DSA candidates aim to lock in City Hall power

DSA candidates – In Los Angeles, Democratic Socialist candidates are preparing for the Nov. 3 general election with an unusually high level of momentum—mayor and city attorney tickets could land the same ideological agenda under two top City Hall offices. With Nithya Raman and

The morning after Los Angeles’ June 2 primary, the math for City Hall began to look different for a subset of voters who usually feel locked out of politics.

Democratic socialists—long seen as fringe by some establishment Democrats—found real traction across the city, and they are now betting that the momentum can carry into the Nov. 3 general election with their biggest prizes yet: the mayor’s office and the city attorney’s office.

Mayoral candidate Nithya Raman and city attorney hopeful Marissa Roy. both members of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. are headed into the general election after strong performances in the June 2 primary. If Raman prevails in November, she would join the ranks of democratic socialists leading major U.S. cities, including New York’s Zohran Mamdani and Seattle’s Katie Wilson. Washington. D.C. appears to be next: Janeese Lewis George won the Democratic primary for mayor there this month. all but ensuring her a general election win.

Los Angeles’ pitch is not just ideological. It is also practical. and it rests on what happens when the mayor and the city attorney operate with aligned priorities. Fernando Guerra. a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University. said an ideological lockstep could give the mayor’s agenda a cleaner path—because the city attorney’s office may be less likely to serve as a check on policy. In that scenario. Guerra said. the city attorney’s office is less likely to challenge the mayor’s authority to set policy on issues such as land use and public safety.

“It’s incredibly substantive that the city attorney will interpret much of the policy that the mayor may push to be the right policy, and not challenge it,” Guerra said.

Raman’s road to November is built on more than her own candidacy. The leftward tilt in Los Angeles City Hall is already visible in the City Council. where there are four members who are Democratic Socialists of America—Raman among them. Two of those DSA members were reelected in the June 2 primary. City Controller Kenneth Mejia, who was recommended—though not formally endorsed—by DSA, was also reelected.

The movement frames itself as different from establishment Democrats, in part because it is willing to push far to the left of mainstream party positions. The L.A. DSA chapter says its objectives include abolishing prisons and defunding the police.

Sean Wakasa. a co-chair of DSA-L.A. said the organization is thriving in Los Angeles and across the country because it has destigmatized the concept of socialism. “Democratic socialism ultimately. at the end of the day. is about making the politics that working-class Americans can see themselves in. ” Wakasa said.

Wakasa said that in Los Angeles. a DSA mayor would be expected to build more public transit. strengthen protections for renters. fight for workers’ rights. raise the minimum wage and defend local immigrants from the federal government. He said the city attorney would be expected to defend working-class Angelenos by enforcing renter protections. resolving wage-theft issues and enforcing sanctuary city policies.

Those promises have met sharp resistance.

Stuart Waldman. president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. said business groups and public safety advocates are concerned about the prospects of DSA members calling the shots at City Hall. Waldman predicted Raman and Roy would “run roughshod over the city. ” adding that they “don’t just drink the DSA Kool-Aid. they live it.”.

Waldman said he would expect democratic socialist leadership to adopt overzealous tenant protection policies that could discourage new rental development, and he said the same leadership would seek to weaken the police—creating what he described as a “free-for-all for crime.”

Roy disputed that framing. In a statement, Roy said, “Allowing corporate bad actors to violate our laws doesn’t make L.A. safer or more affordable — enforcing protections for renters, workers, and consumers does,” as she pledged to target wage theft, tenant harassment and other issues.

Raman also rejected the idea that the campaign is about swapping one kind of rhetoric for another. In a statement. she said she shares “DSA’s commitment to fighting for working people and those who have been left behind by a political system that too often serves powerful interests instead of everyday Angelenos.” She also said. however. that governing has to deliver tangible results.

“There is no liberal or conservative way to fill a pothole,” Raman said.

