L.A.’s mayoral primary map tightens between three camps

L.A. mayoral – As Los Angeles counts remaining ballots, Mayor Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt, and Nithya Raman are separating the city into distinct political geographies—South L.A. favoring Bass, parts of the Westside and conservative-leaning neighborhoods lifting Pratt, and pro

For Los Angeles voters, the mayoral primary didn’t just produce three leading candidates—it produced a map that looks like a divide.

Mayor Karen Bass carried much of South Los Angeles. Spencer Pratt built momentum across Westside and more conservative-leaning neighborhoods. and Nithya Raman surged in progressive pockets with younger. renter-heavy populations. The picture is still incomplete: a Times analysis of partial precinct-level results used an estimated 62% of ballots counted so far. and the election is still very much underway.

Bass had garnered enough votes on election night to qualify for a Nov. 3 runoff, according to the Associated Press. What’s not settled is who she’ll face. Votes are still being tallied, and it’s not yet clear whether Pratt or Raman will be her opponent.

Early returns show Pratt with a significant lead over Raman. Some analysts expect the remaining ballots to lean Democratic, with many left-of-center voters holding onto their mail-in ballots until the last minute while choosing between Democratic gubernatorial candidates.

The precinct map, prepared by The Times, offers a snapshot of an election still in motion—neighborhood by neighborhood, sometimes vote by vote.

Pratt’s Westside strength and the ghost of 2022

Pratt did especially well in Pacific Palisades, where his home burned down in the 2025 fire. He won 60% in one precinct there, with the next closest candidate, Adam Miller, at 14%.

From there, Pratt’s support appeared to track the geography that once favored mayoral candidate Rick Caruso in 2022. The analysis found Pratt was favored in many of the same neighborhoods that voted for Caruso four years ago, including parts of the Westside and the West Valley.

His lead stretched across Woodland Hills, Encino, West Hills, and Chatsworth. Pratt also appeared poised to win neighborhoods Bass carried in 2022, with him leading in Studio City and Hancock Park in areas where Bass previously won against Caruso in the primary.

Caruso—who had switched from being a Republican to being a Democrat before running for mayor—was a former Republican who had turned Democrat ahead of that 2022 race. In the new map, those 2022 lines show up again.

“The Pratt vote mirrors a tremendous amount of the Rick Caruso vote: geographically, demographically and ideologically,” said Dave Jacobson, a Democratic consultant and co-founder of J&Z Strategies.

But the story isn’t a straight carryover. Certain Valley areas that supported Caruso did not go to Pratt this time, including Northridge and North Hills, where Bass made inroads.

Bass, for her part, extended her reach farther west into the Valley than she did in her last primary. And in the precincts where Bass gained ground, it was sometimes at Pratt’s expense.

Bass holds South L.A., even with erosion

Bass’ strongest thread runs through South Los Angeles. While her support has eroded compared with 2022, she still outperformed her prior result in many of the same general areas south of the Santa Monica Freeway.

In one precinct in Gramercy Park, Bass picked up 82% of the vote so far—up from a similar precinct where she won about 75% in 2022.

Still, precinct-level shifts make direct comparisons difficult, because the precincts in 2022 weren’t exactly the same as those in this election.

Even so, in a Baldwin Hills neighborhood precinct where Bass won 77% last time, she was down to about 64% this year so far. In that same precinct, Raman took 20% and Pratt 9%. In 2022, Caruso won less than 13% of the area.

Part of the explanation in the analysis is that Pratt and Raman didn’t perform as strongly as Caruso did in many of those South L.A. neighborhoods.

Bill Carrick, a longtime Democratic consultant, said it was unsurprising to see Bass remain strong in the region.

“She’s been in the community there, lived there a long time and represented them in various capacities,” he said. “She’s a pretty well-known figure. She’s tied into all the networks.”

Raman’s renter-heavy surge and the progressive map

Raman’s route through the early returns is built for progressive politics: she leads in precincts known for their progressive leanings, particularly areas with younger voters and renter-heavy neighborhoods stretching from Hollywood to Highland Park.

Every neighborhood that Raman won was taken by Bass during the primary in 2022. But that wasn’t the whole picture then—leftist candidate Gina Viola also did well in those precincts compared with other parts of the city.

On the Westside, Raman found fewer places to lead. She took Sawtelle and Palms by fairly narrow margins, though those margins could increase as more votes are counted.

Raman also dominated a Westwood precinct that includes UCLA, winning 56% of the vote in one precinct, compared with Bass’ 19% and Pratt’s 10%. In a Los Feliz precinct within her council district, Raman so far has 58% of the vote, far ahead of Bass and Pratt.

The performance looks even more lopsided inside her own political neighborhood. As of Wednesday, Raman was trailing in 54 of the 66 precincts in her own council district.

Zachary Donnini, a data expert with the nonpartisan group VoteHub, said Raman’s numbers are expected to rise as the county continues to count late-arriving mail-in ballots.

He said those ballots tend to skew younger and more Democratic—exactly the base he described as Raman’s support.

“All the areas that are good for Pratt are going to become less good for him, and all areas that look less good for Raman are going to look better for her,” Donnini said.

Battleground precincts where the math hasn’t landed

Beyond the clearer clusters, other parts of Los Angeles are stuck in a kind of suspense—tight enough that no single candidate had a lead as of Wednesday’s count.

In two adjacent Koreatown precincts. Bass and Raman were tied. with 117 votes in one and 187 votes in another. while Pratt trailed not far behind in both. Bass and Raman also split a downtown Los Angeles precinct with 199 votes each. though Raman carried much of the rest of downtown. a region Bass won in 2022.

In the Valley, it was Bass and Pratt splitting precincts. In one Sun Valley precinct, the two each took 151 votes compared with Raman’s 80. They also tied in an Encino precinct.

For now, the city’s political picture is less a single storyline than three competing geographies—still waiting, ballot by ballot, for the full count to make the divisions permanent or blur them into something else.

Los Angeles mayoral primary Karen Bass Spencer Pratt Nithya Raman Rick Caruso precinct results South Los Angeles Echo Park Westside runoff mail-in ballots VoteHub