him in the count to advance her to the November general election officially.
Raman is one of a growing number of progressives who have seen success with bold messaging, including on Palestinian human rights, that some have dubbed the Mamdani effect, after the election in November of New York City insurgent mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani .
“With the trend that has been happening, it’s not a surprise. It’s the effect of the people. People want change,” Mirvette Judeh, President of the Arab American Caucus of California, told The New Arab .
“The people have spoken. The votes are coming in. I pray she wins in November. People are tired of career politicians,” she said.
Following the announcement that Raman would advance on Monday, she said in a public statement, “For too long, City Hall has prioritised giving political advantage to powerful interests that fund elections. Meanwhile, working people pay the price in higher rents, depleted services, and a city that has stopped working for them.”
California’s primaries, which took place on 2 June, send the top vote-getters to the general election in November, meaning many races have two candidates from one party. In deep-blue Los Angeles, that now means two Democrats, both considered progressives, will be moving forward.
As of late Monday, Raman held 28.5 per cent of the votes, advancing past Republican Spencer Pratt, who was at 25.8 per cent, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
For the last several months, Pratt, best known as a reality TV star, was at the top of the polls and was widely expected to compete with incumbent Karen Bass, who has lost popularity over what many see as weakness in managing the city’s wildfires and homelessness.
However, a late decision by Raman, a Democratic Socialist, to enter the race hours before the deadline for registration shook up what seemed to be a predictable primary race in the country’s second most populous city. Trump has already made allegations of election fraud in California and has said he will launch a federal investigation, even though his preferred candidate for the state’s governor, Steve Hilton, is currently in second place and is on track to advance to the general election in November.
Like other recent leftist political campaigns, Raman's campaign had a strong ground game, with a team of young volunteers who knocked on thousands of doors across the city.
Her unusually short campaign, which lasted 115 days, was largely focused on linking Pratt with Trump and the Republicans’ portrayal of Los Angeles as an urban dystopian slum. She also focused on supporting affordable housing, public services and infrastructure and revitalising the city’s film industry.
Raman was born in Kerala, southern India, and moved to the US with her family at age 6. She has a bachelor’s degree in political theory from Harvard and a master’s in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Another sign of a possible trend toward the left in big cities is recent polling in Washington, DC, showing that the Democratic socialist candidate Janeese Lewis-George is leading by double digits.