“I’ve always believed the most progressive thing you can do is actually make government deliver,” Raman said. “Every time City Hall fails to do that— potholes that don’t get fixed. streetlights that stay dark. 911 calls that go unanswered — it erodes people’s faith that government can solve problems at all.”.

Even longtime local political figures are cautioning against assuming that a DSA label automatically translates into a fully rehearsed ideology.

Rick Cole. a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles and a Pasadena City Council member. said the DSA label for both candidates does not mean they will adhere to the most dramatized versions of what DSA stands for. Neither candidate is an ideologue, Cole said. Raman’s membership in DSA. he added. is “a signifier she’s going to be more skeptical of current policing. ” and he said she is likely to focus more on affordable housing and “a humane approach to getting people off the streets.”.

The political reality heading into the final stretch is also shaped by who comes next in the runoff. A poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies that was co-sponsored by The Times showed that in a head-to-head runoff. Raman was supported by 32% of the registered voters polled. compared with 28% for Bass.

Karen Bass finished first in the primary, ahead of Raman. Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV personality, finished in third place. With Pratt now out, both campaigns are trying to appeal to the voters Pratt represented, who are generally considered more conservative.

Even so, Bass’ campaign said it does not plan to focus on Raman’s DSA affiliation. Alex Stack. a Bass campaign spokesperson. said in a statement that “What’s important isn’t labels — it’s what her [Raman’s] record shows. ” accusing Raman of voting over and over to allow encampments near schools and to shrink the police force. Stack said this “goes against what L.A. needs and what most of L.A. believes.”.

Raman, who was twice elected to the City Council with DSA support, has voted against additional police hiring and spending and creating new anti-encampment zones around the city.

There is also a strand of irony inside the DSA tent: the three other DSA members on the City Council—Eunisses Hernandez, Ysabel Jurado and Hugo Soto-Martínez—endorsed Bass. They cited, among other factors, Bass’ resistance to the Trump administration’s immigration raids last year.

Within DSA itself, there was a distinction in how far the organization went. In the primary, DSA’s L.A. chapter recommended Raman but didn’t endorse her. DSA-LA co-chair Leslie Chang said the difference mattered because an endorsement comes with active canvassing and support from DSA members. Chang added that it was not yet clear whether DSA-LA would endorse Raman in the runoff.

That decision may also hinge on who shows up in the places Pratt voters are concentrated. Christian Grose, a political science professor at USC, said a DSA endorsement for Raman could be a mixed blessing. “Karen Bass is not popular with Pratt voters. and the DSA is not popular with Pratt voters. but that’s who will decide the mayor’s election. ” he said.

The city attorney race has its own fault lines, but the contest is just as consequential for how aggressively city policies are enforced.

Roy, a deputy state attorney general, finished first in the city attorney primary by a wide margin. She will compete against John McKinney, a deputy district attorney, in the runoff. McKinney said electing Roy to the city attorney’s office would be like “going back in time” to when George Gascón was the top prosecutor in Los Angeles County. which police and prosecutors said was a disaster for public safety.

DSA’s broader performance in the City Council primaries shows how deep the movement’s base has become. even when it doesn’t win everywhere. In the recent City Council primaries, DSA-endorsed incumbents Hernandez and Soto-Martinez both won reelection easily. In another race, DSA-endorsed Faizah Malik failed to push incumbent Traci Park into a runoff in her Westside district.

In Council District 9, DSA-endorsed community organizer Estuardo Mazariegos will be in a runoff with Jose Ugarte, a former aide to termed-out incumbent Curren Price.

Despite the close margins and the internal debates over endorsements, DSA leaders said they are pleased overall with how their candidates have performed. “DSA has really claimed a foothold for ourselves in L.A. County politics,” Chang said.

Los Angeles City Hall Democratic Socialists of America Nithya Raman Marissa Roy Karen Bass city attorney race renters protections wage theft policing DSA Los Angeles