Bass Concedes: Raman Is L.A.'s Next Mayor After Late Ballots Flip the Race

Bass conceded Thursday after Raman led 52.1% to 47.9%; the mayor-elect spoke at the Original Farmers Market and begins Dec. 8.

By Herald Staff · Nov. 6, 2026, 8:15 AM ET

The Original Farmers Market neon sign glowing orange and yellow against a black night sky atop a white building roof in Los Angeles. — The neon sign at the Original Farmers Market in the Fairfax District, where Mayor-elect Nithya Raman spoke Thursday evening after Karen Bass conceded. Photo: JS2PR (cropped) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (license).

Los Angeles has a mayor-elect. City Councilmember Nithya Raman defeated Mayor Karen Bass after Bass called Thursday to concede, and the Associated Press projected Raman the winner, ABC7 reported. The latest county tally put Raman at 429,450 votes, or 52.1%, to Bass' 394,796, or 47.9% — a lead of 34,654 — with about 76% of the expected vote counted, according to ABC7 and the Los Angeles Times.

Raman will be the first challenger to unseat an incumbent Los Angeles mayor in more than two decades. The last to do so was then-Councilmember Antonio Villaraigosa, who defeated James K. Hahn in 2005, the Times noted. She is also set to become the city's first Asian American mayor; she was born in Kerala, India, and moved to the United States as a child, ABC7 reported.

Concession and a Short Transition

Bass, 73, said in a statement that she had called Raman to congratulate her and pledged a smooth handoff. "While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken," Bass said, according to the Times and ABC7. She thanked supporters and reminded Angelenos that four years earlier they had elected her as the first Black woman mayor in the city's history. She said her administration had worked to get people off the streets, make neighborhoods safer and stand with immigrant communities, and that "moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us."

Raman's term begins Dec. 8, leaving what she called one of the shortest mayoral transitions in the country for a city of about 4 million people. Speaking Thursday evening at the Original Farmers Market in the Fairfax District, she said the day had been about kick-starting the first 100 days, the Times reported.

Farmers Market Remarks

At the market, Raman thanked volunteers and named homelessness, housing costs, public safety and economic development as the four priorities she heard across neighborhoods, ABC7 reported. "This city has given me and my family so much — and at a time when the federal government, over the past two years … has rejected immigrants," she said, according to the Times. "This city has opened its arms to people to come and build their dreams here."

She called the idea that Angelenos had voted for an immigrant as mayor "so deeply moving," and said she and her team would work hard to earn the city's trust. In a video statement earlier Thursday, she also paid tribute to Bass's decades of service, from community organizing through Sacramento, Washington and City Hall, ABC7 reported. Raman praised Bass at the market and said the two had committed to "the smoothest possible transition for Angelenos."

Asked about LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell — whom she had said during the campaign she intended to replace — Raman told reporters she had already spoken with department leadership and with McDonnell that day. Public safety, she said, is the most important service the city delivers, and she and the chief would continue discussions through the transition so the department can meet expectations when she takes office in mid-December, according to ABC7.

How the Race Turned

Bass led on election night, but late-arriving mail ballots flipped the race. By Thursday morning Raman's lead was nearly 35,000 votes, the Times reported. Analysts had long said younger and more progressive voters, Raman's base, tend to return ballots later than older voters who favored Bass.

Raman entered the race in the final hours before the February filing deadline after deciding overnight to challenge a onetime ally, the Times reported. Nearly all elected Democrats in Los Angeles backed Bass's reelection; none of Raman's City Council colleagues endorsed her. She ran with the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America, while Bass campaigned on public safety to win over moderates. The City Council is expected to schedule a special election for Raman's Hollywood Hills-centered seat.

Councilmembers Hernandez and Yaroslavsky issued support statements after the concession, and Supervisor Kathryn Barger said she was willing to work with Raman, ABC7 reported. District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he hoped the mayor-elect would prioritize public safety and make a wise decision about the LAPD. Counting continues until ballots are certified, but with Bass's concession and the AP call, Los Angeles' next mayor is clear.

Original reporting by The Los Angeles Herald, drawing on the Los Angeles Times and ABC7, as linked above.