L.A. mayoral – A televised Los Angeles mayoral forum was canceled after the leading candidates, including Mayor Karen Bass and Nithya Raman, pulled out.
A televised Los Angeles mayoral forum scheduled for this week has been canceled after multiple leading candidates backed out, leaving organizers unable to field a full lineup.
Organizers canceled the event on Monday after City Councilmember Nithya Raman dropped out. With Raman’s exit, all three of the leading mayoral contenders were set to be no-shows, prompting the cancellation.
Mayor Karen Bass was originally expected to participate, but she withdrew last week. Her campaign said she would instead travel to Sacramento to lobby state officials over funding for a range of issues, including homelessness and recovery efforts connected to the Palisades fire.
Raman’s decision to cancel came on Monday.. In a statement from the Raman campaign. her team said her primary reason for attending the forum was to debate Bass. making the forum’s cancellation a direct consequence of Bass’s earlier withdrawal.. Jeff Millman. a spokesperson for Raman’s campaign. said the campaign was disappointed by Bass’s decision but welcomed future opportunities for the candidates to debate.
The third leading candidate, Spencer Pratt, had already declined the invitation earlier, citing a scheduling conflict. Without Pratt, the only remaining candidates who were initially set to be on the stage were community activist Rae Huang and tech entrepreneur Adam Miller.
With just two candidates left in the lineup, the event partners agreed not to proceed.. An email sent Monday by the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles—co-sponsoring the event with the League of Women Voters—said the organizers decided against holding the forum because only two candidates remained.
The debate had been scheduled to be televised on Fox 11. Wednesday’s forum was also expected to be the final appearance featuring leading candidates before the June 2 primary, increasing the impact of the cancellations on voters seeking direct comparisons among top contenders.
Just last week, the two leading contenders who had been slated to anchor the broader debate stage—Bass and Raman—took part in back-to-back exchanges. They first debated one another in a one-on-one setting on Tuesday in front of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.
The following evening. they debated again in another forum that aired on NBC from the Skirball Cultural Center. with Pratt joining that event.. Those two earlier debates effectively became the main televised head-to-head moments for voters among the top candidates heading into the final stretch before the primary.
The abrupt cancellation leaves the race with fewer formal opportunities for the leading field to confront one another in a single televised setting.. For organizations that had planned the program—particularly those aiming to provide a last pre-primary forum—the decision underscores how candidate scheduling and campaign priorities can quickly reshape public election calendars.
For voters, the change also alters how comparisons are likely to be made in the final weeks.. With the Wednesday forum no longer moving forward. attention shifts toward the prior televised encounters and other remaining public appearances as the June 2 primary approaches. at a time when major issues such as homelessness and fire recovery are already central to campaign messaging.
Los Angeles mayoral race mayor Karen Bass Nithya Raman campaign debate June 2 primary Fox 11 forum